SDM or not?

Hey there!

For some years I was a nikon user, bit changed to a pentax, with a Pentax K3. I'm very happy with the camera, but have my doubts concerning the lenses available.

For many years other brands replaced their screw driven auto-focus lenses for in-built motors. This means, among other things, much quieter autofocus.

I wan wondering why Pentax still has the majority of their lens line-up without DC/SMD technology. I'd there a reason? Is it more accurate, is it only cost?

WEX (or any other seller, for that matter) has 41 Pentax branded lenses, of which 6 are SDM and 2 are DC.

As I said, I'm new to Pentax, so if this is one of those boring endless debates everybody is tired, please just ignore this post.

Thank you

Have a great day!

Historically, Pentax have been very slow to bring out fast-focusing, quiet lenses. That's all it is, really.

It's unfortunate that until the K-3, quick autofocus was never one of Pentax's main priorities, so I guess the pressure to update the lens range to address this specific issue was never there.

Since Ricoh took over, it's become clear that a lot of investment is taking place in the brand, so over time, I'd expect to see more DC lenses arrive on the scene. I certainly hope so - the 18-135, for instance, one of the DC ones, is extremely quick and quiet by Pentax standards. That said, the 20-40 is not especially quick, probably because its focus throw is quite long. It has always been the case that the longer the focus throw, the slower the lens to focus.

By the way, just out of interest, what led you to switch to Pentax from Nikon?