Gosh, Rockwell has it right, I mean that nasty Cosina company also produces those horrid ZM lenses that are built like milk cartons and produce such crappy images. They are nothing like Zeiss lenses and much more akin to a plastic Vivitar from 1990. Whilst I have not used the Zeiss SLR lenses they are made by the same people. I have also heard reviews by people like Roger H who thought the build rather good on the Hasselblad fit new line of Zeiss lenses and the same goes for the Nikon ones. Ken makes a good point. Metal focus barrels went out in the 70s, apart from hasselblad, Rollei, Leica and...... you know, the crappy companies known for poor build quality.