[Dlanor Sekao]

BTW. If you don't own 5 50mm lenses you don't have LBA.

+1 on that....lol. I cured mine by finding NOTHING left to buy ! I say start out wider first like a 20 , 24 , or 28.....then come back and cinch the double deal on 35's.

[mtngal]

You can always do what I did - I lusted after the FA31 but didn't want to spend that kind of money (didn't have it). I got a great deal on a DA35 macro and bought it instead. 6 months later I still lusted after the FA31 because the DA 35 Ltd is incredibly sharp and doesn't have that dreamy bokeh that the 31 does, which is what I lusted after. So a year later, when I couldn't stand it any more, I bought the FA31.

Moral of the story is to get the right lens for the job/want you have. Don't buy a lens just because it's a good deal.

On the other hand, I still own that 35 macro. It keeps rotating into my camera bag, it's a real useful little lens. So now I have both the 35 and 31 and have no intention of selling either one. Different lenses for different jobs. I'm happier with both lenses than if I had only bought 1 (oh, and lets not discuss the fact I also now own the 21, 40 and 43).

[Nicolas06]

I think you can make it a game. The game is to has few lenses as possible but still get as most different and interresting shoot possible.

A DA35 f/2.4 is no better than the DA35 ltd or the DA40... And the usage is honestly too similar. So to me if you want the DA35 f/2.4 I expect you TO SELL that DA40.

The reality through there nothing the DA40 can't do the DA35 f/2.4 would do. No need for both.

Each new lense should either give you something very special: an uncoverred focal length, (and no 35 vs 40 doesn't count!), macro support, wide apperture etc.

In my setup the DA35 ltd work is for contrasty landscapes and walkarround shooting and macro/proxy. DA21 cover WA and DA15 UWA. FA77 job is all the shallow deph of field thing, portraiture and general purpose tele. Lasted addition, the F135 is for when a longer focal length is really required.

Having the DA35 ltd instead of FA31 or FA43 was a bold. Ultimately I know I that FA43 to be to long to my liking and too near FA77. FA31 price are just ridiculous and it best used for bokeh where the DA35 ltd is more practical/better for macro and the FA31 rendering is not that necessary then with an FA77 on board. I could have switched to FA31, DA55 and DFA100 macro but I don't like shooting that much arround 50mm as I learned from FA50, 135 look better than 100mm as the max focal length for the same size/weight and honestly FA77 is far more usefull (to me) for shallow deph of field than FA31 can be.

All my lenses are small, light, in the long run I'd like to get something sharper than DA21, maybe a new DFA 24 f/2.8 ltd if it is sharp corners to corners. But then I would let the DA21 go.

Really some here try to justify they need 2,3, 10 lenses doing the same thing. This is just fetishishm, make your bag heavier and doesn't really help taking photos. If many of the best photographers did only with a few prime, no reason you can't do that too.

If you want to have many lenses, well that possible, but it is pure LBA and mostly unrelated to taking good pictures.

[wtlwdwgn]

While the FA 31 is probably the best choice there is another option. Would a 50mm f/2.8 macro work for you in the lab? There are some of those on eekBay between $100 and $200. Then you could keep the DA 35 Macro to use outside of work. As far as sliding into LBA, just your thinking of a lens means you already have it. Bwaahaahaa!

[Joojoo2010]

The truth is there is no other cure for LBA than buying and buying. someday there will be peace in ur mind again, hopefully

[Jyrkira]

No, it is actually my lens bought with my money, but I prefer to leave it at work because that's where it's needed. It's a medical laboratory, so the need is not always predictable but is sometimes at short notice and I don't always have time or opportunity to go fetch it if I should accidentally leave it at home.

Instead you buying another 35mm lens the laboratory should buy a lens for the laboratory's needs.

[Driline]

I've come to the conclusion that once you own the FA 31, then all you crave are high IQ lenses. It's hard to go back to an average lens when you know what kind of image quality is possible using the best. Recently I've been bouncing back and forth between the FA 31 and F*300. Both primes, and both stellar lenses. I'm seriously considering dumping my zooms entirely. The only zoom I'd have a hard time giving up would be the DA*50-135. So my primes would be the FA 31, FA 100 2.8 Macro and the F*300. With the DA*50-135 picking up the slack. Just my 2 cents

[narual]

I bought a 13x19 album and just put in the more interesting prints there, that way I don't have to display them on the wall

Sweet! I didn't know such a thing existed. I'm going to get one ASAP.

I strongly recommend trying 66lb. Polar Pearl Metallic - Metallic inkjet photo paper with a unique photo lab metallic finish for inkjet printers -- it's incredible, especially at large sizes.

[pathdoc]

You realize that this is like coming to a heroin den and asking for help quitting?

LOLOL. Yes, I suppose it is like that, isn't it? Fortunately on this occasion, my fellow addicts have indeed helped and I'm not going to do it.

[RobA_Oz]

Seriously (no, really!) LBA is like any chronic illness: it has no cure, but it is manageable. In my case, I completed an inventory of my glass and totalled the actual expenditure and current market prices as the first step in recognition of the problem, but it was an expensive road to get to that point. I think you're getting in early by concentrating on the less expensive newer optics. Holding the course might be difficult, though, as you see what's possible with more costly pieces of glass.

Best of luck with it all. I have both the DA35/2.8 Macro and the FA31/1.8 Limited, and they're both lovely in their own, if somewhat overlapping ways. If you can manage to confine your ambition in this FL to the DA35/2.5, you've made a good start on controlling your LBA.

[pathdoc]

I have both the DA35/2.8 Macro and the FA31/1.8 Limited, and they're both lovely in their own, if somewhat overlapping ways.

I can see a purpose to this, if only in that the FA31 is ever so slightly wider, a stop and a bit faster, and (from what I've read) a shade ahead in quality, plus it has effortless retrofit compatibility with film bodies (if that's what you're into) and the FF DSLR when it eventually comes out. That's when the 31 becomes a 31 again, rather than (approximately) a 45.

---------- Post added 04-07-15 at 09:09 AM ----------

While the FA 31 is probably the best choice there is another option. Would a 50mm f/2.8 macro work for you in the lab? There are some of those on eekBay between $100 and $200.

No, it probably wouldn't. I actually originally bought the 100mm WR f/2.8 Macro, but found I needed a much wider field of view for the larger specimens. I thought very hard about the fifty, but decided that it was better to go to the other extreme immediately than to go middle-of-the-road and have regrets. Experience has shown me that I did the right thing. It was an expensive mistake, but I can't bring myself to ditch the hundred - if nothing else, I have a fairly fast short telephoto lens that's good for portraiture, with backup macro capability if I should ever need it. This is good because one of my dogs is very photogenic, but only when it's resting - and that isn't when it's outdoors or I'm shoving a wide-angle lens in its fuzzy canine face.

[Sandy Hancock]

I have never tried the 35/2.4, but I have been consistently impressed with its output.
That said, the 35/2.8 macro limited is unique, brilliant, nearly as fast, nearly as compact and does 1:1 macro. I can not imagine why I would get the 35/2.4 at any price unless I needed the money and intended to sell the macro.
Likewise, the FA31 has the most consistently beautiful bokeh of any lens I have used. I mean at every aperture and every focal distance. All-time keeper.
The DA40 limited is a fine lens, but it just wasn't as interesting as other primes I had in that range, so I sold it.

[pathdoc]

I had a used FA31 in my hands not that long ago - a huge hunk of steel and glass. I let it pass. I'm kicking myself now. Likewise I had a shot at a used Sigma f1.4 (an older one, I know, so nowhere near the current Art standard and also manual focus, but I could deal with that), but also didn't understand (then) how to make it work on my K5. Had I done my research, or had the guy in the store known his stuff and been able to show me, I might have walked away with that second one. Now it will be 11 months before I'm back there again.

[Clavius]

I cured my LBA by (1) committing to only buying lenses that noticably improve on what I already have. And (2) making myself sell a lens if I buy a new lens. If your collection is very large and needs to be cut down, you can also try selling multiple each time you buy. If you do that, eventually you'll end up with only a few lenses that get used a LOT, instead of a whole bunch that collect dust/mold/fungus.

[clackers]

Looking at a DA 35mm f2.4 AL, currently on Ebay at an unbelievably good price.

ISSUES: I already have the 35mm limited Macro (but it is for work and stays on my desk, regardless of where the camera goes). I also have the 40mm f2.8 Limited pancake ("green ring"). Between them, I have the focal length range and speed thoroughly covered.

Do I really need this lens, at any price, or is it just LBA talking?

Yes, Pathdoc, you will need this, along with the FA31, the Sigma 35mm Art, the DA 20-40 and Sigma 18-35mm.

You may need to turn to crime to finance this.