WHAT!!!??? There are about 150 PDMLer's who would disagree with you there,
I won't be surprised. This is not the 1st time, and won't be the last either. :-)
Mr. Chan. It has been voted the most popular Pentax lens ever on several polls, and it is my personal favorite lens. It is very sharp, and contrasty, and at f8 it is sharp from 1.2 feet to
The Sigma 24/2.8 has higher contrast if it matters. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the FA*24 sucks, just not as great as many claimed.
infinity. And I have a bunch of 16x20's to prove it, the quality of which approaches medium format. It is even sharp mounted backwards as a 4:1 macro if you can control the focus with a geared head or macro rail set.
Your comments on the FA* 85 are somewhat exaggerated, also. It is optimized for close distances, as it is a specialized portrait lens, and it is softer at or near infinity than in its optimal range, but it definitely does not 'suck' at any distance. And at portrait distances it is superb.
I think it sucks at near infinity, and I found that out when I was doing landscape with it. The FA77 is better performer overall. If it was optimized for near distance only, at least Pentax should say so. At least nobody would expect a $8xx lens would perform well at near distance only.
We are all entitled to our opinions, but geez!
Just trying to keep the list alive... :-)
Alan Chan http://www.pbase.com/wlachan
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