Do we think there's any chance...

There seems to be something of a mad rush for the old SMC Pentax 30mm/2.8. Now, I do have the theory that the silly prices of some older lenses are down to collectors rather than people buying them to use, but I still think Pentax could do well to return to the 30mm focal length as it's obviously sought-after.

I do find myself wondering whether they've run one of those focal length statistic programs on the EXIF data of images submitted to the PPG. This would show them what focal lengths are most commonly used and therefore if there are any gaps in their range.

There is a 31mm lens that should do very nicely...

A snip at c.£1000

John

If only I had that money to spare.

Ditto

John

Perhaps I should be making more use of my manual Tamron 28mm f2.5 (02B) - a focus free walk-about?

Quite - although I wonder if they're a bit leery of making multiple lenses with the same focal length for fear of losing sales of the more expensive one. I suspect the 35/2.4 may well have tempted a lot of people who'd otherwise have saved far longer and gone for the 35/2.8 Ltd.

I used the Pentax-M and then SMC Pentax 28mm f3.5 as walkabout lenses, both were pretty much focus free as by the time you had a subject properly framed it was generally in focus at infinity.

Maybe that's why they made it a DA-L version so there is a lot of difference in terms of build quality and features with the limited?

The policy seems to be to make lower cost options using less expensive manufacturing techniques. This doesn't equate with a lack of build quality, just different materials and methods.

It seems that the lower cost lenses do have less features (no Quick Shift, no supplied lens hood) but the optical quality remains high.

It does give a real choice depending upon our budget.

Quite - although I wonder if they're a bit leery of making multiple lenses with the same focal length for fear of losing sales of the more expensive one. I suspect the 35/2.4 may well have tempted a lot of people who'd otherwise have saved far longer and gone for the 35/2.8 Ltd.

I used the Pentax-M and then SMC Pentax 28mm f3.5 as walkabout lenses, both were pretty much focus free as by the time you had a subject properly framed it was generally in focus at infinity.[/quote]I was shopping for a used 28 so actually Pentax scored a sale by having a decent performing lens in the same price range as a used lens. That is why a 50mm DA-l would be sensible for Pentax... There are sooo many people looking for used ones who simply won't pay for the 50 macro (due to focus hunting) or the 55 due to price....

I think there are lenses available that we don't ever get to see, such as the SMC Pentax-A 50mm f1.2 - I asked SRS if they could get one but I don't think Chris ever got a reply about that.

Canon and Nikon sell cheap 50mm lenses, so I expect Pentax could sell one too. The FA version still seems to be around, at a similar price to the marque alternatives, when we compare like with like.

If I were calling the shots, Pentax would release DA24/2, DA28/2 and DA50/1.7