I think Limited has more to do with build quality than optical
excellence. Don't get me wrong, I love the 43mm limited, and I love
it's optical characteristics, but honestly the FA 20-35mm is easily as
sharp at f4.0 it's maximum aperture, and has just as pleasing a
rendition under most circumstances. What the 43mm has is a machined
aircraft aluminum body, and old school optical design.
On 10/29/2015 4:57 PM, Igor PDML-StR wrote:
Alan,
I don't know if it was just a rhetorical question or not.
Until recently, I had thought that "Limited" designation was limited
[sic!] to primes lenses. And for the "*" designation zooms had to have
constant aperture and be parfocal (as opposed to varifocal).
(Of course, those criteria were in addition to the great optical and
build quality.)
The recent introduction of 20-40 f/2.8-4 lens broke both of those rules.
So, I think both of those designations now mean close to what
"reserve" means for wines: "We thought we can charge extra for this
product, and we hope this designation will help the sales".
Also, I thought the lenses had to be fast in their class. But
21mm-f/3.2 was pushing that criterion as well.
Still, I would be surprised to see any of those designations on a
f/3.5-5.6 lens.
Also, the 16-85/3.5-5.6 is suspiciously similar in the specs to the
one from Nikon. By any chance, - do they share the design?
(I.e. is it possible that the lens optical design was done by the same
3rd party? I do not see any discussion about that upon a quick search
in Google.)
Igor
Alan C Wed, 28 Oct 2015 21:26:10 -0700 wrote:
Very erudite reasoning. I also have the 18-55/55-300 combo which gives
perfectly acceptable results in most circumstances. Although I do have
other lenses, they are all inferior optically except for the Pentax M
50mm 1.7 & the Sunactinon A 28mm 2.8. The 16-85 is so highly rated one
wonders how it missed "limited" or "*" status.
Alan C
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I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve
immortality through not dying.
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