Why are 3rd party manufactures turning away from Pentax ?

I was just looking at the newly announced Tamron 16-30 2.8 lens. Thinking it would be a nice purchase. Until I was stopped in my tracks. Only to find its not made in Pentax mount. This is increasingly becoming the norm. Why do people think this is ? Would Pentax owners be happy to use just Pentax branded lenses ? Let's discuss.....

Is it new, Tamron not doing many lenses for Pentax users?

http://www.tamron.eu/uk/lenses/ refers

It's a full frame lens. They also don't make the 24-70 or 70-200 (new versions) in Pentax mount because they're designed for FF.

They do still offer their APS-C lenses for Pentax.

It is a FF lens so you would get the equivalent FOV of a 24-45mm. Your not too far of the 20-40mm Pentax and actually the 20mm end is a lot more useful than the 24mm.

Best regards

Yes and it looks like Tokina have gone the same way.

They don't seem to make it in any other mount either

Same with the 2-450mm

--

Sorry guys I hadn't realised it was FF Doh... Il delete this posting..

It won't make much difference. We are going to have to rely on Pentax from now on. I was in SRS today taking back my non-focusing faulty (just "repaired"! ) DA*300 and the rep I spoke to wasn't very hopeful when I asked him about the Sigma lenses. He also said the KS1 is selling badly and mirrorless is taking over. Doesn't bode well for us I think.
Dave

In relation to lenses, from what I have read, the Pentax mount is more complex to manufacture due to mechanical rather than electronic workings, this makes any Pentax lens more time consuming to manufacture. As Canon and Nikon have a greater market share, its only logical to put energy into producing these mounts first. If and when Pentax release a FF model and if its sells like the K3, perhaps things will change.

Don't believe anything you read especially on't t'internet

--

they will only do it in canon nikon and 3/4 as they say that pentax dose not sell enough cameras and that is from the horses mouth themselfs ie tamron and sigma

in other words they are trying to get rid of one of the oldist cameras by squeeze ing them out


regards stu

The spokesman for Sigma apparently said this last year, it's a combination of slow sales and the way the aperture lever works on the Pentax mount.

Tamron haven't made any new lenses in Pentax mount for a few years now, think the last was the 10-24mm in 2008/9.

Independent manufacturers have made Pentax mount lenses for decades, the mount has hardly changed. In the 'old' days, EOS mount lenses were more expensive as they had to have a focus motor inside the lens, didn't stop them being made, the user had to pay more. If they can't get a simple aperture lever to work anymore on a mount they've made for decades, why trust them to get the much more complex optics correct?

It wouldn't surprise me if the Zeiss ZK lenses went out of production because the FA Ltd lenses were so good/popular.

Edit: I'd have loved a ZK50/1.4 but had to 'settle' for an FA43/1.9 Ltd instead

John.

The clever folks at Tamron made the Adaptall mount fit just about everything.

Another myth is that the Pentax K mount was copyright and had to be reverse engineered....... WRONG! It was released from Day 1 as a universal open source mount to replace the M42 screw mount. That's why the likes of Ricoh, Cosina, Zenit, Chinon, Miranda, Prinzflex etc. used it. All Budget manufacturers who would have used something simpler had they had to pay a royalty or if it was too expensive to produce.

I've not looked at Sigma's own mount, but their caps are the same ones they use for Pentax marked 'FOR SA/KPR' so it must be the same bayonet.

--

Same or similar. Either way a little more info link

Best regards