summary of what I've read/seen so far is the 35mm f2.8 limited is significantly sharper and has macro, but is more expensive and has less smooth bokeh compared to the f2.4.

Since i think i'd mostly use the wider lens for sharp shots i'm tending back to that, i'm pretty happy with my other lenses for shallow DOF shots.

OTOH the f2.4 is cheap and so maybe worth a try. Decisions...

It feels to me that the tamron is performing less well with the GX20 than with the istDS... i guess i should compare again. can anyone advise on possible causes of that?

which 100mm pentax macro do you recommend? there's a FA100 macro for sale right now too.

How does the much cheaper 35mm f2.4 compare to the 35mm limited f2.8 for non-macro photography?

is the f2.4 on a par with my good lenses for image quality?

i see someone has a sigma 100mm macro for sale in the classifieds - big step up from my old tamron SP 90mm or not?

I'm looking for a good standard/wide angle lens maybe 35mm or so of similar quality to my other good lenses, and also a macro lens.

I'm tempted by the 35mm f2.8 limited macro since it seems like it might do both things. I'm a little skeptical about such a short focal length for a macro though. OTOH my macro shots are mostly inanimate objects so getting really close should be OK.

My current good lenses are FA50mm f1.4 and DA* 50-135.

I also have a cheap "miranda" 28mm A lens and a very old fully manual Tamrom SP 90mm macro.

I'd like auto focus on everything, that's one motivation to upgrade as well as improving image quality.

The Tamron has not been giving me the results I want recently, i haven't looked into it much but it seems hazy and lacking in punch, at least compared to the pentax lenses. It is possible that my lack of satisfaction with it coincides with upgrading my camera body to a GX20 from a istDS.

I have read somewhere about someone having problems with sensor reflections on some bodies with the Tamron lens, how can I check if I have this? Could it cause a general hazy lack of contrast effect?

Can anyone comment on whether the 35mm f2.8 limited macro is a good solution, or suggest other solutions?

hmm, took it apart and put it back together and its fixed. dunno quite what I did. something must have been not quite seated right. all fine now, focuses just a hair past infinity.

I have a dim memory of opening up a pentax M 50mm to clean it and finding a complicated thread system that had to be reassembled on exactly the right thread to get the focus right, maybe this has been disassembled and reassembled slightly wrong at some point.

thanks, but nope its none of those things. its very smooth, sits flush and fits on the body easily, and doesn't go past infinity.

the dial reads infinity, but the actual focus is about 10m

I have a pentax M 120mm F2.8

I've just noticed it doesn't focus to infinity on my ist DS

I'm actually not sure if its always been like that or if it has changed.

I'm looking to sell it since i just bought the DA* 50-135 but I need to find out about the infinity focus first.

any clues?

I think we are behind a hill in scotland! anyway my phone is antiquated. also on virgin, don't know if their coverage is better or worse.