DFA 100MM 2.8 macro

Just had an email from MESSUPS saying the lens i had on back order is now discontinued and they will have to cancel my order as they are no longer manufactured.So i suppose i will have to look else where for a 2.8 macro

No longer manufactured is intriguing.... if it is accurate. I wouldn't necessarily trust Jessops on this but if it is then it raises the question of whether there is going to be a replacement? Also is this the same for the FA 50mm 1.4 that also the discounted and sold out of - although that supposedly had been discontinued some time ago but still seems to be produced.

One theory for Jessops discounting, explained by some of their staff and posed on another thread here, was that they were clearing out stock because Pentax demand had gone quiet with Pentax not announcing a new DSLR - nothing about stopping manufacture of this lens model.

Roy

The replacement for the 100mm macro lens could well be the WR version, as simple as that. Or someone at Jessops didn't really know so had assumed.

The lens i had ordered was the wr

That hasn't been discontinued to the best of my knowledge and I'm not sure that Jessops ever stocked it, but maybe they did.

There was a massive thread on the forum about the WR being on sale at Jessops John.

Quite a few people (including myself) bought one for £299

Yes indeed, there must have been a few 100mm Macro lenses shifted in the past few months.

I guess it will "all come out in the wash" as they say.

i did'nt

I know, I read your first post

There's something nuts about the pricing strategy of these lenses if you ask me. The 100mm was listed at getting on for five hundred quid - no wonder they were struggling to sell! Then Jessops reduce the price by almost 200 quid, causing a mass stampede, and a lot of them ending up on ebay. Why not price them realistically in the first place - say 370 quid?

But is it that bad?

Canons basic 100mm macro is priced at £420, the IS (L) version is £690
Nikons 105mm VR macro is £610 and Sonys 100mm is £550.

TBH £500 for a WR Pentax 100mm f2.8 macro seems pretty reasonable when you compare them.

The Jessops guy said to me that £300 was basically cost price.

In 1990 the discount price of the Pentax-F 100mm f/2.8 Macro
was £348 .... that's £698 in todays money The Sigma
was £210. Most lenses are dearer now than in 1990 after
allowing for inflation.

The new camera will create a massive demand for macro lenses,
partly because it won't be much use on telephotos. Pentax can't
afford to discontinue the WR without a replacement, assuming the
K-01 is waterproof.

DFA Macro 100mm F2.8 is listed as discontinued on Pentax Japan website.
DFA Macro 100mm F2.8WR is listed as current.

http://www.pentax.jp/english/products/lens/index.html

Mind you, they haven't updated the lens roadmap yet!

Optically they're exactly the same right? The non wr and wr I mean

I understand that they are the same optically.