What's the big ruckus about the FA 43mm Limited? I've owned two copies of this lens, one in black and one in silver, both made in Japan. The older copy in silver performs a lot better than the newer one in black, so I can say with certainty there are definite sample variations in different production batches. I personally put little faith in Photozone's results but if Pentax lemmings want to blindly believe and trust what Photozone has to say, so be it.
Just to show how much of a dog my MIJ copy was, here are some actual photos as proof. I challenge all FA43mm Limited users to shoot a subject with high specular reflection or contrast and see if they got PF as bad as mine. For the benefit of those who don't have this lens, this lens has what I'd call a split personality, delivering quite different rendition when stopped down from about f4 and at wider apertures. MTF graphs alone don't tell the whole story about a lens and as quirky as the FA 43mm Limited can be, I still won't sell it because it has delivered stunning images for me. Unless you've tried this lens, you won't know how lovely the colors it can render and the unique 3D quality it can deliver. Bottom line, test your lenses in person before you buy, don't merely rely on what some website has to say because they are only testing ONE lens.
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Last edited by creampuff; 05-21-2012 at 04:48 AM.