Quote: Interesting discussion. I pretty well only use primes (DA Limited and legacy primes) which is the reason for using Pentax, imho. I may be wrong but I don't think you'll get the combination of sharpness and excellent OOF areas come bokeh at wide apertures with a zoom, or with not an average zoom.
Yes indeed, I haven't found any zoom that beats even the lowest of my primes in terms of bokeh, but that's just in my case
For nikon you can get really great zooms indeed but they come at a price... although the last AF-D generation lenses (equivalent to Pentax FA) are excellent, excellent value (I just scored an AF 80-200/2.8 for $300). They have no WR though.
Originally posted by Rondec My prime line up is DA 15 - FA 31 - DA 40 - DA 55 -- FA 77 -- DFA 100 WR. Honestly, I prefer the FA limiteds to the DA limiteds. I feel like I gain more with regard to sharpness and (of course) speed with them than with the DA limiteds. The DA 40 is sharper corner to corner than my DA *16-50, but the big thing is that it is tiny and of course, as you say, much more resistant to flare (should be better with HD coatings).
I owe it to myself to try an FA limited someday after my lineup is complete regarding FL and speed that I need
Maybe I should trade my DA 40 for FA 43 but I like it that lens too much... what if I dont like the FA 43? Contrary to people's complaints about the 40's FL I find it perfect for my needs, not too wide, not too tele.
Originally posted by psychdoc The selling point of the Limiteds are their size. Making them WR would increase their size. I for one, would rather have the small size. Something like the DA 70mm has quite a good teleophoto reach but you would never know just looking at it, and if you take the hood off its even smaller. The DA* 55 prime lens is not in the same category but has WR but rather too big...
I believe DA 55 is huge because of its optical design and sdm, not particularly because of wr. Nikon's AF-S lenses are huge compared to their AF-D counterpart. Sigma 50/1.4 which performs similarly to the DA* is also pretty big.
DA 1855 WR is practically the same size as the original 1855. However the construction is plastic, so the maybe why its easier to wr. I certainly wouldn't convert my DA Limited to DA L WR even if they're optically the same! Maybe some here would though.