Originally posted by Buddha Jones I have the DA35LTD and love and and plan on getting the DA70LTD to compliment it but was thinking of that combination of focal lenths would be best served in the realm of the FA's... what are your thoughts.
At one point, I had all four of those. (Sold the DA 70, mostly because I didn't use it, in part to partially fund a 55-300.)
The DA coatings are better; the DA35 lets in richer light than the FA31 does. It does flower-purples like nothing else I have seen, and has an enormous appetite for fine detail.
The FA31 is faster; for taking pictures in dim cloudy winter daylight, or inside (birthday party with no light by the candles on the cake, say) that extra stop is hard to do without. It also has a peculiar quality to it; if you ever want to take a terribly romantic sort of picture in dim evening light, the FA31 is your lens.
There is nothing wrong with the DA70, but I found I just didn't like it much; colour was good, behavior was fine, but it was a slow soulless husk compared to the FA77. (Yes, this is a wildly subjective judgment.)
The FA77 can be forced to fringe, yes, but only by being rash in the bright day. 77x1.5 = 115, a remarkably good length for surreptitious indoor portraits, such as at parties, and it doesn't look like a big lens. It also has a somewhat different but clearly related peculiar quality than the FA31; a lens for mornings and evenings and a spirit of hope.