Ken told us:
1. It is a brand new design (as opposed to 50mm version which basically
purged flare spots (kind of ghost) caused by CCD. Otherwise no changes for 50mm), taking into consideration the future reduction of the barrel size. FREE design contributed to the significant reduction of the size.
(Joe) This is good. The F/FA 50 macro was one of the best of all time.
2. FA100/50 macros have been one of the most well selling lines of Pentax lens lineup, but they were also money losers (cost was higher than the price). The more they sold, the more did they suffer from red :-).
Ah...this explains why they brought out new macros, and why these were the first of the D FA line. Now it makes sense.
Joe
