Hi!
I shot an ad-hoc wedding with the *ist-D and 28-70 f4/AL in December, and the results looked fine. I guess that is portraiture of a sort.
I should very much second the above point. I have 28-70/4 made in Japan thanks to Joe Wilensky. This lens is just fine. Naturally, it is less sharp, than say FA 50/1.7 and not as fast ;).
I mainly use it either when I need to take just two lenses without knowing what awaits - then I pair it with F 70-210/4-5.6 and away I go. Or, which is more likely, I would take it with me to my daughter's
kindergarten to shoot some event or something like this.
There're many advantages of this lens that made me choose it over other similar lenses, notably 28-105 of sorts. Price, standard filter thread (52 mm), "made in Japan" label, etc.
Based on the widely mixed reviews of this lens, there seems to be a lot of sample variation.
As far as I've read on this list, many of these lenses were also produced outside Japan. I wouldn't be surprised to see that over there the quality control was not as thorough as on the main factory. Hence the sample variation.
I still find that my general walk around lens is either FA 50/1.7 when I am lazy and M 35/2.8 when I don't mind to focus manually.
As for the portraits - FA 50/1.7 is really just fine, especially I like it (personally of course) around f/2.8.
YMMV of course :).
Boris
