Bill .... On the basis of what you've described, I'd say there may be a lot more to the sharpness issue than meets the eye. May I suggest that you actually test the ~lens~ by removing the motor drive, mounting the camera on a substantial and well secured tripod, and by using a fine-grained slide film. Also, test the lens at various ~known~ apertures and shutter speeds. Further, since you're concerned about not being able to focus with those old, tired eyes of yours <g>, use a focusing aid, such aa a refconverter set on 2X magnification, or the magnifier M. Also, the use of a cable release or the self timer will minimize any vibration or shake that may contribute to a lack of sharpness.
FWIW, some time ago while photographing a piece of sculpture, with the LX on a tripod, etc., I used a refconverter to focus. It was set to normal magnification in order to insure proper framing. I was very careful to focus precisely. When I flipped to 2X magnification I could see that the focusing could be improved still further. It should be noted that I was quite close to the subject, and DOF was minimal (I was using a fast lens - 1.8 or so). If you were close to the wood, you might be running into a problem with DOF, too. If you were shooting at F16.0, you may have also lost a little sharpness due to diffraction. While DOF increases at smaller apertures, sharpness and detail may sometimes suffer. So, unless you really ~want~ an AF lens, take some time to carefully explore the potential of the lens you have. That said, the 35mm K lenses are sometimes much preferred to the M and A series lenses by many people. "William D. Sawyer" wrote: > I currently have the "A" version of the 35mm f2, > which I got at a very good price. I'm VERY disappointed > in it's performance, as evidenced by a series of shots > I recently took of some old buildings with very weathered > wood. The grain in the wood simply is not sharp. It > was shot with XP-2 rated at 400 in daylight, so the > lens was well stopped down, probably in the f8-f16 range. > I was using a Super Program, motordriven, on a monopod. > Likely shutter speeds in the 1/60-1/250 range. > > Maybe mine is a bad sample, but I am thinking of > spending the money to get the new AF version, > which has gotten good reviews here on the list > from people whose opinions I always respect. > > My question for the list, is whether anyone has ever > compared the "M/A' versions with the AF one. I'm not > interested in the f3.5 version, which is considered > quite sharp, and I do prefer autofocus because of my > deteriorating-with-age eyesight. Is the new lens > appreciably superior to the older model? $300 worth? -- Shel Belinkoff mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
