[Canada_Rockies]

I don't leave my house without this lens!

Christopher - I hate you. I thought I had LBA under control until I saw this shot.

[JonasM]

DA*55mm

[Chr1st0ph3r]

LOL! Thanks Canada Rockies!! The 60-250mm is "addictive"...if such a thing exists :-)

[axl]

And I'm out again.
After direct controlled shoot out between DA*55 and K50/1.2 I have to say that I like the K much better so I'm taking the DA* back to shop...
Shame because I really wanted to like this one.... oh well

[Asahiflex]

And I'm out again.
After direct controlled shoot out between DA*55 and K50/1.2 I have to say that I like the K much better so I'm taking the DA* back to shop...
Shame because I really wanted to like this one.... oh well

Interesting move

Care to tell us what you liked more about the K50/1.2 (apart from build quality, which apparently is better on the K)? Is it bokeh? Sharpness?

[axl]

Interesting move

Care to tell us what you liked more about the K50/1.2 (apart from build quality, which apparently is better on the K)? Is it bokeh? Sharpness?

It was a tough one.
The DA* has tad better sharpness wide open and better contrast, but the K has better bokeh all the way from 1.2 to 5.6. It seems that guys at Pentax went bit over the top with corrections with the DA*55 and as results the OOF rendering suffers quite a bit IMO.

To show what I mean a quick set of pics:

DA* @1.4


K50/1.2 @1.2


K20/1.2 @1.4


These are 100% crops.
The figurine on the right side was the focusing point.
Please notice the highlight circles on the left and the part of the figurine right above the focus point. On both f stops the "old lady" wins IMO...

[Asahiflex]

Interesting comparison, thanks! Though you should have moved the DA* a bit further from the subject (or the K closer to the subject) to have the same FOV. This certainly would have changed the OOF highlight bokeh. Too bad you can't re-do this test and I don't have the K50/1.2.

[axl]

I could re-do the test but it wouldn't help the DA*. Those circular highlights appear more often and much stronger than with K50 in many real life shots. I have to say, it's not a bad lens. And FA43ltd is just about the same in this respect. But the smoothness of K50 is just beyond capabilities of those two IMO...

[Asahiflex]

I'll try to find a cheap K55/1.8 (why did I sell mine? ) to see how things are at f/1.8.

[axl]

I'll try to find a cheap K55/1.8 (why did I sell mine? ) to see how things are at f/1.8.

I'll gladly sell you mine: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/photographic-equipment-sale/104280-sale-s...-hood-eur.html

but the results at f1.8 are still nothing to match the K50/1.2..
here it is, from the same shootout:
K55/1.8 @ 1.8


the rendering is much more similar to K50/1.2 and wide open the OOF highlights are better than those of DA*55 IMO but this lens falls apart terribly once stopped down. From 2.8 to 5.6 or so those highlights circles become nasty hexagons. In this respect it's worst out of those three

[Asahiflex]

Again very interesting, thanks!

Now I'm thinking to compare the DA* to the 58mm f/2 Takumar. The Tak will surely lose in the sharpness department, but what would happen to the bokeh?

Anyway: I can only say I liked the DA* when I last used it. It did not show worse OOF highlights when I compared it to the SMC Pentax-F 50mm f/1.4 (which I just sold in favor of the DA*).

[axl]

That is entirely possible (I mean the comparison with F50) I did quick comparison of DA*55 with FA50/1.4 in shop and the OOF was nearly identical. Although if I'm correct F50 has 8 blades and FA and DA* have 9...
I'd be interested in seeing comparison with the 58mm Tak! and perhaps Nokton 58/1.4 do you have one?

[Asahiflex]

Well, I screwed things up (shot in JPEG, 2MP on my K-7). So no good whitebalancing

Nevertheless, here are the comparison shots (for the bokeh and OOF highlights, not sharpness or color accuracy). I tried to keep the horse figurine the same size by moving the tripod.

First at f/2 with three lenses: Takumar 58/2 ('Sonnar'), K50/1.4 and DA*55/1.4

T58/2 ('Sonnar') @ f/2


K50/1.4 @ f/2


DA* 55/1.4 @ f/2



Now the K50/1.4 and DA* 55/1.4 at f/1.4:

K50/1.4 @ f/1.4


DA* 55/1.4 @ f/1.4

[pspentax]

Well, I screwed things up (shot in JPEG, 2MP on my K-7). So no good whitebalancing

Nevertheless, here are the comparison shots (for the bokeh and OOF highlights, not sharpness or color accuracy). I tried to keep the horse figurine the same size by moving the tripod.

First at f/2 with three lenses: Takumar 58/2 ('Sonnar'), K50/1.4 and DA*55/1.4

A little dificult to chose

[JonasM]

DA*55mm