Originally posted by Michael Piziak From an engineering point, which lens does Pentax (Ricoh) consider to be their better/best lens - the Limited edition lens or the Star (*) editions - ?
I think the star-lenses are the top of engineering. From old they used special glass and it was a sturdy build and (very) heavy and for that time extreme wider apertures (bringing a 135mm back from F2.5 and F3.5 to a F1.8). The special glasses are now sometimes also used in standard lenses, such as AL glass and ED (used in the second and WR edition of the 18-55). So you see in the new *lenses more special glasses mentioned than say in the 80's of the last century. Limited lenses are "standard" designs, with which I mean they use standard glass but they are build with sturdy metals in smaller batches than the standard old 50mm's for instance. As Ricoh/Pentax explained they are not Limited Editions, but produced in smaller batches, so Limited in number of copies.