Originally posted by reeftool A light AFtelephoto thats sharp and won't require a painkiller at the end of a day carrying it
That's pretty close to my dream as well, although I want the lower weight for the lower cost, not necessarily to save my back. A slow (f5.6 to f6.3) 500 to 600mm prime that's as sharp as the pro superteles but priced under $2,000 -- that would come close to a dream lens for me.
I also dream of sharper but slow zoom lens, particularly 28mm and above. I'm fairly pleased with the DA 16-45, but even that lens tends to lose a bit resolution on the far end, and there's really not much beyond that which is tailor-made for landscape use -- i.e., sharp border to border at f8, light, and fairly consistent throughout most if not all of its focal range. The real fine lenses are big, heavy, and expensive, or they are cheaper and inconsistent, good at some focal lengths, not so good at others. I use zooms almost exclusively for landscape photography, so I have absolutely zero interest in "fast" f2.8 zooms (f2.8 isn't all that "fast," in any case). Yet it's precisely the fast zooms, like the FA* 28-70, that tend to be the most consistent, in terms of edge to edge sharpness (stopped down, of course) at all focal lengths. The major exception, at least among AF glass, that I've run across is the old F 35-70. But that lens has a rather restrictive range. Something with more range and perhaps a bit sharper would constitute a dream lens of sorts for me.