I have to admit… this little write up stumped me.

Initially, this was meant to be a review of the smc Pentax-FA 50mm F1.4 “Classic” which was re-released alongside a HD variant, both announced in May and finally available in July 2023. However, as I started shooting and dug deeper into the lens itself, I wonder what more could be said about a lens that has been around since 1991 with the 2023 contemporaries sharing a very similar optical formula.

So let’s take a look at some film and digital images, and see how the flares fare…