Originally posted by rparmar The FA77 is sharper than the DA70 at all apertures (except at the edges of the frame), but the advantage is too small to matter. The FA77 is faster, supports full-frame cameras and has an aperture ring. They are both much the same size once you add a hood to the DA70. Both show the famous purple fringing but CA on the DA70 is worse, as is distortion. Again, both measures are small, but if you were making a choice based on lab tests the superior lens is obvious.
Those are good point, but they don't tell the whole story:
- DA70 might be similar size with hood, but it's still 1/2 the weight, and of course the FA77 with hood is bigger still, although since it retracts, that's only an "issue" on the camera, not in the bag. But the removability of the DA70 hood turns into a plus, as it works quite well on other lenses too, and unlike built in hoods can be used in conjunction with a thick filter like the Raynox 150/250.
- FA77 might be full frame compatible, but if you're not interested in FF - as probably 90% of photographers aren't - that just makes it unnecessarily expensive. Similar, saying it has an aperture ring means nothing to me - it's not one can actually use the aperture ring normally on the only cameras I'm likely to ever own.
- DA70 has quick shift, which I use each and every day many times. Far, far, far more important to me than FF capability which at best I might maybe use at some point in the the distant future if I should ever change my mind about that. And in that distant future, I won't be wanting a 77mm portrait lens - I know my 50 sits practically unused right now.
- DA70 is significantly cheaper
I'm not saying the DA70 is the technically *better* lens, or the better choice for everyone, but I am saying the choice really is more subjective than you make it out to be. You chose to emphasize the qualities where the FA77 excels, but I have listed some other areas in which the DA70 does. So it all about personal preference - which of the various factors one weighs as most important. I weigh quick shift as about 1000 times more important than FF capability; I rate the 2X difference in weight as not quite as worth the the 2/3 stop difference in speed, but I rate the superior corner performance of the DA70 as slightly more important (slightly less unimportant would be more accurate) than the superior CA performance of the FA77. That's much more a wash than it would to someone who values FF over quick shift, speed over weight, or CA performance over corner performance.