There are two things that still are holding me back. The crop factor of affordable APS-C sensor cameras so far is making it difficult to have fast wide-angle prime lenses.
So what? With fantastic high-ISO capability and in-body IS (another advantage of the Pentax), where is the benefit of fast wide angle lenses, anyway? IMO, this is a
highly overrated issue.
The micro 4/3 companies are getting there, but as I understand it, they're still doing it with a lot of post processing of the file in-camera. That still doesn't 'sit right' with my film-SLR bones.
You should re-think this. There are good reasons to shoot film vs. digi (I mainly use film for my own personal work), but this is not one of them.
ALL digital capture requires a lot of processing of the file, both upstream and downstream of writing a RAW file.
Similarly, ALL analog emulsions perform very complex transformations of the "data" hitting the "sensor." (E.g., nonlinear characteristic curves; skewed spectral responses; edge effects and acutence; reciprocity effects; etc., etc., etc. -- and all this is just for B&W film!). The only difference is that the transformations done by silver halide emulsions are less transparent to the user, and hence closer to "magic." Take another look at Adams's
The Negative and
The Print. You'll find that both volumes are almost entirely dedicated to performing complex transformations on the image data.
I can tell you that for scientific work (my day job), digital capture has totally replaced film in most fields because digital output is FAR closer to "the truth" than film
ever was: more linear, simpler noise signature, etc.
If a lens designer can correct brutal defects like astigmatism, coma, spherical aberration, field curvature etc. at the expense of some geometric distortion or chromatic aberration that are easily and
accurately deconvolved post-capture, that is a
good thing! It can mean an overall optical system that is smaller, lighter, easier to manufacture and has higher overall performance. Again, that is a
good thing.
The Panasonic 20/1.7, which requires post-capture geometric distortion correction, is a spectacular case in point. Compare size, price, and performance to the new Nikkor 24/1.4.
