Pentax Lens refresh...

I'm buying two lottery tickets this week

Or maybe they have just increased in value

He He, me too!

They'd go really nice with an OMD style, APSC, Pentax "D" LX...

September here we come!!!

It will be interesting to see how much difference/improvement the new coating makes in practice. Looks promising regarding the continuation of the Pentax name.

Philip

could be Mike, could be...

I hope they work their way thru the range with the HD coatings at least, with the roadmap lenses (If it holds any weight), there would only really be the * series to update, (And the macro), coupled with the DA lTD Zoom, and the new replacements on the map for the 12-24/17-70/55-300 (Maybe not 55-300 replacement?)+ the fabled convertor, it would be a very good lens line up really. I can't see them adding it to the 18-135 and 18-270 but they may want to standardise the whole range? Or make HD premium, who knows?
If anyone does please tell, I'm in suspenders!

If I'm honest I lost interest in what Pentax/Ricoh do a while back.

I'm starting to agree with Mike-P - there has been very little of real interest for some time (has there actually been anything new under Ricoh?). In the past the SMC coating just seemed to evolve, I'd be very suprised if the HD coating showed a massive improvement over the current coatings!

The HD graphs show exactly how much transmission improvement there is. Any improvement is an improvement and it shows that development is continuing. If you're not interested, fine, but you must be just a little bit otherwise you wouldn't be looking, would you?

Nobody has mentioned the other heartening thing about this. Were the lens revamps announced months before release? No, they were all announced at once at the very end of August for availability in September. Isn't that rather snappier as introductions go? And not just one lens at a time....a whole pack of them all at once.

Sort of know how you feel there Mike, When they don't provide you with waht you want for any length of time, well you just go off and start using something that does what you want, like you have done! Can't blame you at all for that, endless promises and roadmaps mean nothing unless they actually deliver something, so far they have not but the new lenses and flashes are encouraging none the less?

Anew body with a superior Autofocus system is whats needed but along with that more lenses that can make use of the system as the older DA* SDM's will not speed up regardless, that may take a bit more time but the signs are becoming encouraging to me at least. You on the other hand may well be firmly/inextricably entenched in another system by then, and who can blame you, it's been quite a while since Ricoh took over with very little light at the end of that tunnel...

Two changes on the conveyor belt - Red paint instead of Green in hopper one and HD formula coating instead of SMC formula coating in hopper two

I'm with you on this John, yes they may only be slight mechanical/coating/cosmetic refreshes but they have been done and we have five lenses and two waterproof flashes released on one day!
Also we had two bodies released last year on the same day and then three this year on the same day! Ok raiding the parts bin in some cases but it takes organising and producing power to do it and the cash. Something that has recently been lacking...

Synic!
I do understand however...

Rounded aperture blades, plus extra blades in some, to provide
better bokeh, which is the main reason some people wanted FF plus
a lot of effort put into these APS-C lens revamps.

Looks like APS-C is the way to go and there won't be
a FF, which doesn't bother me either way.

The red ring will clash with my next purple camera though
and purple is the only colour out of 120 that I like

--

We have a friend who's very much into purple as well. I keep sending her pictures of a Pentax DSLR in purple, but so far she's resisted!

PS Yes, as Algi alludes, there does seem to be a low key affirmation in their statement that APS-C is the current way forward.

I suppose for FF it depends how far advances initial designs and prototypes have been. A new FF frame camera does not happen quickly, especially if we want the bugs removed before it's on sale.