Comments made by pschlute - Page 24

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No. 7 for me....fascinating shapes.

Comment by pschlute posted on Close-ups in the snow at 16/02/2023 - 06:06

Canals always provide excellent opportunities as you show here. The winter weather adds to the interest.

Comment by pschlute posted on Even the canal was frozen ... at 15/02/2023 - 07:44

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.

Comment by pschlute posted on In praise of the FA* 24mm f2.0 at 09/02/2023 - 00:56

Nice. I don't think Pentax made any bad lenses in those days.

Comment by pschlute posted on A Spring Day almost. at 08/02/2023 - 15:48

pentaxian450 wrote:
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.

Comment by pschlute posted on In praise of the FA* 24mm f2.0 at 08/02/2023 - 08:57

I liked that... was like the start of a spooky movie !

Comment by pschlute posted on Following Orion... at 07/02/2023 - 16:42

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

Haha, you are welcome.

Comment by pschlute posted on In praise of the FA* 24mm f2.0 at 07/02/2023 - 11:01

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.