Originally posted by Mr. The Guy -snip-
If your concern is low light, the FA77 is faster and I would assume the FA77 will let you get some shots that you would not be able to get with the DA70. My concern is that the speed of the DA70 will not be good enough for low light... I read Godfrey sold his FA77 and kept his DA70.
I don't know about the DA70... Now we are going a little off topic, but just a little. I was interested in the DA70 until I saw the CA and fringe from it. It can be checked both in the official pictures Pentax provided some time back when the lens was introduced and also in the sample pictures Richard Day presented. There is also a question mark for the bright ring bokeh thing. Have a look at Richards pictures here:
Pentax DA 70 mm F2.4 Limited Photo Gallery by Richard Day at pbase.com
Page 1, bottom left picture, bright rings, whirry bokeh, CA
The picture above caused some discussion at DPR at the time. Several pictures are okey (=good or very good) while other are not very good.
Please note that I am looking at the pictures thinking of printing big and with very critical eyes. There is no doubt this is an amazing lens.
I have owned two FA77 lenses. They showed some sample differences with one exhibiting more CA abd also more bright rings. The other one was better. I wonder if it is the same with the DA70. It is also possible that they pushed the design towards resolution knowing that most people are mainly interested in sharpness (and also thinking of the more demanding 10MP sensor).
What I would do is to buy the DA70 before selling a good copy of the FA77, ask for a return possibility and then take the time needed to evaluate the lens and have a look into these details.
My guess is that most users will find the DA70 very useable. And neat. And fast, compared to kit lenses and stuff.
The good chap mentioned above claims that the FA77 and the DA70 produces identical picture quality. I can't agree entirely about that but they are pretty close.
regards,