The point still stands though: presumably Canada also charges import duty when the lenses are brought into there (since they're made in Vietnam or some other Place That Isn't Canada ), and Canada also has sales tax albeit possibly at a lower rate (in Ontario I think it works out as about 13% total IIRC). So why does Pentax charge more than the price of a return flight in difference between its Canadian vs UK prices?

PS: The dealers don't make any more money on Pentax lenses than they do on any other brand - it's the price that Pentax sells the lenses to them for which is at fault.

It's also more expensive and less powerful than the Metz 48

He did have two lenses for sale in the Marketplace this week

[quote="The eBay listing"]In case of purchasing more than one item, the shipping cost will be reduced. For futher information please contact us.[/quote]Hmm, they seem to be under the genuine impression that someone with the money to spend £24k on a lens is likely to be fussed over a £50 delivery charge

DA*:
Sharper and better contrast wide open
Quick Shift (ie you can still use the focus ring in AF mode)
Designed specifically as a 'portrait lens' (the typical use of a 50 on digital) - so more aperture blades for better bokeh for example
Weather sealed (I think)

FA:
Cheaper
Lighter?
Doesn't rely on Pentax's (dodgy) SDM motor for focusing
Can be used on film cameras (if you have one ofc)
Presumably less vignetting at larger apertures since it's a film/FF lens

Another option, if you're feeling lucky, is the Sigma 50. It is cheaper than both the FA and DA* (the former could be had for £300 at SRS until recently, but they're gone) and has much better sharpness/contrast wide open than the FA (it is also designed as a wide-open portrait lens like the DA*). However there are two major caveats to this: the first is that it's (relatively) quite heavy at about 500g, the second is that it is notorious for front/back-focusing.

Now the first problem is down to your opinion: do you want to have a prime that can be pocketed or taken around in a small bag, without weighing you down, or do you want better wide-open quality in a less-portable package?

The second is a flaw rather than a mere downside, and has not been 'fixed in later batches' as reported in some places (I bought one from SRS in January which suffered badly). The solution to this is to buy from a dealer which pays for return postage on faulty items (IIRC both SRS and Park do this - though best to email them before ordering to confirm).

Hehe I suspect you put this one in just to prove it wasn't Pentax-specific. I don't think either Sigma or Tamron have ever managed to come up with anything quite so pathetic as Pentax's SDM-RROD

Returning back on topic, this is a great guide. If anything I would add a section explaining IS - why it matters, the fact that some bodies do it in-camera and others do it in-lens, and also whether (for the in-lens systems ie Canikon) what sorts of shooter should prioritise IS over other aspects when purchasing a lens. For example on Canon the recommendation is (assuming that £1000-ish is the person's top budget) for action photographers to go for the 70-200 f2.8 non-IS (since IS can't stop subject movement) but other photographers to go for the 70-400 f4 IS.

They both have advantages, and you have to decide which you value more.

FA77:
*Speed
*Slight edge in sharpness?

DA70:
*Price
*Lightness
*Quick shift
*The £300 you save can go towards another lens, which might make more of a difference to your photography than the differences in IQ between these two

Or maybe a Samyang/Polar (and they go by a couple of other names too) 8mm? Don't know how much those go for though.

Just so long as it isn't made as well as the 50 - ie not very well at all

I'm fairly sure that Sigma (though it might have been Tamron) released one of their OS standard zooms in Pentax mount, but I'm not aware of any comparisons online.

As regards the original topic, my only questions regarding this lens are likely to be 'how much?' (this, I suspect, will be the unfortunate sticking point) and 'are the HSM motors being made in a different factory from the ones in the 50 1.4?'

Plus an 8-16mm (!)

On the point of IS, what on earth is the point of IS'ing the Bigma? It isn't as if something of that weight can be handheld anyway.

More generally, it seems that the 'FLD' name for their new elements really does expand to 'F Low Dispersion' in the sense of 'F is better than E'. That is absolute genius

The Metro had a fantastic article about this on Friday (I'm not sure which day the exact anniversary is, but they're primarily a "public transport commuters" paper so they covered it on Friday) with a few examples of Photoshop "oops" moments. Like a soldier in some warzone washing his leg, oblivious to the fact that he has three of them .