[stoppingdown]

I got at some point a lot of this Mengs/Gumptrade stuff. It's rather simple - if the quality is poor, it will be obviously and visibly poor and you would not use it.

It's as you said. I just got it and it's ok. It's a bit different than Sony's: the original piece has a knob that turns for just a few rounds and locks a spring-based mechanism which keeps blocked the ring around the lens. It's an advantageous solution when you want just to loosen it a bit to rotate the lens and fasten it again, but I don't need that. On the other side, it's the dangerous part when I use the collar with the shoulder strap: because if the mechanism is damaged it looks like the thing is fastened, but it's only the spring working; and at the first stress the thing opens.

The Mengs piece just sports a knob that rotates for many rounds and fasten very firmly.
Also, the white paint is lighter than the colour of the lens, but who cares about that.

Fine, thanks.