| Latest Review Posted | SMC Pentax-DA* 55mm F1.4 SDM
I think I'm one of the lucky ones where I haven't needed to do the fine adjustment. Woot!
Everything you've read about the image quality and sharpness of this lens from past reviews rings true. Price wise it is a hard pill to swallow especially with the slow AF. If the AF was screwdrive quick, I'd be more than happy to swallow the high price. I find the AF is fairly quick (not screwdrive quick) when changing focus between objects that aren't distanced too far apart and it also seems to depend on the type of light you're using.
So say I have 3 cars and they're spread out evenly within 10m (using this distance to illustrate a point; not a real world distance), the AF is fairly quick. Spread them out evenly over 100m, the AF becomes noticeably slower. In natural bright sunlight it feels quicker (haven't done too much sunlit shots thanks to the continuous rain) but bring it indoors it feels slower. It reminds me of the AF of the 100mm L Macro from Canon.
Having said that, I've found the focusing more responsive compared to my 21 Ltd when you move forward or backward a minute amount; whether you're in single or continuous shot mode the focusing quickly adjusts so much better compared to the 21 Ltd.
The other downside is the CA. Depending on what you're shooting and the light direction, you can see it by the truck loads or it's next to non-existent. I've used it between 1.4 through to 2.8 and there's usually a hint of CA somewhere but it's nothing that PP can't fix. Use... |
