Originally posted by jay_akita Which is why I based my decision on the best of both worlds - first hand experience with both lenses via one of the best photographers on this site (who happens to shoot the same type of subjects I'm most interested in with this lens - portraits of active kids) and defacto test results from a "lab".
As I said before, you cant go wrong with either. Interestingly enough, it was Simon's incredible images with the FA43 that helped me decide to buy it straight away. I am a huge fan of his work, but he nails the shot regardless of the lens used. In his flickr sets, i much prefer his bokeh from the 43 images vs the 55. Again, they are different tools for the job, so the discerning photographer will want one of each.
zeitlos makes a good point about the lab data. Mind you, neither lens is lacking in sharpness. I see a sharpness chart as merely a small piece of the overall evaluation of a lens - if i want crisp photocopies of documents, i need the sharpest possible, flat field, etc...But for the really beautiful artsy portraits, etc, give me a Helios 44-2 any day...Gee i wonder what the Dxo chart looks like for that monster!!