D FA★50mmF1.4

LINK

Looks like they're tackling the 'sharp wide open' lenses that other brands are making. I held off buying the DA* 55 that was in the Ads section here as I felt the FA77 should be fine for the time being.

I wonder whether this lens can deliver pixie dust... I value that over objective sharpness and IQ

That's quite large for a 50mm lens, hopefully it will be at the Photography Show next month.

Great to see Pentax maintaining its primacy with top end glass.

I'd be surprised if it's at next months show - I believe that the photos are of a mock-up, and there's no real specification or pricing as yet - it could be a lengthy "tease"

It will be interesting to see how much better it is than the DA*55 - for me the 55 is a superbly high IQ'd lens, the D FA* will need to be pretty special, and I suspect the price tag will be special too

According to the headline at the link, this is an exhibit at CP+2017 So we should know more in the next couple of days.

It's twice the length of the 1:1.2, which is very odd. Why?

The days of 6 or 7 element 50mm lenses are long gone at the high end of things. With all the aspheric elements, ED and Super ED glasses and highly complex designs, plus inbuilt focusing motors, lenses are getting bigger.

It looks like the Pentax userbase are pretty divided at the prospect of such a large lens.

The 'classic' Pentax look will always be available with our older lenses so I think it's good to also embrace the age of numbers and lab testing.

Ah, progress!

Bigger, heavier, more expensive, larger filters, more to go wrong.

It'll be interesting to see whether the improvement in image quality is sufficient to offset all the negatives.

Although I do appreciate that a camera with 36 megapixels deserves a sharp lens. Otherwise, it's rather a waste of a big sensor.

One thing with this, Ricoh must have considered that sales of the K-1 must have been sufficient to make it worth pursuing investment in FF or they wouldn't be doing this. This is after the previous brand owners have said for twenty years no one would want a full frame camera!
I must say this new 50mm lens looks huge so suspect they're going for ultimate resolution with this as the more compact film FA's etc are plentiful. No real point in re-inventing the wheel!
Given a few years I suspect things will circle round as they always do and they'll release an MX/ME FF digital with a range of new M style lenses for it. It'll be a way of boosting further sales. They've just done that with APS-C with release of the KP. FF will surely follow suit?

It's a beast of a thing for sure. I must admit to lamenting the loss of the Pentax way with regards to size and discretion with the new D FA's - but the market led by the 'typical internet expert' is demanding sharpness over all else which means that glass and size are thrown at the problem ala Zeiss with the OTUS range and Sigma with their ART range. Minor rant over...
Saying all that, they are committing to High Resolution, High Contrast and smooth Bokeh which sounds like they are actually gunning for the OTUS is this instance. The Sigma is High Res but contrast can suffer and the Sigma ART 35 can misbehave with Out of Focus rendering if you can get it to focus (little dig at Sigma)
So if they can sort out the optics which after seeing what the D FA*70-200 is capable of, I am very confident that they can do, the next thing is the motors... This thing will need to focus like a terrier chasing a ferret, no hesitation, no dawdling and with accuracy to compete with the other OEMs (Canon, Nikon and Olympus) - a big part of the reason Pentax get slammed for AF is that our lens motors are behind the game with regards speed and torque. So I am hoping that part of the size increase is bigger, better, meatier motors.
That leaves the FF concept in a pretty good place then, they have the 3 f/2.8 zooms covering 15-200, a fast 50, a fast 85 with a wider fast lens in the 28-35 range still to be announced. A heavy bag to be sure but optically what our loud typing 'typical internet expert' is demanding for Pentax to be taken seriously. For those that prefer a lens that can be more demanding of the user and will be a lot smaller and more discrete then the 31/1.8, 43/1.9 and 77/1.8 are still alive and kicking and are still more than capable of delivering stellar results on the K-1 but they are not designed to be used against test charts or walls

I do like the overall look of the new 1.4/50 though and while I do not see it replacing the 43, it may well have a place in my bag alongside.