Mike, If I were going with a 2 lens kit, the 43/1.9 and 77/1.8 Limiteds would do a great job. The 43 is halfway between the 35 and your beloved 50 and is a great lens in it's own right.
As for me, I went with the 35/50/85 route. The 43/50 is just not wide enough sometimes and the 85 is one sweet portrait lens. I base that not on personal taste, but that I always get comments on shots taken with that lens. So there you have it: 2 lens kit - 43/1.9 Limited and 77/1.8 Limited 3 lens kit - 35/2, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 all FA. Either kit would be wonderful. Not a weak lens in the bunch. Bruce Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 6:34:09 AM, you wrote: MJ> One possibility for the upcoming show is that there may be a new FILM body MJ> from Pentax. Pal keeps hoping for an "AF LX," and it's also possible that MJ> there may be a new "budget/serious" camera one tier below the MZ-S (which I MJ> can't afford). MJ> So I've been trying to think about FA lens outfits recently. I don't MJ> currently own any FA lenses, but there are a number I'm attracted to. MJ> What I do is general snapshooting in black-and-white. I'm a great fan of MJ> 35mm normal lenses, but also of the 50/1.4 Pentax lens. Generally, what I MJ> need is an all-purpose lens, and also a portrait lens. But a 50mm is too MJ> long to be my widest lens. Here's what I've shot with over the past few MJ> years: MJ> --Just a 50mm. MJ> --a 35mm and an 85mm. MJ> --a 50mm, an 85mm for portraits, and a wider lens--since the wider lens is MJ> mostly for indoors, it needs to be pretty fast. MJ> Personally, since my long(er)-lens use is _exclusively_ for portraits, I'm MJ> leaning towards the 85mm f/1.4. The 77mm also has a great reputation and has MJ> a better form-factor. So one obvious kit would be the 85/1.4 and the 35/2. A MJ> kit comprising the 35/2 and the 77mm would also be very nice. MJ> But that leaves me without my stone favorite 50/1.4. If I were to add that, MJ> I'd want to use it as my "most of the time normal lens." At that point, the MJ> 35/2 becomes rather superfluous, and I'd rather move a bit further away on MJ> the wide and tele ends...which would mean a three-lens kit with the 24/2 or MJ> 31mm, 50/1.4, and 77 or 85mm. Since 77mm is rather closer to 50mm than to MJ> 35mm, this thought pushes me more towards the 85mm again. MJ> The trouble with this is that, in the real world, I don't have very much MJ> cash. So to think of buying both the very expensive 31mm and the very MJ> expensive 85mm is rather daunting...especially when the inexpensive 50mm MJ> would be my "most of the time" lens. MJ> I'd like to begin investing in a kit of FA lenses, but I'm unsure of which MJ> way to go. I could do any of the following... MJ> --50/1.4 only (not really a very flexible option). MJ> --35/2 and 85/1.4. MJ> --35/2 and 77mm. MJ> --31mm, 50/1.4, and 85mm. MJ> --24/2, 50/1.4, and 85mm. MJ> --something else--? MJ> My little brother Scott has insisted for years that I am very good at giving MJ> advice to others, but not very good at choosing things for myself. His MJ> reasoning is that I remain objective and clear-headed when I give advice to MJ> others, but when I'm shopping for myself, I succumb to emotion and MJ> fetishizing and hair-splittng, and make dumb decisions. MJ> What would you recommend? Keep in mind I want an _optimum_ 2- or 3-lens FA MJ> kit for my uses, not something that will just "get me by." MJ> --Mike MJ> P.S. This is not a troll. I'm serious. <s>
