Originally posted by Igilligan You will get a lot of fanboys telling you how great the FA 50 and how crappy the canon 50 1.8 is... take it with a grain.
Actually, having extensive experience with both lenses, the Canon on a T1i, the Canon 50mm 1.8 is quite inferior. Hands down. No contest.
Originally posted by Igilligan The 50 f2 you have is the worst of the bunch though. It is a pretty soft lens. Any of the 50 1.7 or 1.4 mf lenses will spank it.
I have used cheap mf lenses almost exclusively for the last year and a half with my K100d and k20d and I love them. The Helios 44m - Vivitar 28 close focus - Tair 135 2.8 -- SMC Tak 50 1.4... They all blow the glass off of the Pentax FA 50 1.4 or Canon 50 1.8.
And I spent 20 - 60 bucks for them.
If you do end up buying a AF prime lens for Kx... forget the fa 50 at 360 bucks and opt for the DA 40 2.8 ltd. pancake instead.
Unless of course money is no object... In that case go for the the DA 35... it rocks
THOSE are excellent suggestions. The DA 40mm is an outstanding lens at almost any price. DA 35 is even better.
Originally posted by Myoptimism Pentax-f 50mm 1.7
You can usually find this lens used on Ebay for $125-150. VERY, VERY sharp lens (I have owned the cheap Canon 1.8, and I know it is sharp as well) and the build quality is better than the Canon (the Pentax lens is uglier though, imo
) It only has five aperture blades though (if I remember correctly), so the bokeh isn't always the best when stopped down a little (again, like the Canon, if I remember correctly).
Fantastic advice. I've owned the F 50 1.7 and it is a dreamy lens to work with. The center sharpness is good on the Canon, but the edge and corners are typically poor by comparison. The sharpness of the Canon lens peaks at near 5.6 also. Kinda useless to have a fast lens if it will be horribly soft at wide aperture. Just 'cause it has a wide aperture, don't mean it's useful.
Originally posted by Ratmagiclady As a Canon FD loyalist, I'd actually be pretty shocked if the Canon 1.8 design suddenly became in a *league* with the FA 50, actually. I've used every variant of that lens *till* EOS, and... Well.
They always made a nice 1.4, themselves, though, if that's important.
Pentax is not really in a fancy flash automation sort of place, though, but even a KX can trigger the setup you seem to have, as well as anything else. It's an entry-level camera, though, and AFAIK doesn't have a PC socket like the K10/20/7.
Sadly, these observations I can confirm. Which brings me to the big confusion about the OP's original post... Choosing the K-x based on high ISO performance, yet having an elaborate flash setup. Flash photography I would expect wouldn't require need for high ISO capability.