All 50mm lenses are pretty sharp, I'm sure even if you put M 50mm f1.7 in the mix it would be difficult to tell them apart. The biggest difference won't be in sharpness in the centre of the frame, but in the edges, in CA, bokeh, colours.. a lot of this gets washed out if WB and other corrections are set to Auto. And also features like QS, WR, lens hood and distance scales and aperture ring (rarity these days)
And I think OP did well in proving that the F 50mm is a pretty great lens and delivers a lot for its price. The DA* 55mm costs much more, and definitely delivers
something, but its up to the photographer to decide if this is "worth it"
Its similar to comparing DA 35mm f2.4 and FA 31mm ltd. DA 35mm is pretty sharp and comes at a great price. Many (most?) photographers will not need anything more. But there are still reasons to look at the FA 31mm and apparently enough people have decided that it is worth the price difference.
Last edited by Na Horuk; 03-22-2015 at 08:51 AM.