I'm addicted to fast primes. I think this is mostly because my first lens was the M 50 1.7, and I LOVE it. It just makes things feel so much more "romantic" and special... I find it hard to take a bad picture with this lens... In my hunt for fast primes I have yet to acquire anything else that is faster than 2.0 in any other focal length.
Lately I've been addicted to my Tamaron 90mm Macro, but its a bit slow for low light photography, especially when I'm shooting live music in dark bars and other venues. So I've been looking for a fast 80 ish lens to accompany my 50.
This would probably become one of my most used lengths as my previous most used lenses before I grabbed the Tamaron has been 50mm and 135mm. So I don't mind spending a little extra cash to get something really special.
I was going to spend some money on the DA* 55mm f1.4, but cannot see any real reason to buy that to replace my M 50 aside from WR and SDM. SDM on my 16-50 hunts too much in the low light conditions I'm shooting in, and the WR doesn't have a whole lot of advantage for me.... so that frees up quite a bit of cash for my "fast 80" as long as my tax return comes back as healthy as it has in the last few years.
The contenders:
Carl Zeiss ZX Planar T* 85mm f1.4
Pentax FA Limited 77mm f1.8
Pentax A 85mm f1.4
Sigma DG EX HSM 85mm f1.4
Rokinon/Samyang/Bower Aspherical 85mm f1.4
The Carl Zeiss, Pentax Limited, and the Sigma are readily available new in box, all for similar price points ($1000-$1200). The Sigma and Limited I can get local, the Zeiss I gotta order out of the states. The other two (Pentax A, and the Bower) are going to be tougher to track down (especially the bower)
The question I have is: Is the Carl Zeiss worth it over the Sigma? Are either better than the Pentax?
I'm looking for overall sharpness WIDE OPEN, color rendition in poor lighting, and a good bokeh when I start doing more portraits (something I've been wanting to do for quite a while)
The Zeiss seems to have the ultimate both sharpness and bokeh. The Pentax Limited is well... the famed 77mm Limited which I've heard much about but never touched. The Sigma... I don't know a thing about.
These are older shots from my M50. I got newer ones on my Facebook, but its set to private, I'll have to uploaded them in the future.