> While that's reasonably good wisdom, many Leica users are > primarily interested in wide aperture performance, and base their > lens buying decisions are based on how a lens performs at > apertures of 2.8 and wider.
> Lots of basic truth there, Shel. Selective focus effects are hard > to get at f/8. And shooting available light, handheld, demands a > lot of performance from wide apertures. If I have to stop down to > f/4 or smaller to get good sharpness, I need to look for a > different lens. This was why I gave my FA 43 1.9 to my son and > replaced it with an FA 50 1.4. Hi, Shel and Len. I just wanted to point out that this here is one ~Pentax~ user who wants good performance wide open. I don't expect my lenses to all be as sharp wide open as they are at f/8 or f/11, but they can't be mush at large apertures, either. While my eyes do benefit from easier focusing by using fast glass whenever I can (which is really only a convenience), I do tend to do a decent amount of shooting under marginal conditions, and so wide open performance is going to be important to me for ~image quality~ (and not merely just for convenience). As for a couple of the lenses under discussion here, I do have to say that the A 50/1.4 seems to be sharper than the FA 43/1.9 Ltd at wider apertures. (I do know that "sharpness" is not everything...) Fred - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
