Good call, anywhere between 28 and 35 equiv, would be nice. I don't have the 50 but am very impressed with the lightweight 35mm.

On the fantasy level I'd go for a renewed DA*300 F4 (I suppose they could call it a D-FA), keep the optical and weathersealed construction, just improve the af motor and add a focus limiter that I can tune....and don't add anymore significant weight.
And while they're at it how about a longer macro with internal af, focus limiter and af motor, but not to hefty....

Otherwise I'm stuck and can't think of any current or planned lenses I'd like from them.

Pentax DFA 100 WR, couldn't resist srs's black friday prices... well I suppose I half resisted, 'cause that 150-450 price looked very tempting...
The macro couldn't half do with a focus limiter, but it won't really get a workout 'till the bugs appear again next year.

What a great creative look. Thanks for the link.

Are you sure the K30 or K50 can write the data back to the lens? If that's what you want it for. I thought I tried that with my K30 and found it didn't work. I would be interested to hear back if the K30 can be used to rewrite the lens data.

Thanks for that, pretty timely as my DA*300 F4 has started playing up with suspected SDM failure and I was just about to send it in for a check under warranty. I'm glad I'm lazy otherwise it would have gone to them at the end of last week.....
It still needs checking but maybe I'll contact SRS or Pentax to see what to do next.

What a great set. Love the flight and the detailed close up of the ruddy. The migrant hawkers seem to be out here in great numbers, plenty of mating too.... good for next generations...

A great series, nice of her to take the time to wave, always good to be appreciated! It is indeed a good year for them, I'm loving it.

I upgraded from the E-M10 to the E-M10 ii for this feature earlier this year (along with electronic shutter). It's a great feature, it's not perfect on the M10 as there is a slight delay for initial focus in this mode compared to not using it. I assume it's because it needs to do some computational work before starting the bracketing. Of course the critters I photo still move and that can be troublesome, just a little wiggle of an antennae causes me headaches in photoshop...
I only use stacking occasionally and I tend to stack a very low number of images, i.e. maybe 2-7 normally, I think I've stacked upto 11 but nothing like you see from some users, i.e. 10's to 100's of images, so I just don't know I've seen a problem with focus breathing on my 60, or even when I've used my Pentax FA100 3.5 macro. I just don't think I'm qualified to pass any comments either way though.

That's not a nice look....!
I used to use the tamron sp 90 F2.5 adaptall ii that you mention with the Pentax 1.7 auto focus adapter, I thought it worked pretty good.

Yes I considered it, I have the Sigma 180 F3.5 macro of the same era, but it also has the 2 step change from AF to MF, pull back the clutch then switch the camera from af to mf, so at the moment I've ruled it out, but I was watching a cheap non DG version, however thought better of it as I've had problems with non DG version of sigma before.
Yesterday I put the Olympus kit on the scales at just under 600 grams body and lens I figure it's just as easy to carry with my Pentax kit as an extra Pentax fit macro lens. I took it out with my KP, Sigma 180 and Pentax DA*300 and was constantly changing between the Pentax and the Olympus. It's probably going to be the way I go forward for now.
Now perhaps a FA*200 macro would.......

Hi, just thought I'd update this thread for anyone going through the same decisions. I went for the Tamron SP 90 F2.8 Di, however I bought new but without seeing one first. That was a mistake on my behalf. The problem for me is that the tamron is a 2 stage process to convert from af to manual. First you have to pull the focus ring back from the AF setting to MF. An easy process, but then you must also set the body switch from AF to MF. This is just to much for the way I work so back it went. Sorry SRS.....
Also this tamron had an issue in liveview where the aperture would randomly keep closing down, you could hear it and see it happen as I also had focus peaking set. Suddenly, you'd have a deep depth of field, then click a tiny depth of field. The lighting hadn't changed, nothing had changed. The reported aperture on the screen stayed unchanged, it was just that the lens had stopped down, if you looked thru the front of the lens you could see a stopped down aperture, then click wide open again. No photos taken, no changes to the camera setting, no af changes. I didn't bother to try and see where the problem lay as I wasn't keeping the lens and didn't want to do anything to it. My Sigma and Pentax macros don't do this.
Also the af in liveview was slower than my pentax macro, probably similar to my sigma.
So I'm back with my olympus as my go to short macro setup and my pentax with sigma 180 macro for my distant stuff. Looks like I will need to take a trip down to srs to see how the Pentax 100 WR works on my kit and decide if it's worth it. I'm not buying one until I can see how it works for me, specifically hunting is my concern on this one without a focus limiter.

Dan, thanks very much for taking the time to do this. I think I can say based on the largest sizes on flickr I'd be happy with the fringing on either lens wide open, and as you say closing down removes any traces. I just don't think I shoot any of my macros wide open, I usually stop down at least one stop if stacking and a couple of stops just to balance resolution with depth of field.
Your model for the tamron is beautiful, I'm not familiar with it but looking through my books if it was taken in Europe or North Africa I think it might be a Red-Veined Dropwing (Trithemas arteriosa). I'd love to see such a beauty. Also that sunflower from the Pentax is wonderful, great resolution and a repeating pattern.
Thanks again, I appreciate you clarifying how much (or in this case, little) these lens suffer from fringing/halo effects.