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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-06-2020, 02:51 PM
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We are all waiting. Don't have much choice.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-05-2020, 09:17 PM
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-05-2020, 09:13 AM
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Has there been any update on the release of this lens?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-29-2019, 10:56 AM
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As the AF points spread out to cover 90% of the frame, the lenses have to keep up. If lenses get soft towards the edge then those AF points become pretty pointless. For AF to be fast and responsive they need to make the focusing element as small and light as possible. As you can see below the AF motors and the rack add a good bit to the size.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-29-2019, 10:19 AM
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I don't think you will see them as compact as the film era lenses. The film era lenses had screw drive AF motors in the body, so there was no AF motor in the lens and those early screw drive AF lenses were basically manual focus lenses with some minor modification. The resolution of film and the AF accuracy of early cameras was both seriously lacking compared to modern digital sensors and AF. The Sony A9 checks and adjusts AF 60 times per-second and that is not something old screw driven could keep up with. AF lenses from just 5 years ago can't keep up with that. The need for higher resolution glass with more correction will make the lenses larger, but the need to have fast accurate AF is what will really make the lenses larger. Unless Ricoh releases manual focus Limited glass, they will be larger.
I would love to see a manufacturer release a mirrorless body that didn't even have AF and a line of modern manual focus lenses like the Zeiss Loxia and the Voightlander 50mm F/2 APO..... One not made by Leica.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
11-02-2019, 08:42 AM
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About the same as Ricoh actually releasing the lens this year. I will be surprised if we see the D-FA* 85mm before Summer 2020.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-13-2019, 06:14 PM
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-12-2019, 06:03 PM
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Is this version of the KP going to be available outside of Japan?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-10-2019, 10:02 PM
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I don't think you are reading the MTF chart correctly. The Pentax is better at the edges at F/1.4, but that is pretty much the only advantage. They are measured on different sensors, but the difference between 36MP and 42Mp is not very much at all. The Sony wins across the board at center sharpness. At f/1.4 the Sony is at almost 4,000 LW/HP while the Pentax is @3,300. I don't care much about MTF charts, but both lenses are very sharp and more than enough. If we could equalize for the difference in the sensors the difference in sharpness would be irrelevant.
They (ePHOTOzine) are testing for LaCA which is relatively simple to fix in post and usually done automatically. DPR is commenting on LoCA which is not easy to fix at all with most photo editing software. Or to quote DRP "Unlike lateral CA, longitudinal CA is virtually impossible to correct.". A touch of LoCA at F/1.4 would be completely acceptable, but The Pentax lens is showing LoCA up to F/4. That is a little bit much. ePHOTOzine doesn't appear to be testing for LoCA at all. LoCA is the green/purple fringing of the boken and for people planning on shooting wide open, this is a big deal.
DPR has not tested the Sony-Zeiss 50mm F/1.4. They posted a comparison between the 50mm F/1.4 and the 55mm F/1.4, but I think that data was provided by Lens Rentals. Lens Rentals | Blog Can you post a link to the sample images you are referring to?
DPR takes a lot of pictures that they never post in the review. When looking at how crappy the sample images are on DPR, realize that you are looking at their best images. The reason you don't see a lot of backlit samples on the Sigma review page is because there wasn't anything to show. In one thread over at DPR one of the testers said they typically take over 1,000 images during a review and only 50 might get posted. The Sigma 50mm ART is too big in my opinion, but it is optically very good and well corrected. LoCA is basically none existent.
It is hard to produce a lens that has high contrast and sharpness and still have buttery smooth bokeh. After using the 100mm STF for a year I do look at bokeh differently that I use to. The STF elements allow for high contrast, sharpness and great color on the subject, but soften the bokeh up at the expense of 2-stops of light loss. The new 135mm GM is super sharp and has a very high degree of contrast. The images really pop, but when you have specular highlights, the bokeh ball are also sharp (very defined edges) and high contrast, which is not ideal in my opinion. You get a soap bubble look to the bokeh balls. Not every image has bright specular highlights, so its usually not a problem, but you see this in most of the modern glass.
The Sony 85mm GM is not heavily corrected for LoCA and it shows in tests. By allowing for a little more LoCa you do get a softer hazier look to the Bokeh. I'm not a fan of it in the 85mm GM (I don't own it). Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM Lens Review I think Ricoh made a design choice to allow for more LoCa in order to achieve softer bokeh, but I also think they went too far. I can see having a little at F/1.4, but by F/2.8 it needs to be cleared up. Pentax 50mm is still showing it at F/4 which is too much in my opinion and given that this is a STAR lens, I would expect better. This only effect high contrast item that are out of focus, so it won't be an issue most of the time. It's more of an issue for F/1.4 natural light or HSS portrait shooters. That sparkly ear ring that is slightly out of focus is going to show a green fringe. When I would shoot music venues with my old Sigma 85mm F/1.4 on the K-1 the out of focus microphone in front of the singers face would have a purple fringe to it that I could not correct without messing up the rest of the image.... Which is one reason so many of those images got turned to B&W. This is one reason I love the Batis 135mm APO. Anyone shooting musician should want a highly corrected lens. There is too much chrome on drum sets, guitars, microphones.... Shooting music venues you are going to be wide open and LoCA is going to be an issue. I would rather have a little more structure to my bokeh that I can soften in post than have softer bokeh and more LoCA that I can't fix in post. Just my personal opinion. For most people the LoCA won't be an issue most of the time.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-09-2019, 08:54 AM
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LOL you guys crack me up.
Do you have a video showing that the Sony-Zeiss 50mm F/1.4 is 30-50% slower than the Pentax D-FA* 50mm F/1.4 in terms of focusing? You post a video shot with an older A7RII in video mode and try to pass that off as relevant. I promise you that the Sony-Zeiss 50mm F/1.4 is very fast on my A9. AF speed on mirrorless bodies is very much dependent on the body used and Sony has made huge improvements in AF speed with each generation. The first generation of A7 cameras were completely awful in terms of AF performance. Even worse than Pentax. I'm guessing you don't even realize what you posted. But as you said. If you don't have images, its just lies. So show me a video of the Sony-Zeiss 50mm on a modern Sony body compared to the Pentax D-FA* 50mm.
Here is a review from a Canon guy.
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The problem with your whole argument is that even if the Sony-Zeiss 50mm were an awful lens, that don't make the Pentax D-FA* a good lens. I never said the Pentax D-FA* 50mm was a bad lens. I said that STAR lenses should have a higher standards.
I'm not a Sony fanboy. If something comes along that does the job better than the A9 I'm don't have any issue with switching to Panasonic, Fuji, Olympus, Pentax, or even Nikon. I think the build quality and ergonomics of the A7/A9 bodies is pretty poor at best, but I can't argue with the results (prints). I'm not a fan of Sony by any means. Since buying Minolta they have had a history of stumbling and failure in the camera business. It's not until they produced the A7 line (as bad as the first generation was) that they found something that worked, and that appears to have been by accident. There are several things that Sony does poorly, but the technology (AF), image quality, and lenses are exceptional. They have a couple of lenses that fall below expectations (SZ 24-70 F/2.8 & SZ 35mm F/2.8 for example), but most of them are really good.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-08-2019, 09:40 PM
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I still have some Pentax gear. I still have my D-FA* 70-200mm and one of my K-1 bodies.
I don't buy lenses based on MTF curves or brick walls, so you might very well be right. The Sigma 85mm ART also has an excellent MTF chart, problems with LoCa, and often busy bokeh. There are better options for the money. Please post the MTF chart for the D-FA* 50mm and I'll see if I can find one for my Sony-Zeiss 50mm F/1.4.
I have shot with 5 Sigma ART lens including the 50mm ART, so not quite half of the line. I will probably buy the 105mm ART. I don't see much need any buying any of the others for my needs.
How many of the Sigma ART lenses have you shot with?
The reason I am critical of Ricoh is because I want them to do better. No lens with the STAR designation should have that much LoCA. I'll say the same for Canon and the new 50mm F/1.2 RF. No top of the line lens should show fringing that bad. The Canon is 2x the price and is just as bad as the Pentax. I understand if the plastic fantastic has some bad LoCA, but not a STAR lens or an L series from Canon. I don't have any loyalty for any brand. I was kind of looking at the Panasonic S1R and exploring that system, but after using it for a brief period of time, I was pretty unimpressed. I really expected to like it. My biggest complaint about Sony is the poor ergonomics and small bodies. It looked like Panasonic addressed both of those issues, but I was not impressed with the handling or the AF of the new Panasonic FF bodies.
Pentax users should be pretty unhappy with a STAR lens being uncorrected for LoCA. The standards should be higher because historically Pentax STAR glass has been some of the best you could buy for any system. I guess Ricoh is just using it for marketing at this point and some Pentax users don't care.
---------- Post added 06-08-19 at 11:41 PM ----------
:lol::lol::lol:
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-08-2019, 11:38 AM
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I'm a little disappointed in the Pentax D-FA* 50mm, so I'll temper my expectations on the D-FA* 85mm. The D-FA* 50mm ended up being bigger and heavier than the Sigma ART 50mm which was already too big. When I first bought the 778 gram Sony Zeiss 50mm F/1.4 I thought it was too big for a 50mm, but Sigma took the crown for the biggest and heaviest at 815 grams, until the Pentax D-FA* arrived at 910 grams, but then Panasonic said "Here. Hold my beer." and produced the massive 955 grams 50mm f/1.4. There is no reason for a modern 50mm F/1.4 to have much LoCA. Ricoh would be better off partnering with Sigma to make their lenses than Tokina. The Canon 50mm f/1.2 RF would be another lens that I am pretty disappointed in. The RF is 950 grams and also has issues with LoCA and it a $2,000 lens, but it is F/1.2 for what is worth. The Panasonic is bigger, heavier, & more expensive, but CA is basically none existent.
We can hope the D-FA* 85mm exceeds expectations, but if they are working with Tokina on it, I probably wouldn't get my hopes up. You're probably better off finding a used Sigma 85mm F/1.4 in K-mount. That is an excellent lens and you can pick up a copy for $800.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-27-2019, 02:01 PM
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AF accuracy would improve for one thing. There would be no need to calibrate lenses. There are a lot of advantages that I like and some disadvantages that I don't mind.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-27-2019, 01:22 PM
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They both look great. I'm not a KP fan, but I do like the look of that one with the wooden grip. Maybe Ricoh will take the mirror out and put an EVF in it. Then it would be an awesome little camera.
The D-FA* l85mm will be an excellent lens like all of the D-FA* lenses, but until I see much improved AF and a FF body that is basically faster in every way, I will have to pass. That hybrid OVF patent needs to make it to market.
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