Nobody came up with the answer to my quiz why the Pentax Takumar Screw mount lenses were/are all so good?
Answer : They were 200% optical bench tested before being sold in USA. Thats right, 200%. Every single final assembled Takumar Lens was optically bench tested at the Asahi factory in Japan before being imported into the USA by Honeywell. THEN, once Honeywell got them, Every single lens was optically bench tested AGAIN by Honeywell before being put for sale in USA. This is why ( along with the superb build quality ) there is such consistant high optical quality for these lenses as the dogs were all rejected in the process. I doubt that many lenses today are subjected to such high quality control. I am sure expensive ones still are, but not the entire lens series. It would be way too costly in today's market I would especially when the build quality of many lenses ( especially budget models ) would create more rejects. This brings up another thought, wouldnt it have been cool to work in that test dept and have a company discount to purchase the lenses? I mean, if a given lens had to meet say, 75 lp/mm to pass test, and they typically ran say, 80 to 85 lp/mm, what would be cool would be to sit aside and buy the occasional 90 to 95 lp/mm lens that might have squeaked thru once in a while. Employees get to buy the "gems" so to speak! I wonder if this actually occured, or maybe Pentax or Honeywell permitted it? That would interesting to find out. jco -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
