F17-28 fisheye FA 31 Limited Tokina AT-X AF Pro 28-80 f2.8 FA 20-35 f4
The FA 20-35 fared best on this test, with the Tokina nearly equal. So I took the DA 16-45 to the same spot, same time of day, set it to 31 mm and f8 and fired away. On this and other shots, I am favorably impressed. Based on what I've seen with this admittedly limited test, it may actually exceed the very good FA 20-35 f4. The prints seem just very slightly sharper. The difference is very slight, though, and since the light was different (early February vs. early November) and contrast does affect the appearance of sharpness, it is difficult to be certain. I am confident saying, though, that the DA 16-45 seems to be in the same class as the FA 20-35, which means it is quite a good lens.
I also tested for center and lateral sharpness at 20 mm., all f-stops from f4 through f16. It is very hard to see much difference, even enlarging sections of the images up to 200% in Photoshop. F5.6 seems to be slightly the best f-stop at this focal length, but the lens is surprisingly sharp at f4.0. This is nice, as often Pentax lenses are not sharp wide open.
Still getting weird results using mtf -- and today's weird results are different from yesterday's. More on this later.
One of the shots I took this morning has already been submitted to the April PUG. So unless someone beat me to it, it could be that I'm the first to submit a photo to PUG taken with this lens.
Joe
