1.4 x why are we waiting?

With the new road map well and truly on its way now with the advent of the k5ii and lenses such as the 560mm etc is pentax likely to bring out the 1.4 tele converter that we've all been hoping for?

What's the point! SH TC's aren't holding their
prices very well and are readily available on ebay.

Pentax/Hoya were releasing the 1.7x AF Adapter until
recently, but even that wasn't selling all that well.

'

Second hand Tamron/Kenko 1.4x teleconverters are selling for doube (sometimes triple) their original price and the Pentax 1.7x adapters were going as fast as the seller in Japan could source them so yes there is a market for a reporting SDM compatible 1.4x WR converter.

I would certainly buy one, can't see it being cheap though.

I'm just waiting to see what price a Pentax Rear Converter-A 1.4X-S goes for tomorrow in Australia.... currently £60 I have one (so I'm not bidding). No AF but it has the A contacts and is sharper than all the other Kenko/Tamron TC's... also it lets you input 420mm with the DA*300mm or 55-300mm lenses which I don't think other TC's do.

The 1.7x Adapter has hovered around £240 SH for donkeys years and a few have gone for about £150 so very little demand there

Had 3 or 4 in the last few years and not one has sold below £200.
As for no demand, try advertising one at £150 and see how long it lasts

Just because you don't want one doesn't mean others think the same (as we have seen on countless occasions with your comments about members wanting up to date equipment)

And how much did you buy these 3 or 4 for?

'

What I paid makes absolutely no difference to the original question. The simple fact is there is a demand for such a teleconverter and it would be a decent addition to the Pentax range.

I'm pretty sure if there were no demand for teleconverters Canon, Nikon, Sony and even Olympus wouldn't bother making them.

+1

I've 3 AF 3rd party converters 2 Teleplus/Kenko and 1 Tamron and I'd still like to see Pentax produce a dedicated 1.4x TC

John

Static price for years means there isn't any demand and the price is actually falling due to inflation. If you compare that with lenses that are in demand such as anything with Carl Zeiss on it they have rocketed over the last few years particularly Contax stuff. Even East German M42 stuff has shot up. I paid £70 for a Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4 a few years back and thought that was expensive, but they are now going for about £175 ebay_completed_sale 42 bidders as well.

The Oly 1.4x is about £360 a Pentax one would be at least the same, but it wouldn't work properly on the current range of cameras, because there isn't anyway of passing the signal to multiply the lens FL by 1.4x. It would need a re-designed mount and in camera software which could well be on the way.

They obviously won't release a TC which won't work on the current cameras.




'

I have the 2x-S too and it works very well with the DA*300 with 600mm input on the camera.

A full SDM version would be n ice - and I would like 2x rather than just 1.4!

I've got TWO of the Pentax 2x-S TC's.... paid about £100 each for them.
I'd sell one now except I wouldn't get anything like £100 for it.
Top quality TC as well.

'

2x converters usually don't sell as well as 1.4x due to the impact on IQ.
You can normally get away with a 1.4x, a decent make will have little impact on quality while I have yet to see a 2x that I would be happy to use for anything other than a record shot.

Edit: and that includes the 2x-s

Actually the 2x-L I have was pretty reasonable on the A* 300mm f2.8 but that's about it.

Could be achieved with a simple firmware update

It would need an extra pin on TC and camera to signal
that a TC is attached and possibly another pin to
say if it was a 1.4x or 2x TC.

'

There should be enough pins already to pass data. If it was really clever it would pass the lens and TC data back to the camera. May need a firmware update on the camera as well.