Shel,
Sorry to be so long in responding. Photographic prostitute that I am,
I sold myself for the evening to shoot some Super Bowl reaction art
for the local paper.
So, where were we? Ah, yes.
I wasn't trying to introduce a red herring, rather I lost sight of
your original question, which I was thinking was "how do plastics
used in lenses hold up?" and answered accordingly.
The answer would pretty much be the same, though, wouldn't it? Find
an example of a lens you =know= to have the hybrid aspherical
construction and ask a good repair tech of known problems with them.
The reason I mentioned Canon was the time period involved; I'm not
aware of any Pentax lenses from that far back using plastic elements
or surfaces, though I'll certainly ask.
What this comes down to, in my mind, is this: There is built into
many photographers--indeed, many people-- the belief that no matter
how well a piece of plastic performs, it's still a piece of plastic.
Even though there may be no clearly provable reason to distrust it,
plastic will (possibly always) be considered an inferior material
when used in products traditionally made of other materials. A fine
example of this perception is the subject line of this thread.
You say you suspect the quality isn't there, otherwise the plastic
would be used in the higher end lenses. I would suggest that it still
comes down to a question of marketing; in general, the photographers
who are willing to spend big bucks on lenses expect the lenses to
have all glass elements.
Hope I didn't miss anything, but I gotta get some sleep.
Doug
--
Douglas Forrest Brewer
Ashwood Lake Photography
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.alphoto.com
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