Yeah, someone *should* care...but I don't expect anybody does. You could always put the lens on eBay with full disclosure at, say, 65% of expected price for a mothless one, and see if anyone bites. You'd be surprised.
Never used the Sigma 20mm. Did own the 24mm version for a while, which I used for concert shooting. I sold it to Igor on this list, who I believe used it for baby shooting :-) Looking forward to your comparison pics. I think you should call your e-mails on this subject "The Mothlens Prophecies". Cheers, —M. \/\/o/\/\ --> http://WorldOfMiserere.com http://EnticingTheLight.com A Quest for Photographic Enlightenment On 13 November 2012 04:58, Krisjanis Linkevics <krisjanis.linkev...@exigenservices.com> wrote: > So I opened the FA135 up last night. On the outside it looked like Pentax > service had never even gone inside. On the inside - sure they had been there. > > I bought the lens new from the local dealer around 2002, it was the last one > in stock here but it was still new and from the dealer. > > Somebody had tried to force the back element open with the wrong instrument, > markings on the barrel would suggest they failed. Also the moth stuff inside. > Removed the aperture thingies only to find one of the biggest screws in there > was badly damaged by somebody with background in changing wheels, not > servicing fine instruments. Jackass, Philips power drivers should never ever > be used on JIS screws. Aperture spring being glued in place and not swapped > out for a new one is a minor nitpick in comparison. > > Didn't want to take it apart completely - helicoids and all - so I tried to > unscrew the rear element with a properly softened large area of contact tool > (just dumb oversized pliers with rubber pads) and it worked. So I removed the > empty pupal case (no sight of moth itself) and all the debris. > > Here's a picture for those of you who got this far: > http://foto.ri-ki.lv/details.php?image_id=104 > > Properly cleaning the lens would require total disassembly and even then I > don't know if it would be any good. Those monsters weave their cocoons and > strands of that weave are between elements even further inside the lens. Even > if I could open it up that far I don't know if I could completely remove > everything. > > So that's it probably for this lens. I will test it against my other sample > but there is no real reason for me to use it anyway when I have the other > one. I don't see a good way to clean it so well that there is no sign of the > moth ever being there so it can't be sold either. I might go through the > adventure of disassembling it completely, cleaning it and putting it all > together but I don't see that happening before the kids grow up :) > > Pentax should probably know about the sad state of service in Europe but I > don't see a way to get this information to anybody who cares. If service at > Pentax authorized service centers takes half a year and is performed by > idiots who only make things worse, somebody should care, no? Oh well, I feel > better already. > > kris > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.