ultimate portrait lens collection ?

The four brothers united for possibly the last time......




Each brother has his own unique character, the FA* 85 is probably my favourite, but any of the others can give him a run for his money in the right situation. The A* is up for sale and one of the others will probably join him soon

A nice image. Always a pleasure to see professional tools displayed.

Best regards

Wow! Lenny, can you give a quick recommendation for the 55 1.4? I've so far seen more negatives to it than positives (but not by a large margin).

Hi Opethian, the DA* 55 is an excellent lens but if you're going to buy it be sure that you check it out with your own camera first or that you can return it if not satisfied. Here is my original post on the subject... https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/da--55mm-f1-4-16392 ... The copy I have eventually worked baeautifully on my K20D - on my K5 it needed a +10 fine focus adjustment to get the equivalent results.

There has been some discussion about a second hand one of these at Cash Converters ( http://webshop.cashconverters.co.uk/auction-item/442723/pentax-55mm-lens- ) for £359 - a really good price - if you can establish whether they would accept a return if you weren't happy then it could turn out to be a brilliant buy.

I find 85 a better length for my type of portraiture, but the 55 has a lot going for it. I would definitely recommend it

Cheers sir!

Hi Lenny, nice collection....lots of people mention that FA77 and A*85 share similar optical design. Do you find them performing in a similar way?

I've not had the FA77 long enough to give it a proper workout, but it is certainly more similar to the A*85 than either the FA*85 or the DA*55. The FA77 is more useable at maximum aperture than the A*85 is (the A* has a bit more purple fringeing), the A*85 may be slightly better at distance - the FA* and DA* are IMO better at shorter distances.

Yep, i would kinda agree on this..

To me, think of it this way:

A*85 @ f/1.8 (stopped down) = Fa77 @ 1.8

Stopping down the A*85 to f/1.8 also reduces the PF and whatnots... LoL! Imagine, manual only Fa77.. That's all..
Though not sure how the Fa77 will compare wide open to an A*85 stopped down to f/1.8

What're you planning to do? Sell them off?

I think the FA 77 is a winner!