On Tue, 1 Jan 2002, AG Schnozz wrote:
<SNIP>
> We had crossed paths with some friends of ours during
> a vacation recently. We took pictures of them, and
> they of us. They had one of these fancy new Pentax AF
> SLRs. Really nice unit. I was actually finding
> myself liking it and going through all sorts of mental
> gymnastics. I took a couple of identical pictures
> with our IS-3 and the Pentax so we all could get
> pictures of our girls with them.
>
> We got an envelope from them the other day that
> contained duplicate prints from their roll of film.
> UGH! We did a direct comparison and couldn't believe
> the difference! Since I took both sets of pictures
> and used exactly the same settings to maximize
> quality, I expected similar results. Didn't happen.
> Maybe the focus was off. F8 at 50mm wasn't to blame,
> besides, the lawn represented a distance range that
> proved that nothing was absolutely sharp. Enough
> grain structure was visible with a lupe to verify that
> it wasn't the printing either.
>
> This isn't a blanket condemnation of Pentax, but this
> particular unit was anything but stellar. Makes me
> even happier with my Zuikos, XA and the IS-3.
<SNIP>
Well, I have to admit that I use mainly Olympus - but the family also
includes a Pentax AF SLR, and we're considering another one (the new MZ-S
looks cute indeed - feels good too....) ;)
My experience does mirror yours only to some extend. Pentax bodies are,
ineed, nice and all - but are sadly often sold in "combo's" with horrible
lenses. You can get a MZ-5n (I think it's callex ZX-5n over by you
americans), which is a nice body, in a combo with some 35-80 (or
28-80) plastic lens, to whom "contrast" is a word as alien as
"resolution". And if you ran in to such a combo, then yes - I believe that
you get results as you describe. Why they're sold like that is beyond
me, since it doesn't do the body (or brand) any justice atall.
However comparing that with the results of a Zuiko (and I do believe that
the lenses in the IS'es are quite good) is obviously not fair. Try the IS
(or any OM with your choise of Zuiko) and compare with a Pentax with a
lens of some quality. I believe that your results would be very different.
I'll mirror you by saying "this is not a blanket praise of Pentax". I just
think that your particular comparison may be a bit unfair.
--thomas
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