Originally posted by Pentaxor I would believe that most of the people that complain about the DOF shallowness of fast lenses have no knowledge of the photography history and use of fast lenses. fast lenses are well adored or sought after because of their shallow effect and light gathering capability.
Complaint are made about thin DOF, wide-open softness, lousy bokeh, etc. But speed sells. Faster lenses (usually) sell for more than slower lenses. A prime (heh heh) example here is, look at eBay COMPLETED SALES: the SuperTak 55/1.8 sells for a good price while the 55/2 DOESN"T sell for a low price, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME OPTICS!
I'll digress slightly: We see much bitching-moaning-whining about how lousy the DA18-55 is. Pentax (and others) make much money selling 'upgrades' to newbs who are convinced that it's a trash lens. Then they list the DA18-55 on eBay -- and it's snapped-up forthwith. (That's how I got mine, cheap!) SOMEBODY out there knows bargains.
The open market isn't always right. But sales prices often reflect demand. When something sells cheap, it's a bargain. When it sells for much more, there's strong demand. This should be indicative: Wide apertures are valuable to enough people who willingly pay a premium.
Originally posted by Docrwm Thanks for citing that. It's a couple years old but still quite true.