Originally posted by paperbag846 To Boris:
I agree with you on almost everything. I personally like the smoothness of the FA 50, don't much value corner sharpness (if I really need it, just stop down), don't really like busy rendering, and think that pop has just as much to do with DOF control and lighting as it does with sharpness. But these are my personal convictions, and others feel very differently. I'm not exactly a good photographer, so I simply seek to understand both sides, rather than discredit their preferences. Some of the talented photographers here do wonderful things with the FA ltds., so they clearly aren't *bad*.
If you understood me in a way that I was trying to attack or demean FA ltds in general and FA 43 in particular, then you got me all wrong. What I was trying to say is that:
1. One is better of by knowing why they want a specific tool, be it a lens or a flash or whatever.
2. Having followed the crowd so to say, I did have a phase where I thought that FA ltds would make my pictures better by being the top of the top Pentax had to offer at the time. That was wrong on many levels. Eventually I grew to appreciate these lenses to some extent, but certainly not fully or completely.
Originally posted by paperbag846 However, I do tend to ascribe talent more to photographers then to lenses, so I would suggest that the FA ltds are good enough lenses that they don't snuff out the talent of a good photographer. As far as the lenses making them *better* I would suggest that this is such a personal decision (based on preferred rendering, focal length, etc.) that trying to nail it down to a specific lens is pretty challenging (esp. for a prime).
I totally subscribe to the notion that lens is a tool and if a person holding that tool knows how to take advantage of it - it is all for the better. The opposite however is usually not true. Give me a view camera, and I will screw up royally.
In fact, I know few people (albeit virtually) who would say that FA 43 is one of the hardest lenses to "cook" - to be able to take full advantage of its capabilities both at time of shooting and at time of post-processing.
Originally posted by paperbag846 The only time I speak up is when members of the FA ltd cult advise newbies to spend a bunch of money on an FA ltd or two when they really would be better off with a good beginner's lens like a zoom or budget prime (i.e., DA L 35 f2.4).
Indeed. A cult is the right word here. I sincerely hope that my having all three FA ltd does not make me automatically a member of that cult. If so, I have to denounce it all the way through.
In a nutshell - there're two major reasons why people buy lenses that I am familiar with:
1. Toys. Everyone likes toys and as a proverb goes - "The difference between men and boys it the price of their toys"... So, it is just as good as any other reason to buy oneself an expensive lens, a watch, a car, a yacht, etc...
2. Tools. If one knows why certain lens will solve a specific problem one's having - power to them.
The biggest deal here is to be honest with oneself...