Time will tell...assuming that time is on Ricoh's side.

Whatever price it comes in at it's probably true that some folk would happily pay double the asking price. There are people out there who will cheerfully stump up hundreds of pounds purely for a blue Zeiss badge or red Leica badge...but Pentax doesn't really have that cachet to attract enough of those big spenders and as Nigel asks 'is it really a solution to a dire need'?

Then there's the size and weight...compared to its predecessors it is very heavy and quite large. The lens with hood weighs 955g, add this to the weight of a K-1 and you will be lugging around 4.3lb in imperial...it's more of a studio or landscape with tripod, kind of lens.

And an almost dead cert is that if you hold off buying one until the pre Christmas promotions (double, triple discount) you'll probably save about £200!

Cheers for the link Derek...some really good shots there.

If it gets any more popular though the local council will have to build a toilet block and someone will probably start charging for access to the hillsides!

Regards

Karlo

For that price it will have to be the best performing 50mm lens in the world...bar none.

The Global market for it must only be a few hundred per year.

Very risky game Pentax are playing...they seem to be targeting their new lenses at Pro and Enthusiasts with very deep pockets...not enough of them though.

Great price...interesting development.

I'm guessing that it is not selling very well at its inflated price which means that its likely SRS and other UK Pro dealers will be offloading them soon at about £700 with 2 yr warranty.

I'd be tempted to wait for that deal and of course the K-3 III will probably appear before the end of the year which is another reason that the KP had to be reduced in price.

Really nice shots those...showing the MX-1 as a very capable little camera.

Regards

Karlo

My recommendations would be the K-x, K-r, K-30, K-500 or K-50. I personally wouldn't go for anything any older than the K-x which is the oldest of those five models.

I curently use a K-50 which i'm very pleased with...depends on your budget though as these go for about £200 -£250.

Previously I had a K-x in a lovely Olive drab colour which I used for over four years...absolutely ideal for a beginner...good performance, light and compact (relatively speaking). The fact it could take AA batteries was a definite plus for me, 12MP sensor I thought was good for a beginner. The camera came with so many features and things to fiddle around with...I never tried half of them in all the time I had the camera. I suspect you could pick a good condition low mileage one for probably around the £100- £125 mark including the cheap but cheerful 18-55 kit lens which punches above its cost performance wise. Shooting in JPEG, each image was about 5Mb which meant that a single 8Gb card used to last me for about 6 months!

Good luck with the decision anyway.

Karlo

Excellent shots of some really weird looking spiders in particular.

Regards

Karlo

Really good those Derek. I can understand why you love the place so much...looks fab.

Regards

Karlo

Lovely portraits Nigel, very impressive.

Re. the bribe with Cornettos...did this happen at the beginning or after you'd finished?

Regards as ever

Karlo

My pleasure Roger...thanks for uploading the images as its always welcome seeing the aircraft going about their normal 'service' business as opposed to being displayed at airshows.

Regards

Karlo