Changing Pattern of Lens Range

How simple life must have once been for lens designers, in the sense that all the manufacturers would have slow and fast lenses in the same focal lengths 24mm-28mm-35mm-50mm and so on. Pentax stood out by always making odd focal lengths (and still do) such as 30mm, 120mm, 150mm.

But the point I'm making is that these lenses were available for decades, either as Takumar, Super Takumar, SMC Takumar, SMC Pentax, SMC Pentax-M, SMC Pentax-A....

Then came zooms and today lenses seem to have a limited runs as well. So, some designs which are excellent have already gone, such as the 24-90mm, 18-250mm, and some such as the 16-45mm seem harder and harder to find. As technology increases its pace so the possibilities of lens design mean that exclellent products are superceded by even better ones.

Things are much more fluid these days and in terms of price/quality we're doing pretty well I think.

Favourite lenses for me now would have to include the WR designs though as they totally free us to continue shooting in the worst weather!

I actually find quick-shift the best thing ever... too bad they are pulling it out some lenses.
I was quite interested in the DA35 f/2.4 but now that i know it's qithout quick-shift

The range certainly has changed. The 1984 brochure I have contains no less than 7 50mm lenses. Yes, 7.

Also, you could have 2 different versions of the 28mm, 3 of the 35mm, 4 of the 135mm and 4 of the 200mm.

And then they had some big hitters - 400/5.6, 500/4.5, 600/5.6, 1000/8.

How about the 1200mm f8 and 2000mm f13.5? All amazing lenses with amazing price tags.

And i forgot to mention the zooms such as the 135-600/6.7 and 400-600/8-12

I hope Pentax comes back with some more of the oddball specialty lenses. softs, shifts, pancakes etc.
I would love to see Pentax expand what they did with the 35 2.4, and bundle them as a box set...

that would be an awesome lineup.
a box set of econo primes, a set of pancakes and ltd's and a range of affordable wr zooms and a few wr tele's and * zooms.

something for every budget and need.
but above all else, bring us a 300-600 mm zoom.

I think the logical step forward from DAL 35/2.4 would be DAL 50/1.7 for under 200 GBP

No please no more DA-L lenses
I really like to use a hood with my lenses and you know how expensive they are when you want to buy them seperatly

I would love to see a 120~135mm f/2.4 limited lens.
And a new lens to replace the DA*16-50, i'm happy with the range but the name of the lens is quite damaged and the current price of that lens is too high considering the preformance

TBH I think Pentax need to make all the DA-L lenses they can. Not everyone can stump up over £300 each for a set of lenses and there's only one lens between the DA-L kit zooms and the Ltd/* range at present. I don't see the appeal of a 50mm though - it's in something of a no-mans-land in DSLR lens terms for me. I'd rather see something like a 20mm and a 135mm with similar features, quality and price to the 35/2.4.

As for expensive hoods, I bought one of the 3rd party copies for my 18-55mm and it has never given any trouble. I just wish something similar was available for the 35mm as nobody seems to make one yet.

Try Amazon, who list quite a few lower cost lens hoods for Pentax lenses.

It should also be noted that off-brand companies like Vivitar were left to do much of the innovating, by having superior optics in close focus versions.

Or you could buy into German optics... remembering using Zeiss on Contax bodies.

And then there was Olympus who had truly astounding fast and wide lenses.

Even in the "old days" there was a lot of variety, variation and choice. Especially once auto-focus kicked in and different brands went in different directions. (And Pentax lost their initiative and market share.)

The only lens I can think of buying in the near future is the Sigma 85mm/1.4

Perhaps pentax shoudl get back to making fast lenses.

How about a DA* 30/1.2 and DA* 85/1.2

It is apparent Pentax has little interest in making fast lenses and there are some good reasons why.

1. Higher attainable ISO values reduce the need for speed for the purposes of low-light photography.

2. Most shooters rely on auto-focus mechanisms that have a hard time past a certain aperture. Fast lenses equal more complaints about gear working poorly.

3. Viewfinder screens are optimised for f/2 or slower so manual focus is difficult or impossible any slower.

All this said, I have a hard time buying a lens that isn't f/2. Faster than that I find a bit gimmicky.

agreed.
why pay more for 1.4 then have to stop it down to get anything in focus. The only real benifit for me with fast glass is the viewfinder brightness. It is nice but I suspect evf's will surpass pentamirrors soon anyways, negating even that one little advantage..

The shallow DOF and associated Bokeh is wonderful with really fast lenses. One man's "artistic" is another mans "Gimmick" I suppose.

You're perfectly correct in your points #2 and #3 regarding focussing though. Thankfully the K-5 has a way around both the viewfinder and inaccuracy of phase AF...... Contrast AF through the sensor. Which is wonderfully accurate. And given it's good quality magnification makes focussing fast MF lenses a breeze now.