Originally posted by Fenwoodian But hopefully not an "overcooked" and "overcompensated" optical design (like Sigma Art lenses) where the artistic characteristics of the lens take a back seat to the singular pursuit of "ULTIMATE SHARPNESS".
The words you are looking for are over corrected! Pentax has had a philosophy of producing sharp lenses with great rendering at the expense of correcting things like CA and coma.
The new DFA* lenses are about producing a lens that is sharp wide open, well corrected, and with great rendering, including 3D pop which requires lots of microcontrast. This requires lots of glass elements and exceptional lens coatings to stop loss of contrast.
The DFA*70-200 proved it can be done, at the expense of weight. The 50 has the same philosophy. Limiteds have a different philosophy.