[thibs]

I will.... not ....cede.... ARGH !

[garywakeling]

Interesting to see these pics from out in the wild, Thanks Stephen

[repaap]

Some more samples - short drive-by shooting on the way to the agency. DNG loaded into LR and straight exported. Full Res Files can be found here

---------- Post added 06-23-20 at 12:27 AM ----------


The shots 6487 and the BnW are edited in LR - all other shots are straight out of cam (loaded into lightroom and then simply exported)

Thanks fo info.


And great flowers! even at 1,4 superb color and sharpness! wow.

[Sandy Hancock]

That second set is fabulous Stephen. It is sure to me more than a one trick portrait pony.

[house]

That is nice rendering, very similar to what the DFA* 50 can do.

Even from those small images it looks a fair bit cleaner than the DFA 50.

[Paul the Sunman]

The poppies are delightful. Thanks Stephen. Lovely rendering.

Writing from the depths of winter, it has brightened up my day (er, well, night actually).

---------- Post added 23-06-20 at 07:04 PM ----------

Even from those small images it looks a fair bit cleaner than the DFA 50.

You can cut your finger on a DFA*50 image.

[Ben-G]

That second set is fabulous Stephen. It is sure to me more than a one trick portrait pony.

Except for the weight and bulk, my initial impressions are cracking. This second set is marvellous... sure that it is " more than a one trick portrait pony" but in yours opinion which "different taste" offers in comparison to 77ltd ?
[ Obviously not surgery aspects ... ]

Thanks Stephen for sharing your beautiful images ...

All the best,

Ben

---

Last edited by Ben-G; 06-23-2020 at 02:19 AM.

[house]

You can cut your finger on a DFA*50 image.

No doubt about that. I was referring to the over all look. Perhaps due to being more corrected or perhaps it's just the difference in focal length.

[Sandy Hancock]

In your opinion which "different taste" offers in comparison to 77ltd ?

I love my FA77, but the bokeh from this lens is quite different, and from what I have seen, even nicer. I have no doubt it will be sharper wide open (and right across the frame), and a scalpel by f/2.0

I can't wait to do my own comparisons with the 77 and the FA*85. I suspect the latter will be up for sale fairly soon.

[StephenObermeier]

I love my FA77, but the bokeh from this lens is quite different, and from what I have seen, even nicer. I have no doubt it will be sharper wide open (and right across the frame), and a scalpel by f/2.0

I can't wait to do my own comparisons with the 77 and the FA*85. I suspect the latter will be up for sale fairly soon.

The two lenses are not really comparable - I love the 77, 43 and 31 and I do about 90% of my paid work with those three lenses but the 85 cuts everything the old ltd lenses stand for - the unique look and let's call it character - The 85 is a surgery knife and is much less forgiving because of it's resolving ability. But it adds something to the kit I was always looking for - I want a 85 that simply delivers incredible IQ without any character or pixie dust or whatever all the pentaxians are looking for. I will get one for studio work - but I doubt it will be my walk-around lens, because with this thing mounted you are everything but not agile. It will be interesting to see what the astro community has to say about this glas - I would love to take some shots, but I have not really the abilities to do this in a way that the results would ok to judge.

[volley]

add in the Zeiss Planar 85/1.4 ZK T*.....

... and probably the A* 1.4/85

[Ben-G]

Well, this seems to be the focal point: the FA 31, 43, 77 ltd are lovely lenses that reveal themselves, apart the prestige, also as all-around lenses.
Indoubtely their key-points are compactness, an excellent manifacture and an imponderable goodness of their optical scheme, thanks to Jun Hirakawa.
Photographers need now, in 2020, great performances... but this culture of performance is really a trasversal aspect of contemporary reality ...
So happens that the fundamental parameter, not only of choice but also of aestethical judge, is "extreme clarity"; a direct message, reproduction of real... apart photography is also an urgent philosophical question named "New Realism" ( Maurizio Ferraris docet ), with also unavoidable consequences on the aesthetic level.
Curiosly the Pictorialism, at the end of the nineteenth century, born to raise the photographic medium as painting or sculpture because photography was often compared with contempt to a simple means of reproducing reality...
Courses and recourses of history, even contradictory.

[ I'm desolate for my bad english ... ]

Thanks to Sandy Hancock and Stephen Obermeier ...

Best regards from Italy,

Ben

[Sandy Hancock]

I am not yet worthy of your thanks. But I will try when the lens arrives; the lens will do the talking though.

And Hirakawa did not design the FA31 by the way

[Ben-G]

I am not yet worthy of your thanks. But I will try when the lens arrives; the lens will do the talking though.

And Hirakawa did not design the FA31 by the way

Yes, i know it...
Precisely smc fa 31mm Limited was an update design of Mr. Ito, Takayuki (伊藤 孝之) and Mr. Murata, Masayuki (村田 將之) on originally designed FA31/2.4 of HIRAKAWA, based itself on the optical formula of the old SMC 30mm F2.8

Jun Hirakawa has designed too the FA☆85mm f1.4 :

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/6d/72/ab/b20d043420abbb/US5172274.pdf

~~~

"the lens will do the talking though."

I believe that too ... 😉

~~~
Intentions and quality:

https://download.ru/files/dNVNZiMI

~~~

Who are the engineers of this new 85mm ? Are there drawings ( patent, service part list, exploded diagrams ) on the net ?

[Wheatfield]

I will.... not ....cede.... ARGH !

Resistance is futile.