In with the FA43
Best of both worlds!
I took a walk around a nearby lake yesterday to run my newly-arrived FA43 through its paces. It took my breath away (though I'm apprehensive about it being placebo effect
) in ways the DA40 never did.
First of all, the FA43 was curious about something....
What's a flare ? (Though to be fair it did show up on some shots now and then, as with the DA40. But pretty impressive nonetheless). I love the way it rendered the sky here.
What I do love is that the 8 aperture blades makes for a much more natural looking starburst - 18-pronged suns with the DA40 was a bit too much for me.
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The bokeh's a bit busy here but there were so many brambles and such I wouldn't be surprised if a 600mm f1.0 produced a busy blur as well.
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I've always been fond of this type of flare, pretty cool if you can use it well/in a controlled manner, imo. Of course, this one here was an accident
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And of course, when stopped down, it's quite ridiculously sharp.
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Again, awesome rendering and bokeh here...
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Maybe it's just me, but images from the FA43 really lend themselves to be processed in an idyllic, summery way.
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This one surprised me and ended up being one of my favorites, if not the favorite of the day. Wide open, and sharp where it's in focus (2nd closest seat). Great pop to it viewed at large sizes, and to be honest I think the busy bokeh helps here - it's busy, but busy in a "real" sense - our eyes aren't great for bokeh (and here I'm speculating) but I mean, evolutionarily speaking, it'd be better to have detailed (and thus not smooth) background blur to better make out predators or whatever the hell. That's what wide-open FA43 bokeh looks like to me - realistically busy that gives it a super smooth transition.
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A great lens for textures and shapes - even when 2 degrees celcius causes a bit of handshake to mar the picture when pixelpeeping
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Autofocus is noticeably slower than the DA40, but not so slow that decisive moments will be missed.
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Again, I love the 3D rendering of the FA43 here - on my monitor, the rolling hills and mountains are alive with texture. 2 shot pano.
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I also took my first starstreaks photo last night (which didn't quite work since it was still slightly light, but isn't too horrible for my first try. About 20 minutes long exposure).
This was with the DA15 though:
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Originally posted by Chex 
I adore mine.
Added you on flickr too by the way 
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