Originally posted by jersey Plastic fantastic smc Pentax-DA 35mm F2,4 AL. Was toying with idea of getting a 21mm but somehow could not convince myself to it. All my other lenses are zooms: kit, then some tele etc. but 35mm is the king of the day. I take out zooms only for specific photos - when I shoot birds or if I'm going to shot trains in places where I cannot get close to railway. I think it is because I used 53mm for most of my life, so I'm kind stuck in this focal length. May replace plastic with limited at some day, but it will still be 35mm
The DA 35 2.4 is a great lens. I also prefer the "normal" field of view for every day pictures.
I liked it so much that I thought, I need to buy the Sigma 30 1.4 to have a "fast nifty fifty" equivalent on APS-C. I found a great deal on an Art copy and was able to get that. While it's better than the Plastic Fantastic on some aspects (it goes to f1.4 and of course the bokeh will then be better), on others it's not - it's just different. They both render great colors and have great sharpness.
Like you, I decided to save for a DA 21mm - three times now. The first time I actually had the DA 21mm Limited for 2 weeks (on a trade with a DA 16-45 plus cash). Both me and the buyer had buyer regret and we decided to undo the transaction. I wasn't all that impressed with the 21mm over the DA 16-45 at that focal range.
The 2nd time I had about 180 saved already and a DA 35 Limited showed up for 179 shipped... so guess what
Being a fan of the Normal FOV I snapped it up. It's a great lens and again, it has advantages over the DA 35 2.4 but it's not necessarily better - just different (Limited goes down to 1:1 macro and has more contrast and color saturation and slightly better bokeh and it's slightly larger, but 35 2.4 has only slightly better sharpness and microcontrast, at least that's my impression).
The 3rd time... this week I had again a bit saved up from lenses I sold at few months ago and my DA 16-45 has been acting up (wobble getting worse and worse) - so I have been comparing a lot of standard zoom pictures and almost bought a Tamron 17-50 or Pentax 17-70 at one point, but seeing how cheap DA*16-50 copies have been going I decided to put an ad in the Wanted section to see if I could get a good copy for a price I can afford and... there's one on my way now...
I don't know if I'll ever get that 21mm. It seems like a great idea to own one but like you I just can't seem to convince myself to commit to buying one!
So for now I'm keeping my 3 "normal" lenses - the 35 Limited and Plastic Fantastic, and the Sigma 30 Art. If I don't mind carrying the weight I'll take the Sigma, but all 3 are to me equally capable of taking great pictures, they just each do something that the others can't and that's how I justify keeping them
(Oh and I also have an SMC-M 28mm f/3.5 that is also technically a normal lens on APS-C... I got that for 39 dollars and it has mind-blowing colors and great sharpness so how could I not keep it? lol....)