I was looking at my 165LS and noticed what appears to be some debris on the second element from the front. I have never noticed this before and can't see any artifacts in my transparencies, but I'm a bit concerned. I called Pentax and they agreed that it is probably a manufacturing defect, but since I bought the lens used it wouldn't be a warranty issue nor could they quote me a price for repair without sending it in for an indeterminate amount of time. Does anyone else have a 165LS with this situation? Any suggestions?

-- R.olf Strasheim (rolfs@ionet.net), December 14, 1999

Answers

Foriegn particles inside P67 lenses are not all that unusual. It can be caused by many things. The most common is dust entering the lens through everyday use. When you extend the lens during focusing, this will draw in air(and dust)and it will deposit on the elements. Other causes are, unclean conditions during assembly, aperture diaphragm or leaf shutter blades rubbing off surface particles. The good news is that it takes quite a bit of debris to affect the image. Your lens would have to be really foul before you would notice image degradation. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), December 15, 1999.