[WPRESTO]

In my days as a film-shooter (on Canon AE-1s!) I always preferred a 35mm as "Standard" rather than a 50mm.

Interesting that you preferred 35mm for a standard lens. In a brochure describing their complete line of lenses (S-mount days), Asahi used to recommend the 28mm f3.5 as the best general-purpose, family-photo lens because of its utility at gatherings and indoor events.

[bpv_UW]

Love that 2nd shot, Rondec. Thanks for the examples.

I think it's been determined as a near certainty that any APS-C lens mounted on the new Pentax FF will trigger automatic sensor cropping to accommodate.

Interested in where this info came from. Seems a lot of folks around here are assuming some of their DA glass (55, 200, 300, etc) will work on the upcoming FF. If you know something that most of us don't, that assumption may not be correct...

Really these sort of threads are pretty pointless. Most of us want to justify what we have

I'm not sure most people feel like they need to "justify" what they have to anyone. I certainly don't. I'm sure a lot of people (myself included) enjoy explaining and discussing their gear choices for a variety of reasons, probably namely because we all love photography and many of us are "gearheads", but also to help others on this forum that are looking for assistance/insight to help guide their own decisions about gear. There are other reasons, I'm sure. Point is, "pointless" is subjective. Pentax Forums is by far the most friendly, useful internet forum I've ever been a part of, but even so I have zero interest in >99% of the threads here. There are a few each day that I am very interested in - I read/participate in those when I can, and ignore the rest. Does that make all those other threads "pointless"? Of course not. It just means they don't align with my current particular interests, but I suspect each is very useful to a number of other members. All members here, I'm sure, can say the same. Every thread has a point to the initiator and probably many of those who participate in it. I've already found this one useful - the review posted by JibbaJab I hadn't seen before, and the info from WPRESTO that I quoted above is news to me, as well. "Pointless" is in the eye of the beholder.

-Brandon

[RobA_Oz]

I reckon the assumption that there will be an APS-C or crop mode on the forthcoming 35FF body is reasonable, given that the competition has it. What would be more interesting is whether or not the automation limited the cropping to the APS-C format only, or whether cropping could be preset to the user's individual preference for a given lens. This would also allow the use of IBIS on legacy lenses that have restricted image circles, without resorting to PP cropping for the corners. Given the difficulty of matching this customisation in the OVF, I doubt it would happen, even if it could be easily achieved in Live View. Mind you, if the speculation about a hybrid viewfinder had any legs...

[54nima]

Not specifically focused on corner sharpness, but this article does give a good overview:

SMC Pentax DA* 55mm f/1.4 on Sony A7R : ERPhotoReview

That's helpful

[cali92rs]

I would go with the 43mm because the 55mm is too close to my 77mm (of course ymmv).

[Rondec]

I would go with the 43mm because the 55mm is too close to my 77mm (of course ymmv).

Interesting. I went with the 55 because I thought the 43 would be too close to my FA 31.

[Na Horuk]

Not specifically focused on corner sharpness, but this article does give a good overview: SMC Pentax DA* 55mm f/1.4 on Sony A7R : ERPhotoReview

Hm, honestly, I don't find that review to be a good advertisement for the lens. I've seen some amazing photos taken with the DA* 55mm, but I have never seen a lab review that was anything super special, apart from sharpness at the very centre of the frame. I think sample photos from that lens are a much better argument to get one.

but I doubt that Pentax is going to go through its entire apsc optimized line of lenses and find the ones that cover the full frame image circle and unlock them for ff.

But that is exactly the problem. A lot of Pentax DA lenses are not really made for APSC. Many of them are FF lens designs, just with newer coatings and missing aperture ring. Many of them project an FF image circle. So for those, I think we can expect Pentax to continue the same lens genus (For example, we can see that the DA 50mm f1.8 is very similar to FA 50mm f1.7, F, A, and even M. Same groups/elements, same diagrams, with allegedly some minor tweaks, which I don't think have ever been verified) (same thing for DA 35mm f2.4 and FA 35mm f2.0)
Not to mention the "DA lenses on full frame" thread and the many other tests that Pentax users have already done (with film cameras and more recently with adapters on Sony cameras). We can already predict which lenses are FF compatible and which are not 100% and will probably contain auto-crop. Pentax cameras already contain many lens-specific information, like distortion correction, CA correction, vignetting correction, diffraction correction.. Might as well give the FF camera an index of "crop or not". I just hope it will be possible to manually disable the auto-crop.

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Last edited by Na Horuk; 09-08-2015 at 03:33 AM.

[Rondec]

Hm, honestly, I don't find that review to be a good advertisement for the lens. I've seen some amazing photos taken with the DA* 55mm, but I have never seen a lab review that was anything super special, apart from sharpness at the very centre of the frame. I think sample photos from that lens are a much better argument to get one.


But that is exactly the problem. A lot of Pentax DA lenses are not really made for APSC. Many of them are FF lens designs, just with newer coatings and missing aperture ring. Many of them project an FF image circle. So for those, I think we can expect Pentax to continue the same lens genus (For example, we can see that the DA 50mm f1.8 is very similar to FA 50mm f1.7, F, A, and even M. Same groups/elements, same diagrams, with allegedly some minor tweaks, which I don't think have ever been verified) (same thing for DA 35mm f2.4 and FA 35mm f2.0)
Not to mention the "DA lenses on full frame" thread and the many other tests that Pentax users have already done (with film cameras and more recently with adapters on Sony cameras). We can already predict which lenses are FF compatible and which are not 100% and will probably contain auto-crop. Pentax cameras already contain many lens-specific information, like distortion correction, CA correction, vignetting correction, diffraction correction.. Might as well give the FF camera an index of "crop or not". I just hope it will be possible to manually disable the auto-crop.

I think the thing to me about Pentax lenses is that the FA limiteds and the DA *55 do not seem to try for maximum border sharpness. They have nice center sharpness and nice rendering of out of focus areas, but they don't have maximum sharpness edge to edge unless you stop down some. But for many subjects, that edge sharpness is not needed and for the majority of landscapes, you are going to stop down to at least f4 to maintain some depth of field. But the 50 f1.8 is probably pretty close to the DA *55 with regard to border sharpness.

[StephenHampshire]

Interesting that you preferred 35mm for a standard lens. In a brochure describing their complete line of lenses (S-mount days), Asahi used to recommend the 28mm f3.5 as the best general-purpose, family-photo lens because of its utility at gatherings and indoor events.

I didn't know that, but that is very interesting....perhaps I need to save for a FA 31mm ltd. Mind you I do have the FA35mm F2, which for some srange reason I massively prefer to the DA 35mm f2.4 ( I had one and sold it)

[wibbly]

Not to mention the "DA lenses on full frame" thread and the many other tests that Pentax users have already done (with film cameras and more recently with adapters on Sony cameras). We can already predict which lenses are FF compatible and which are not 100% and will probably contain auto-crop. Pentax cameras already contain many lens-specific information, like distortion correction, CA correction, vignetting correction, diffraction correction.. Might as well give the FF camera an index of "crop or not". I just hope it will be possible to manually disable the auto-crop.

this is exactly the assumption I was talking about. it seems that there is a lot of hopeful speculation here, and a lot of it is with regards to things that just don't seem likely to happen. I expect that pentax would write the firmware so the camera exhibits the most consistent behavior.




can you disable auto-crop in other ff bodies?

[UncleVanya]

this is exactly the assumption I was talking about. it seems that there is a lot of hopeful speculation here, and a lot of it is with regards to things that just don't seem likely to happen. I expect that pentax would write the firmware so the camera exhibits the most consistent behavior.




can you disable auto-crop in other ff bodies?

Yes. Also some have multiple crop options. 1.2x for example.

[ChristianRock]

Why is the F 50 1.7 not an option?

[UncleVanya]

Why is the F 50 1.7 not an option?

Well... that is the one in my bag. But I'm not the person who started the thread... .
For that matter the FA 50 1.4 is still available new - right?

[bpv_UW]

Why is the F 50 1.7 not an option?

I've had a couple copies and used it a good bit. Apart from the inconsistent AF of the 43 (which I've also owned a couple copies of) on my K5, I preferred its rendering/IQ to the 50 - that's why I didn't mention the 50. But the 50 clearly wins, IMHO, in the "bang for your buck" department.

-Brandon

[Mikesul]

I think it's been determined as a near certainty that any APS-C lens mounted on the new Pentax FF will trigger automatic sensor cropping to accommodate. Perhaps multiple manually-selected formats for APS-C only lenses would be available in the menu, perhaps a square format? or an APS-C rectangle that was vertical? Portrait shooters might like that.

That is highly unlikely and unnecessarily complex to implement. The most sensible and easiest to implement would be what Sony does in its A7 line which is to have three options: Auto, FF, Crop. That way the user can use a crop lens even when it vignettes. I get wonderful 8mm wide pictures with my Sigma 8-16 by by selecting FF and just cropping out the black in PP. Or can can just let the camera do the cropping for somewhat reduced coverage. Pentax would be crazy to lock out all the FF compatible DA lenses it already has. Might be the killer for me.