Yes, it has that vintage feel but is nice and crisp as well ... a nicely judged shot for the treatment ... there is some strange blurring around the edges - What is all that about?

Hi joelineker, welcome. It would be good to know what lens you are interested in ... the site you linked to is clearly aimed at business users of video and film production equipment, and the lenses are mostly very specialised. There is the Samyang 85mm, very good, but it is manual focus and perhaps not the most usual early purchase of a new DSLR user ...

But of course you might well be looking to a specialised use .. so let us know, and we and try to advise or offer other options! OH, and what Pentax model did you get?

I love the low light sea scenes and silhouettes where the stark contrast works perfectly, and there's such richness in the skies.

The daylight beach scenes look rather too saturated with a red/orange tone ... Perhaps pulling this back would help ... Great to see you out and at it again!

There's a lovely depth to the light in these photos, rich colour and I especially like the fine control over brightness levels between ground and sky with perfect contrast.

I'll go for 1 as well, the posture is better and also the way she is gazing out to sea ...a beautiful capture.

No 6, in mono, is my favourite as well as the last. Great atmosphere and nice subdued processing.

Moody indeed, I especially like the sky on No2 and the lighting balance between sky and beach is nicely managed.

The last one there needed a bit of High Speed Sync flash

Yes, the OP asked about a 'dedicated fast sharp' portrait lens, and he already has a 55-300 which presumably is not doing the job ... I agree with John that the maximum aperture on this lens would be the key limitation for portraits. I'd have thought as a guide, at around the 50-70mm level you'd need 1.8 -2.4 and from 90mm onwards f2.8 would be wide enough?

The autofocus Tamron 90mm macro is on my wish list for portraits, and macro of course, not the least because AFAIK it has a FF image circle, as well as highly rated IQ.

Oh no Andrew, don't you have one of those lists of things you really want to experience before finally departing this existence ... You know the sort - drive a racing car, have a skydive, bungee jump, go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, go Full Frame ... ... I know, I know, I suppose you're right, FullFrame would just be a pointless indulgence, and as you've pointed out, the bills still have to be paid even in retirement!