[thibs]

Sigma Art has only one advantage. It has a family of other ART lenses surrounding it. D-FA 50 has some old friends, but no family yet.

DFA* 70-200/2.8 not good enough ?

[Winder]

I'm sure all of the D-FA* lenses will be some of the best lenses in their class. Ricoh just needs to increase the speed at which they can bring these lenses to market. They need a 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, & 135mm, and at the current rate we are 7 years away.

[thibs]

I'm sure all of the D-FA* lenses will be some of the best lenses in their class. Ricoh just needs to increase the speed at which they can bring these lenses to market. They need a 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, & 135mm, and at the current rate we are 7 years away.

About that, I think averybody agrees 5000% or something

[Pål Jensen]

I dont agree about the 135mm. They stopped selling much decades ago...

[Kunzite]

The 7 years away prediction is awfully exaggerated, too.
Taking out the 135mm, there are 3 lenses to go - of which the 85mm is scheduled for 2019 and the others for "2019 or later" - the 50mm, of course, being already on the market.

[H.Abendsen]

really no offense here, but i think, the guy from camera-ville is very "one-eyed" doing his reviews and literally putting every other camera into the litter.
the same bad behaviour dpreview showed in the first review of the DFA* 50mm 1.4... he's just sitting on the other side of the playing field.

To me he is to some point what i would call a "hyperactive fanboy" .


And thats obvious at first sight to every normal photog seeing his reviews. - so as a PENTAXIAN, i really have strong feeling of second-hand embarassment...
Because judging in that way he does(out of thin air whilst talking as fast as speedy gonzales runs) and wildly gestuculating and going mad at all the other
camera makers, does not show ANY integrity or objectivity.


I really dont want to offend him, or his fans (if there are any in here reading this) and so I will accept any moderation of this post... but at the moment i cant find
other words to describe it as exact as i see it.
(I have to admit, when it comes to this very product... the DFA*50mm 1.4... i say any kind of enthusiasm and exaltation is 100% justified and totally OK. But he's acting like that in every review he does.)

From MPOV, (judging the real life Image Quality) the new "DFA* 50mm 1.4" is indeed a stellar performer or better said: it is a hard to beat glass,

sky-high above EVERYTHING what Canon, Nikon and Sony offer in that price class and above.


The only real competitor to this lens may be a Zeiss OTUS which costs 3times as much and lacks Autofocus.
(but only because it handles CA in harsh lighting conditions obviously better - that is a fact, plz dont beat the horse for being one - ...keep calm even OTUS lenses have their drawbacks which are revealed in every fair review... plasticky lookin bokeh... no sealings at a pp of ar. 3000bucks, etc. )
I really hope either Tony Northrup or the guy from TheCameraStoreTV will do a review on this lens, despite they dont know as much about PENTAX and available lenses as they think they do,
they have always been very fair when reviewing.


Yes i really think its a shame, that we dont get ANY dispassionate, sober, informative and serious reviews on that lens, because THIS LENS is really THAT GOOD and
it really shows that PENTAX is back on the mat and really means it this time.


Because whatever one may say about CAs visible at 200% zoom coming from very harsh lighting conditions like pointing the center directly into the center direction of the sun and a lot of surfaces the reflects flaring and unpolarized light anyway,
looking at the fast Autofocus, other facts and the image results, there is no way around to see that this is a real contender which lets other makers 50mil look stone-age old.


So I am already very very excited what the next step in the right direction will look like... talking about a possible upcoming precedent-setting flagship APS-C DSLR or a second (faster) FF DSLR line.

But plz, can we get any serious reviewers to have a look at this lens?
like:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/camera-lens-reviews/pentax-hd-fa-50mm-f-1-4-sdm-aw-review/

[Zygonyx]

Fyi "the guy from the camera store TV" has closed its shop/editorial tv and is now hired by DPR.

[Mistral75]

Some news from Nokishita Camera concerning the Tokina opera 50 mm f/1,4 FF:

Twitter

• Formal announcement should take place soon
• Price at larger retailers (i.e. including both a discount compared to RRP and 8% Japanese VAT): ¥129,600 (1,130 USD) -it was ¥148,500 for the HD Pentax-D FA★ 50 mm f/1,4 SDM AW at the same retailers
• Expected availability is late October.

[zapp]

DFA* 70-200/2.8 not good enough ?

Family as in large aperture primes.

[Winder]

I dont agree about the 135mm. They stopped selling much decades ago...

Most manufacturers will disagree with you. Sigma has a new 135mm F/1.8. Sony is set to announce a new 135mm GM. The Zeiss Batis 135mm was released 2-3 years ago. The Canon 135mmL is still selling well. Nikon's answer is the 105mm F/1.4 which is even a more specialized lens. The 135mm gives you a 200mm on APS-C which makes it a pretty versatile focal length for both FF and APS-C. The Pentax A* 135mm F/1.8 is one of the most expensive and hardest to find vintage Pentax lenses. There is a reason for that. It is still a desirable focal length. If the price starts to fall fast then we know the demand is falling as well, but that hasn't been the case.

---------- Post added 09-23-18 at 11:19 AM ----------

The 7 years away prediction is awfully exaggerated, too.
Taking out the 135mm, there are 3 lenses to go - of which the 85mm is scheduled for 2019 and the others for "2019 or later" - the 50mm, of course, being already on the market.

And if the 85mm is delayed like the 50mm and the 70-200mm it will be 2020 before it hits the market. then another 2 years for the 35mm. Then another 2 years for the 24mm. That is the current pace that Ricoh is bringing lenses to the market. Its not an exaggeration. It's what they have a history of doing.

[Pål Jensen]

I never said that 135mm lenses werent useful. They are not selling well. Nikon and Canon have lots of lenses thar dont sell much. Pentax stopped making 135mm lenses because no one was buying them. Most cover this focal length with a zoom.
I would not expect a Pentax 135mm lens anytime soon or ever.

[Winder]

or the guy from TheCameraStoreTV will do a review on this lens, despite they dont know as much about PENTAX and available lenses as they think they do, they have always been very fair when reviewing.

The guys for CamerastoreTV are now reviewing for DPR, but they basically said in their last CamerastoreTV video that they weren't going to be reviewing Pentax anymore due to how the Pentax users act every time they do a review. They specifically call out this forum towards the end of the live stream when a viewer asks about a K-1 II review. Tony Northrup has made similar comments about how the Pentax fanboys act every time they review a Pentax product. Tony has also said that it is next to impossible to get a review sample from Pentax USA because they apparently have no marketing department to contact to send out samples. In his K-1 review he states that a Pentax user sent him the K-1 for review because after a couple of months of trying they couldn't get a reply from Ricoh.

[Kunzite]

And if the 85mm is delayed like the 50mm and the 70-200mm it will be 2020 before it hits the market. then another 2 years for the 35mm. Then another 2 years for the 24mm. That is the current pace that Ricoh is bringing lenses to the market. Its not an exaggeration. It's what they have a history of doing.

You can't take one example and make a history out of it.

The D FA* 50mm, besides the time needed for integrating the ring-type SDM (IIRC Mistral75 had this information), was postponed because of an issue with the barrel's strength discovered late in the process.
Give me a good reason to assume that they would have to solve both issues, for every following lens, just like it would be their first time. Until then, the D FA* 85mm is scheduled for 2019.

[Winder]

I never said that 135mm lenses werent useful. They are not selling well. Nikon and Canon have lots of lenses thar dont sell much. Pentax stopped making 135mm lenses because no one was buying them. Most cover this focal length with a zoom.
I would not expect a Pentax 135mm lens anytime soon or ever.

And people are snapping up the 560mm? If Pentax wants to get into the largest segment of the photographic market (photographing people) then they will have to have a lens between 85mm and 200mm. The D-FA* 70-200mm lens is an excellent lens. Its my favorite lens on the K-1. But when I put my Batis 135mm on the A9 the size, AF speed, sharpness of the APO design really stand out. As good as modern zooms are, primes are still king for many people.

---------- Post added 09-23-18 at 11:45 AM ----------

You can't take one example and make a history out of it.

The D FA* 50mm, besides the time needed for integrating the ring-type SDM (IIRC Mistral75 had this information), was postponed because of an issue with the barrel's strength discovered late in the process.
Give me a good reason to assume that they would have to solve both issues, for every following lens, just like it would be their first time. Until then, the D FA* 85mm is scheduled for 2019.

The 50mm is one example. The 70-200mm is a second example. I'm taking all the examples that I have. That is their history and I expect from them until they prove otherwise.

[Kunzite]

I'm taking all the examples that I have.

That's not even remotely true; you're cherry picking 2 convenient examples - except that the D FA* 70-200 doesn't support your "one lens every 2 years" theory.
You only have 2017.