Mark, Some may not realize, but with the focus clutch design, you can manually focus the FA * lenses by simply pulling the clutch and focusing - you don't have to disengage the body af switch. Can be very handy for touch up focusing - much more like the Canon USM lenses.
Bruce Tuesday, September 16, 2003, 8:37:42 AM, you wrote: ME> Keith, ME> The FA* lenses have the following properties: ME> o) They are faster than non-FA* lenses. ME> o) They are sharp (at least, the ones I own are). ME> o) Their build quality is generally very solid. ME> My best 35mm hand-held shots have been with my FA* 85mm F1.4 ME> lens. It is a _wonderful_ indoor portrait/action lens. ME> Images shot wide-open are very smooth and have a certain ME> glow to them that I really like. That said, I haven't had ME> a chance to compare this lens to, say, the 85mm F1.8 ME> lens. ME> --Mark ME> keith wrote: >> Still, a question arises, do the 'Star' lenses in general >> offer the average shooter any particular advantage over a >> non-star lens? I mean, aside from the advertising hype, >> what's the truth... would you or I see a difference in our images? >> >> This is purely an academic question for me, as with all >> the Pentax bodies and lenses I own, I don't use an automatic >> Pentax body, but I'm still curious. >> >>keith
