Originally posted by Adam I personally prefer the 1.7 over the 1.4, and would generally agree with that claim. AF performance is similar.
I'd say the difference is significant enough to price the 1.7 higher than the 1.4.
They are both great lenses. I own them both at the moment, but just sold the FA50/1.4 in the Marketplace this morning. It was a tough decision on which to sell, but I needed to free up some funds to buy more lenses (and I already bought an FA77 earlier this afternoon).
Anyway, here are some images of the two lenses side-by-side. Obviously this doesn't take into account which lens has a better bokeh or color. I also wouldn't call this a scientific test, but I did make an effort to control most of the important variables. I would say the 1.7 is sharper between 1.7 and 2.4, but perhaps the more important point to take away is just how much of a difference a lens hood can make, especially for the 1.4. (For the record, I don't actually own a lens hood for the FA50, I just borrowed the hood from my 50-200 and held it in front of the lens.)
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f=1.7
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f=2.0
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f=2.4
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f=2.8
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100% crops are here:
fa50_test Photo Gallery by dgaies at pbase.com