new Macro lens

To clarify, what I found was that there was a useful (significant) difference between the latest high quality zooms, digital designs or not, and much older and relatively mundane prime lenses.

So for example the SMC Pentax-A 50mm f2 clearly outresolved the newer 24-90mm and 18-55mm lenses at f8. At f2 it was relatively soft.

The point was to establish whether or not it really was worth using older manual focus primes on the *istDS. My conclusion was that it probably was where the very best quality was required. There is no implication or comparison in the tests I was performing as regards film or any comparison between film and digital.

To do a full comprehensive lens test would require a lot of work....

Interesting....... I have all primes except for the FA 28-70 f/4 and the new 16-45 f/4. A little slow for my taste, but every lens I have is sharp as a tack and has minimal distortion, zooms or primes.

So, my zooms are the newfangled AF lenses, my primes are old M and A lenses. Perhaps this bears out the theory that modern zooms can be as sharp as older primes?

But the 50 f/1.4 A lens seems to be absouutely top-class. I see no need to buy a plasticky new FA 50 1.4. And the 16-45 only works on the *st D, which is probably just as well since it'd crop out the full size frame on the MX cameras.