In praise of the FA* 24mm f2.0

I had a discussion recently on Facebook about the FA* 24mm f2.0. The complaint being levelled against the lens by others, was that it lacked edge sharpness especially at wide or near wide open, and thus was not deserving of it's "star" appellation. This is not an unusual complaint made against this lens, and there is probably no other "star" lens that divides opinion as much as this one.

Lets get the facts out of the way first. The lens is already very sharp in the centre at f2.0 and gets to a peak at f5.6. Edge sharpness is different. It will be described in tests as poor/fair at f2.0, becomes good at f4.0, and peaks at very good only when f8 is used.

So those who say this is not a very good lens are right are they not ? Well, in my view they are missing the point about this lens completely, and the "point" of this lens is subject isolation. We all know that fast lenses give a narrow DOF and that is one reason they are prized. In respect of DOF this f2.0 lens is like any other f2.0 lens. But what makes this one different is that the edge sharpness has been deliberately kept subdued at the wide end of the aperture scale. This means you also get subject isolation in the focal plane itself, in addition to the depth of field.

It is for this reason that I think this lens is more than deserving of it's "star" status. For sure if you want to take a picture of a brick wall or a newspaper pinned to a wall (favoured by lens testers) you will need to stop down. Otherwise the lens is the wrong choice. But if you wish to explore a bit of Pentax magic and get unique results then this is a great historical lens to use. I present some pictures I took this afternoon in my garden which I hope displays the properties I refer to here.


IMGP0747 by Peter Schluter, on Flickr

IMGP0769 by Peter Schluter, on Flickr

IMGP0766 by Peter Schluter, on Flickr

IMGP0757 by Peter Schluter, on Flickr

IMGP0754 by Peter Schluter, on Flickr

IMGP0796 by Peter Schluter, on Flickr

Number 2 shows off the abilities of said lens, very nice Pschlute.
I tried to secure the same lens about a year and a half ago and the seller was asking for a hefty 500 Euros for it, which i thought was a bit steep, so i offered 400 but the seller just withdrew the advertisement.
I do not think but maybe i am wrong, in that the seller sold it, as there was no other inquiries on the add only mine.
I reckon a change of heart by the seller and just couldn't , but I will never know

If that Land Rover is yours, thank you, pays my pension.

Haha, you are welcome.

Some lenses got a reputation as average wide open, but very sharp when the opening is small. Until somebody realized that the focal plane wasn't flat on some of these lenses. Could it be the case with this lens. It might be worth looking into...

This lens was produced in the same period as lenses like the FA* 85mm 1.4; FA* 80-200; and FA* 28-70. I cannot believe that the features of this lens (very sharp centre at f2.0, soft edges) were not designed that way from the outset.

When you consider that the lens was designed by Jun Hirakawa - those features are not unlike the philosophy behind the FA Limited lenses (2 of which were designed by Jun) this pair of images (1st @ f2.2 and 2nd @ F9) show that beautiful softness and sharpness it can achieve. I always felt that the colours produced by this lens had a something special about them - natural, warm, almost muted - personally I felt it justified the Star status

Nice ones John. Yes that makes a lot of sense.

I have always liked this lens for what it does, rather than dislike it for what it does not do.