Thanks for those crops. For a lens that covers 180 degrees this looks like very good performance. No-one should expect the sort of resolution possible with a normal lens. This is definitely on my buy list. Anyone need a website built so I can pay for it?

Would be a fun lens to have, for sure. Certainly a different view of the world. Imagine video through this thing!

Lovely Siamese. They are a cat and a half.

Geez... I really feel for you. All the best, man.

Sound! The other mags are rubbish and don't show/tell anything one cannot find for free online.

A close focus Vivitar f/2 in K mount will not be under fifty unless you get very, very lucky.

I agree it's not ideal, but actually it's the limitations of the close focus that bug me most about the FA43. I prefer 28mm or 77mm and luckily have a great lens that just happens to be the second focal length.

They are not holy to me but I would favour them over someone who posts a single lens comparison. Photozone have done a lot of work to establish a consistent methodology. In all cases in which I have had personal experience with the lens in question, they have been correct in their evaluation. I do not always agree with their conclusions but have no argument with their data.

Nothing, except that a brighter picture of two will always appeal more to the eye (unless obviously blown out, of course). Likewise a more appealing constrasty image can easily be the product of changing lighting conditions. Which is why if one is going to do rigorous comparisons one needs to take studio shots.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure that the DA*55 is a good lens and that the differences between it and the FA43 in terms of measurable IQ are minute. If you want a big, heavy, weather-sealed lens with quick-shift and trust the whole SDM thing, I am sure it's fine. Me, I prefer a small, light lens because that is the main reason I shoot Pentax. (Likewise I have no interest in the A*85 since for me the FA77 is a better lens... for all intents and purposes equal in IQ and superior in ergonomics.)

I have seen many astounding shots with the FA43, the type which make me sit up and take notice. That's why I bought it. I have seen none with the DA*55. There are many perfectly good competent shots but they have no poetry. This is a personal evaluation, of course, but that is what really counts after all.

An indefinable something that makes pictures come alive. AKA the "3D effect", although some people use that to simply mean isolation of foreground from background, which any lens can do with large aperture.

Using a phrase like this knowingly admits that there might not be technical measures that can prove the existence of the phenomenon, but that repeated encounters with actual results lends empirical data to support its existence.

That's hilarious! You quote a thread which I was active in. Should I repeat all my observations here? Or simply say that I trust the extensive work of photozone with many cameras and hundreds of lenses a lot more than one person on the forums. Even in the comparison pics you posted the exposure is not identical. It also looks like missed focus in the first image.