Originally posted by einstrigger I can understand just choosing one or the other, but I think having both would be redundant. Outside of a severe case of LBA, I just don't see the reason to get both when there are other lenses available (i.e. all the limiteds). If I could only choose one without worrying about a budget, it would be the DA* 55, but if I were approaching this from a value perspective, then it would be the FA 50. Outside of eyeballing the IQ, which is subjective, Photozone's tests show they aren't too different in terms of resolution.
They ran their test on the relatively low resolution K10. I did a side by side test on the somewhat higher resolution K20 and found the 55 to have quite an advantage.
I suspect in this instance, Photozone's test bed ran out of resolution before the DA* lens did.
What is especially telling is that he puts the 50 slightly ahead of the 55 wide open, which is just plain wrong.