I ordered my lens new from www.rugift.com - $115 plus $10 worldwide
shipping. It arrived after about three weeks. The package included a
manual (in Russian), a semi-hard case with strap and three rear-element
filters - yellow, orange and UV, I think. (The markings are also in
Russian.) Be aware of the fact that using these filters blocks the
mirror on many if not all M-series cameras - you could cause serious
damage if you aren't careful. Cameras with a significant prism overhang
might also have problems mounting it - it's very large (~72mm diameter at the rear).
At first glance, the lens is impressive. As you'd expect from a
fast ten-element lens, it's pretty heavy (412g). It's fully K-mount compatible, which was nice - I was half expecting stop-down metering only. (The diaphragm actuator travel is logarithmic, so there's no easy way of modifying it to KA mount, sadly.) Mechanically it feels pretty good. There are no plastic components. The focus travel is only a quarter of a turn, but this reflects the short length of the lens to a considerable extent. Perhaps to compensate, they have made it extremely stiff. The aperture ring is smooth and moves between f2.5 and f22 in half-EV steps (apart from the last one). There are six diaphragm blades. The action seems pretty snappy. The front element of the lens doesn't rotate with the focussing ring, but since there's no filter thread, that's not really an advantage... :-)
The focus scale is marked in metres and feet, and there is a DOF scale
marked for all full aperture stops. All the markings are both engraved and painted, so they should last reasonably well.
The lens came with front and rear caps: the rear cap is plastic and doesn't attach very firmly; the front cap is rubber and fits snugly, but I'll be buying a retaining strap for it. The glass of the lens itself sticks out a loooooong way - there's an L-section flange on the front of the lens (it looks like a very small hood) that means you can at least put it down on a flat surface without scratching it, but there's only a millimetre or so of clearance. Caution is required.
One irritation with the lens when I received it was that the stop-down indicator on the lens was too thin to engage with the stop-down coupler on the body of my ME Super. This required me to partially disassemble the lens and thicken the lever by supergluing an extra bit of metal to it - this requires a steady hand and a certain lack of inhibitions about pulling apart brand new pieces of precision optical equipment and smearing the insides with volatile chemicals... I'll stick some notes about disassembling the lens at the end of this email.
A few sample images (click on them to view the full 1600dpi scans): http://www.elvum.net/gallery/nailsea/morgan_s_hill2 http://www.elvum.net/gallery/nailsea/morgan_s_hill3 http://www.elvum.net/gallery/nailsea/htnailsea # (a forthcoming PAW)
Optically, the lens seems more than acceptable. Flare control is pretty
poor (I've been carefully shading it with one hand when pointing it
anywhere near the sun), but the resolution is perfectly acceptable. There is noticeable softening in the corners, even in the viewfinder, but this is rarely intrusive in practice. Optical distortion seems minimal, even in the corners (look at the power cables in the second example). Chromatic aberrations are also noticeable, but you have to squint a bit to see them (look at the right-hand side of the church tower in the full-res scan, for example).
Overall then, this is a fast very-wide-angle lens of average or above-average optical quality. The plus points are its speed and build quality; the minus points are its weight and less-than-perfect optics. I'd say that it's an absolute bargain at $125 (esp for non-US residents, given the current exchange rate...), and is perfectly adequate for most people's very-wide-angle needs.
S
Disassembly notes:
After unscrewing the four axial screws spaced round the rear plate of the camera, it lifts off to give access to the aperture couplers. The rear plate includes the bayonet and the flange that protects the stop-down coupler, but not any of the optical elements. You are now in a position to glue extra bits to the couplers as necessary; at this stage you can also remove the aperture ring itself without messing up any calibrations. Further disassembly looks complicated - the next mechanical element has springs and things hooked through it, and you'd be in danger of messing up the calibration of the diaphragm.
