HD PENTAX-D FA ★ 70-200mm F2.8

Rumour on a Japanese website that Pentax are due to announce a FF compatible lens on thursday. Wednesday our time.

link

Not that I'll probably be able to afford it but, good to see.

Going to be expensive but should be decent quality, needs a faster motor than SDM though. My Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 OS is excellent so it will have to be something special for me to pay the extra.

I'm more interested in the 100-400mm (or whatever it is) Ricoh have in the pipeline, my Sigma 50-500mm OS may even go up for sale when that arrives (and that's my most used lens)

150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 link

Best regards

Here too...
http://photorumors.com/2015/02/03/ricoh-to-announce-the-hd-pentax-d-fa-70-200mm-...

Both apparantly HD and both with green rings, now I'm confused???

Interesting tidbit from Asahiman over on Dpreview

"At CES it was a 90% ready lens.
The big zoom is ready like the 70-200.
The Fullframe SLR has a classic body,little bit like K-3 Style,but different.
Only a couple of people has seen the first pictures this week,Pentax will show more for public at CP+.
Camera could be available in Summer/little later,maybe autumn.
So,this year i get confirmed my last informations i given here,70-200,1x0-4x0 and fullframe body slr type!
It looks like that Pentax is using the CP+ for fullframe.
Like the last was made for 645Z
*lens is of course SDM.
Best regards"

So maybe unicorns do exist?

Sounds like a lens from the 70's. I would have thought they would have at least made it cover the standard 50mm lens say 55-210mm....... 70-200mm isn't something you expect from 2015.

I can imagine that it will be very expensive. The 80-200mm f/2.8 was £2k in the 80's.

Edit RH has a link to the new HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6

Looks like they've gone back to Green Rings on the lenses.

--

The 70-200mm is an FA* so I would imagine will be SDM whereas the 150-450mm has no * so I'm guessing a DC motor (which is better IMO).

My Canon 70-200mm MKII was originally around £1900 at launch and the new 100-400mm MKII is around the same so I would imagine the 2 new Pentax lenses will be in that area.

If the 150-450mm is as good (hopefully better) than my Sigma 50-500mm OS then it will be straight on my shopping list, possibly along with another K-3.

150-450mm would meet my needs very nicely and could be just the lens for my bird photography.

For me too John...if only they would sort out the AF tracking! This is the only negative for me with Pentax cameras, otherwise, for my needs the K5 is perfect!

Specs (apparently)

As of specs of the next "HD PENTAX-D FA ★ 70-200mm F2.8ED DC AW"

- Dust and water structure. Sealing 13 places
- Image circle covers the 35mm format
- Nanotechnology coating of newly developed "Aero Bright coating II"
- HD coating
- Two super ED lens, two ED lens, four abnormal low dispersion lens
- Switch with quick shift focus system selector switch to "QFS / A", "QFS / M", "MF"
- "QFS / A" autofocus priority. "QFS / M" manual focus priority
- Lens within the motor (DC motor)
- Circular aperture
- 3-stage focus limiter
- Lens front to the SP coating
- New development of removable tripod mount (Captive)
- Over-the-counter expected price is 260,000 yen (including tax)

Two grand then MIke?
Too much for me, however much I salivate over it but no more expensive than the CaNikSon ones, all sounds very nice but I'm limiting myself to spending around £1200 on gear every year which means a new APSC body or a couple of reasonable seconhand lenses, I just can't justify anything as grand as this!
3 stage focus limiter, sounds good, looking at the markings in the lens focus window, I don't think it has that short a throw which might be a bit of a pain but the limiter would speed things up a treat anyway?
It'll not matter because the new body will come with clairvoyant focus, and will know where the subject is before it arrives!

I guess having the lens within the motor means the lens will focus ridiculously fast as the motor must be enormous!

I'm guessing so and maybe 2.5k for the 150-450mm.

I recently sold my Siggy 100-300mm f4 and I still have the cash from the K-3 and grip (plus I sold a couple of other lenses) so can afford one or the other. I have the Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 OS and tbh although it's a cracking lens I rarely use it whereas my Siggy 50-500mm OS is used almost every time I go out.

So for me I'm thinking 150-450mm ... especially if it plays nicely with the 1.4x, plus if they stick a focus limiter on it (which the Sigma badly needs) it will only hunt a very short distance to gain focus lock so ideal for my airshows (even better it it will lock at 450mm though).

I'm thinking that too,the 150-450 sounds like a great airshow/birding lens but I will have to get the poor mans non zoom version (DA*300+1.4 HD convertor) but to be honest, I've always bin rubbish at zooming, at the same time as I'm tracking and trying to hold the rig steady, so I think I'll get over it, I'm happy with my 60-250, at last, and so don't really need either lens but both are very welcome to the system, as there are plenty that do it seems.

That was the claim for 'Predictive AF' in the '90s. The camera would work out how fast the subject was moving relative to it and set the focus for where the subject would be when the mirror lifted and the shutter opened. The Z-1 was supposed to be able to do it.

I think they needed both lenses, especially if the FF body is also announced.

They are saying 9 new lenses by the end of next year so I'm guessing a 24-70mm f2.8 before the new body which gives a reasonable spread to begin with and then start on the primes (which don't interest me in the slightest).

Either way it's good news for Pentaxians, I can even hear Gary (Cabstar) muttering about his Nikon from here