[clackers]

The official site comparison of the DFA*50, DA*55 and Samyang 50mm f1.4, which controlled the picture scenes, says:

"At the widest, F1.4 aperture, there is little to differentiate the three lenses. The D FA*'s blur seems creamier, particularly at the bottom right. For all three lenses, highlights are well formed and no harsh patterns are visible. The differences between the three lenses are subtle at best. Even when the aperture closes, highlights preserve their round shape and the out-of-focus texture remains creamy for the three lenses. All three produce superb bokeh ...

… The three lenses under test produce pleasing bokeh, with creamy textures devoid of harsh shapes, and well-formed highlights. The D FA* has a small advantage over the other two lenses at the widest aperture values."

Read more at: Modern 50mm Shootout: Pentax D FA* 50mm, Samyang 50mm, Pentax DA* 55mm F1.4 Review - Bokeh | PentaxForums.com Reviews

Aren't we lucky to have the choice? One of them is an cheap manual focus lens.

All Pentaxians should be able to shoot beautiful pictures.

[Dr_who]

The official site comparison of the DFA*50, DA*55 and Samyang 50mm f1.4, which controlled the picture scenes, says:

"At the widest, F1.4 aperture, there is little to differentiate the three lenses. The D FA*'s blur seems creamier, particularly at the bottom right. For all three lenses, highlights are well formed and no harsh patterns are visible. The differences between the three lenses are subtle at best. Even when the aperture closes, highlights preserve their round shape and the out-of-focus texture remains creamy for the three lenses. All three produce superb bokeh ...

… The three lenses under test produce pleasing bokeh, with creamy textures devoid of harsh shapes, and well-formed highlights. The D FA* has a small advantage over the other two lenses at the widest aperture values."

Read more at: Modern 50mm Shootout: Pentax D FA* 50mm, Samyang 50mm, Pentax DA* 55mm F1.4 Review - Bokeh | PentaxForums.com Reviews

Aren't we lucky to have the choice? One of them is an cheap manual focus lens.

All Pentaxians should be able to shoot beautiful pictures.

I was hoping there was going to be a coma comparison. Unless I missed it.

[clackers]

I was hoping there was going to be a coma comparison. Unless I missed it.

Not many reviews here or on other sites do, DW. Perhaps because it's an aberration that's more important to astrophotographers.

[Dr_who]

Not many reviews here or on other sites do, DW. Perhaps because it's an aberration that's more important to astrophotographers.

Considering Pentax markets itself as a landscape/astro camera with astrotracer, that they think quite a few Pentax users like doing astrophotography

[clackers]

Considering Pentax markets itself as a landscape/astro camera with astrotracer, that they think quite a few Pentax users like doing astrophotography

I wouldn't have thought it was all that hard to test ... arrange a string of tiny LED lights in a rectangle sitting just inside the frame and look at the results, but almost nobody does it.

[Wheatfield]

Considering Pentax markets itself as a landscape/astro camera with astrotracer, that they think quite a few Pentax users like doing astrophotography

As much as I like most of the features that Pentax puts on their cameras, I suspect that they are leveraging sensor movement into features because they can add value very cheaply by doing so.
It would be interesting to do a poll to find out how many users take advantage of more than shake reduction on a regular basis.

[Zygonyx]

The official site comparison of the DFA*50, DA*55 and Samyang 50mm f1.4, which controlled the picture scenes, says:

"At the widest, F1.4 aperture, there is little to differentiate the three lenses. The D FA*'s blur seems creamier, particularly at the bottom right. For all three lenses, highlights are well formed and no harsh patterns are visible. The differences between the three lenses are subtle at best. Even when the aperture closes, highlights preserve their round shape and the out-of-focus texture remains creamy for the three lenses. All three produce superb bokeh ...

… The three lenses under test produce pleasing bokeh, with creamy textures devoid of harsh shapes, and well-formed highlights. The D FA* has a small advantage over the other two lenses at the widest aperture values."

Read more at: Modern 50mm Shootout: Pentax D FA* 50mm, Samyang 50mm, Pentax DA* 55mm F1.4 Review - Bokeh | PentaxForums.com Reviews

Aren't we lucky to have the choice? One of them is an cheap manual focus lens.

All Pentaxians should be able to shoot beautiful pictures.

Exactly the same opinion here btw the two Pentax lenses : i have samples near widest aperture with no difference in bokeh.

[OoKU]

HD Pentax-D FA* 50mm F1.4 SDM AW review: Digital Photography Review

[D1N0]

HD Pentax-D FA* 50mm F1.4 SDM AW review: Digital Photography Review

Typical of them they are focussing on a negative and then blowing it way out of proportion.

[house]

We've seen and discussed the loca before and it's real and can probably be annoying. Thing is that they do seem to fail at comparisons. The sigma art is the only real comparison when price is taken into account and that lens seems a bit worse in most ways. Despite this it got way better score...

[swanlefitte]

I am pleasantly surprised they only had 1 instance of loaded terms. "can get seriously distracting." If evidence of this was shown in the widget my phone can't load that is acceptable.
They do need to justify their peer grouping and thus scoring, but overall the dpr write up is not objectionable to me. I haven't said that in years.

[robjmitchell]

Yes they need to explain their scoring system, apparently pentax label = -5 points.

[clackers]

HD Pentax-D FA* 50mm F1.4 SDM AW review: Digital Photography Review

Yeah, I think I said it when they did the original shoot with this lens and the notorious chain link fence pic.

You can bring on LoCA on any fast lens like this, it's the shooting situation. To imply the Pentax does it, the others don't, is practically slander.

Below is the Sigma 50mm Art. Credit: Lens Review and field test: Sigma 50mm/F1.4 HSM DG ART lens ? Akshay Jamwal Photography

[clackers]

And another, from Review: Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG HSM Art (Canon EF) - The Phoblographer

The DPR review says: "The image reveals some colour fringing around high-contrast out-of-focus elements - predominantly magenta in front of the plane of focus, and green behind - but for such a fast lens it's actually relatively low."

CameraLabs.com say: "Following is one of the most brutal tests for lenses: the sun reflecting on water. This produces extreme specular highlights which mercilessly reveal longitudinal CAs, purple fringing and coma. The new Sigma exhibits quite some green and purple fringing ..."

So, it's one standard for Pentax, another for Sigma, according to DPR 'journalists'.

[JPT]

I thought it was a fair review, and DPR on the whole seems to giving Pentax/Ricoh more positive coverage recently.

Unfortunately, the comments seem to be taken over by a few defensive Pentax fans. All they’ll achieve is to draw extra attention to the weaker points of the lens and antagonise the reviewers.

I was personally interested to see the comments about AF in video mode. It seems this lens is quite well optimized for CDAF. That makes me wonder about how AF will work on future K-mount bodies.