This is a magnificent lens from Pentax, easily the best they have introduced in many years. It is very well built, sharp from corner to corner even wide open, gives bokeh to die for, and focuses quickly, quietly, and accurately! IMO it stacks up well optically against the Zeiss Otus, long considered the best high end 50/1.4 lens available today. Yes, it is heavy compared to lesser 50/1.4 lenses, but for a lens of this quality, that comes with the territory. I rate it as a good value despite its premium price.

After using this lens for about two weeks, I can say this is perhaps the best Pentax lens I've ever owned. The sharpness is so powerful, I've even been using it for macro shots. The MTF charts for this lens will tell you its excellent below F/2 but I find it a bit soft in that range. It's supremely sharp around F/5.6, even at the edges. The AF is very quick too. The lens is very heavy, relatively speaking, but it's what you should expect for such high quality lens. I can only hope that Pentax will continue to produce more lens in the star series like this one.

I bought this 50mm lens back in 2021. I have the first generation Pentax K-1, and I updated the firmware to support this lens. I have had no problems or issues with the lens. I mainly do mountain landscapes, since I have backpacked for over 30 years in the Washington State Cascade and Olympic mountains. So I have taken this lens on several day hikes and on a trip to Maui. This is fantastic lens. The attached pictures have been resized to a much smaller size to aid in the file transfer. And all were hand held, no tripod used.