Mark, I shoot with the Pentax FA 24-90 quite a lot. It's considerably lighter than the 28-105, seems reasonably well-made (mine is still tight and sharp after ~15 years), and its contrast and flare resistance are excellent.
Rick http://photo.net/photos/RickW ----- Original Message ----- From: Mark C <[email protected]> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> Cc: Sent: Sunday, September 8, 2013 10:33 PM Subject: Normal Full Frame Zoom I've been shooting a bit of film latelyand have been using the FA 28-105 f4-5.6 zoom as my everyday lens. This past week I was really chaffing under this lens - it was just too slow, the rotating front element was at times a PITA, it is heavy (thanks to the power zoom motor etc), and looking at the image results, it is rather soft around the edges when shot wide open (which I do more often that I'd like because it is so slow!) Granted, I was shooting IR film and using a #29 deep red filter most of the time (-3 stops) but this made me wonder about alternatives.... Looking at Pentax Forums lens ratings, I was surprised to see that the two zooms I have (the 28-105 and the FA 28-70 f4 AL) are near the top of the pack for the "consumer" zooms and altually very close to the the FA* 28-70 f2.8... I would rate the lenses I have as very good in terms of optical quality, but falling short of really first rate quality. Can anyone suggest any top-quality 3rd party lenses in the 28 - 100 range that I should take a look at? I am hoping for somehitng that is faster than what I have (either f4 constant or f.35-f4.5), 24/28 mm - 90/100 mm, non-rotating front element of very good optical quality (on par with the lenses I have.) I won't go on from there ... Any suggestions? Mark -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
