A highly respected poster (extremely technical and who beta tests for Pentax) on another forum has suggested on his blog (Feb. 2011) that a 500/5.6 lens from Pentax should cost just under US$2,000. Even allowing for the British 'tax' that should mean under £2,000.

Fingers crossed he's right !

Some wonderful shots .. though you often have to wonder if some win purely and simply because they are topical rather than due to any artistic merit.

Have a look at this unbeleivable series which I saw yesterday, it is one of the finest I have ever seen on any forum (hope this is OK to link to) and some are more than worthy of inclusion in the World Press awards (IMHO) : - link it's not really NSFW however that 's how it's titled. The group of teenage girls is my favourite I think (though #1 comes close too) - but there are so many.

What Mike said .... forget the 55-300.

I don't think there wil be a long queue .. the Sony is variously being quoted as US$13,000 - $18,000

Yeah .... I can see me walking through the woods with a big white elephant's trunk stuck out in front of me, the birds would be falling out of the trees laughing !

Really ? That's a pity. Still at least camo webbing can be easily replaced whenever (and I'm sure there'll be other covers out for it shortly) ! Shame it wasn't black - I think the *300 looks very classy.

And that's exactly what I'll do post haste ! White ? Ugh. I would've loved it if it was the same as the silver FAs with PENTAX written in bold and black on the hood.

I love it ! This is exactly what I wanted and the announcement arrived just in the nick of time to stop me buying a telescope for digiscoping - that money has now gone into the kitty (I'll have to ensure she knows whenever I drop something into it so when the time comes she can't say I've just raided our bank account for more gear !

Falk Lomo forecast last Feb. that a Pentax 500/5.6 would cost $1,945. Let's hope he's somewhere close, it'll certainly be a lot cheaper than a 500/4 so with the high ISO capability of the K5 is exactly what we need.

Interesting quotes Shaky.

Exactly Dr. O !

As I said earlier in the thread somewhere, it's the young Chinese / Asian market that will be the driving force for all camera manufacturing in the future (unless those same manufacturers can afford to produce different models for different geographical markets). Two thirds of the world's population live here, the average age is far far lower than in the West and they are becoming more and more affluent. In China the average age of a millionaire (US$) is 38 yrs old, in the USA it's 53 yrs old, and China is expected to pass the USA for the total number of millionaires in one country sometime in the next 5-7 years (it passed Japan in 2011).

The Q whilst pooh-poohed here and elsewhere (and I admit I was one of the crowd) is on course to outsell the much vaunted Fuji X100 by 3:1 going by the latest monthly sales figures (annualised ca. 300k to 100k). The general opinion in the West was it would bomb.

All this childish talk of Fisher Price or Tonka toys is denying reality, the staid industries previously designing & selling their models to Britain, Germany, USA and other relatively conservative countries, are now finding that China/Asia drives their designs and the rest of the world can just tag along.

e.g. China is now for General Motors far and away their highest profit making centre and they have shifted much of their design dept to Shanghai. For producers of luxury items from handbags and designer clothing to almost every exotic car marque, China in 2012 will be their largest market (even though those same cars cost almost twice as much here as they do in the West). I was even reading recently about how London is trying to find ways to avoid losing out on the buying power of the Chinese (Harrods' profits rose 50% last year almost exclusively because of Chinese tourists - the average spend per visit of a Chinese tourist being in the hundreds if not thousands of £s whilst local buyers averaged around £50.

Camera makers are no different to the makers of other luxury products - now designing their products to suit their main markets of this year and the future, Asia.

I think it was Don that shot down my get-rich-quick business idea by telling me this solves that issue : link