[Sandy Hancock]

Yeah. Hose this fire down Ronnie!

[phoebus]

All this new news to get to 100% on the posts, PF must have some sway with Ricoh...

[neokind]

I’m planning on the mark II upgrade also. Guess this year Pentax gets a bit of income from me.

As they should.

[Mikesul]

Well, the image from the Chinese review shows some great starbursts, Im not sure this is important for this kind of lens though.

---------- Post added 29-06-18 at 08:51 ----------

looking at the pics here :
???? | HD PENTAX-D FA?50mm F1.4 SDM AW | PENTAX STAR LENS ???????? | RICOH IMAGING

Bokeh seems pretty good but is it me or the Portrait, while being nice technically, is not flattering to the lady ?

That is the photographers job.

[timautin]

That is the photographers job.

They should definitely work with a guys called LeRolls...

[northcoastgreg]

Just read it. Is it the most exhaustive development story I've seen from Pentax?

It's clearly the most exhaustive development story about a lens. And no wonder: this lens is definitely a milestone for Pentax, which says a lot considering what Hoya did to the company ten years ago.

Mike Johnston contended that, back seventies and eighties, Pentax, along with Zeiss, produced the best SLR lenses. He further contended that, with introduction of the FA limiteds, Pentax had reaffirmed its status as the premier optical company in Japan. I see this lens, along with the two other 1.4 star lenses that will be produced in the next few years, as having the same impact as those three FA limiteds twenty years ago. Just as some people thought those limiteds were the best AF SLR lenses produced to that point, similar remarks could be made, perhaps will be made, about these new 1.4 primes.

Saori: "At the Optical Design team, we want to design lenses with the specific characteristics that produce images that our users truly feel is beautiful, rather than lenses created only using optical numerical values."

Hirakawa said something very similar in his white paper on the FA 77. This is the Pentax lens design philosophy in a nutshell. While undoubtedly other optical companies want to make lenses that produce beautiful images (think the Olympus SHG lenses), Pentax, because of its tradition, because of the DNA of the company forged by years of pursuing this goal, does it better than anyone else.

[nzondlo]

Well, the image from the Chinese review shows some great starbursts, Im not sure this is important for this kind of lens though.

---------- Post added 29-06-18 at 08:51 ----------

looking at the pics here :
???? | HD PENTAX-D FA?50mm F1.4 SDM AW | PENTAX STAR LENS ???????? | RICOH IMAGING

Bokeh seems pretty good but is it me or the Portrait, while being nice technically, is not flattering to the lady ?

There is a large and growing segment of users on Instagram that are taking portraits like this, using strong bokeh in ways that was rarely done before the digital era. I think the model's photos are geared towards them on purpose.

Which is important. I know 10 people personally that have picked up a DSLR in the past year alone (myself, 2 years ago) that got into it because of the pretty photos they're seeing of their friends on Instagram. We want Pentax optics to rank high in the SEO when they make that first "digital camera" search in Google, right?

[Fenwoodian]

It would be interesting, Dave … the Milvus only scores 39 at DxOMark versus 45 for the Sigma Art.

On a Nikon D800E these premium 50mm f/1.4 lenses score 41 (Milvus) vs 46 (Sigma).

My eyes can not differentiate a mere 5-point difference in score on the objective measures (e.g. sharpness, distortion, vig, chr. aberrrations) that DxOMark tests for.

Far more important to me are subjective lens differences in the areas of color, bokeh, and micro-contrast. DxOMark does not measure these more subjective lens characteristics.

Yesterday I did extensive, head-to-head testing on two 135mm lenses (Samyang 135/2 in K mount, & adapted Leica R 135/2.8). While neither lens is rated by DxO, if they were, I am certain that the modern Samyang lens would be rated much higher than the older Leica lens. The Samyang lens is incredibly sharp, has little vignetting, and almost no CA or distortion. The Leica has more vig, more CA and is no where near as sharp.

Overall, I greatly preferred the more "artistic" rendering ("Leica Look") of the Leica over the more "technical" rendering of the Samyang lens. In fact, I so much more prefer the rendering of the lower rated Leica, that I intend to sell the more higher rated Samyang lens.

As far as on-line lens ratings go, I actually prefer the broader and more comprehensive rating system that Lenscore.org uses to evaluate lenses, over the DxOMark lens rating system. Lenscore evaluates many lens characteristics (color, contrast, flare, star, bokeh) that DxO does not. Lenscore rates the Sigma 50/1.4 1053, and the Zeiss Milvus 50/1.4 1054 (a virtual tie)!

Any of the popular lens rating systems (DxOMark, Lenscore, etc.) are a valid starting point in ones' lens evaluations. But for me, I prefer to make my final lens decisions based on real-world, head-to-head lens comparison tests that I make myself.

[clackers]

.

Far more important to me are subjective lens differences in the areas of color, bokeh, and micro-contrast. DxO does not measure these subjective lens characteristics.

Like the 'haptic appeal' satirized by Roger Cicala?

Of course, you can't 'measure' subjective characteristics, you can only give an opinion on them.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2015/11/zeiss-milvus-optical-bench-tests/

[DimC]

There is a large and growing segment of users on Instagram that are taking portraits like this, using strong bokeh in ways that was rarely done before the digital era. I think the model's photos are geared towards them on purpose.

Which is important. I know 10 people personally that have picked up a DSLR in the past year alone (myself, 2 years ago) that got into it because of the pretty photos they're seeing of their friends on Instagram. We want Pentax optics to rank high in the SEO when they make that first "digital camera" search in Google, right?

The one eye on focus only is fine....
But the nose and red ear is what I find weird. Give LeRolls this lens dammit!

---------- Post added 29-06-18 at 18:02 ----------

That is the photographers job.

I fully agree.

[Fenwoodian]

Like the 'haptic appeal' satirized by Roger Cicala?

Of course, you can't 'measure' subjective characteristics, you can only give an opinion on them.

Lens Rentals | Blog

Roger is my hero! I value his opinion more than anyone else who publishes on the Internet.


Here's my favorite Roger article - Lens Rentals | Blog .


Will stopping down the new Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens to f/2 greatly improve it's sharpness, or will it already have a high level of sharpness wide open? That's the big question I have.

[mlt]

Any guesses on which web site will be the first to have a full, indepth review. Are samples in reviewer’s hands now?

[ffking]

Will stopping down the new Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens to f/2 greatly improve it's sharpness, or will it already have a high level of sharpness wide open? That's the big question I have.

I think it looks pretty good wide open in the sample pics if you look 1:1 - Pentax have never used edge contrastiness to give the impression of sharpness, and that is evident in the samples, but i'd say that the resolving power is impressive

[beholder3]

Will stopping down the new Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens to f/2 greatly improve it's sharpness, or will it already have a high level of sharpness wide open? That's the big question I have.

These are the types of questions that anyone can give any answer to and be right about it.

The glass is half empty poster view:

The Sigma 50 Art "needs to be stopped down 3 full stops to F4 to get tack sharp". F2 and F2.8 and F4 all needed to vastly improve its sharpness. Evidence: https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/media/2014/04/Sigaper.jpg


The glass is half full poster view:
The Sigma 50 Art "is tack sharp even wide open".

The same will happen with the new DFA*.

[monochrome]

Awesome. I feel like I owe it to them to support this great project.
I'm a proud Pentaxian.

Yes.

I’m changing up my philosophy to add only 100% new (no more second-hand) D FA, normal and *, and FA Limited only. Time to support the enterprise on principle and when finished selling I’ll be money-ahead. I’ll miss some DA Limiteds, but not all that much.

I’ll keep the SMC ‘K’ collection and existing FA* lenses for the hobby aspect.