Sigma and Tokina made a 400 mm f5.6 about 20 years ago, these were replaced by 140-400 and 80-400 zooms respectively.

I have the Tokina and it was a good lens. For 3x as much there was the Pentax SMC FA*400 f5.6....very rare...alternatively there is the F* or FA* 300 f4.5 - still rare.

Lens weights are quite deceptive, the DA*300 is quite light, the Sigma 150-500 on the other hand is long and heavy (my new Nikkor 80-400 is lightweight in comparison)

In my opinion if you have around £600 change rattling around in your pocket the DA*300 might tick all your boxes

you got other blogs??

Will wait for the official announcement, then the launch, the reception, the issues that first adopters always encounter, the fixes and for the price to settle.

Why no photo of the front?

Will a price drop to £395 tempt anyone out of the woodwork?

Well, Pentax were one of the first to showcase a full-frame DSLR - this was prior to *ist series - based on the MZ-S it had a Philips 6MP sensor. Canon, Kodak, Fuji and Nikon were already selling DSLRs by then, but none sold a FF camera

Technological dead end - Pentax chose correctly not to proceed. Contax used the sensor and the company died.

The *ist D was Pentax's response to the Canon EOS 10D and Nikon D100 - IIRC the launch price was well over £1000 with 18-35 FA-J lens. It was very much a sticking plaster approach and the only differentiating feature was its size. Canon and Nikon were quick to launch the 300D and D70 at much less than £1K and suddenly the *ist D looked overpriced. The S, L, S2 and L2 were launched in quick succession to capture some of the

Perhaps I was being a little negative about the performance of the 150-500 Sigma, hope the images at 500 mm will reassure some of you of the lens' abilities

There isn't a DA 100 macro lens - the non-WR and WR 100 mm f2.8 variants are D-FA - fully compatible I am sure with 35mm

Nah, Swiss speed camera

Not convinced Stu - Canon have a love-hate relationship with Sigma - Sigma won't pay the licence for the AF system on Canon - so every time there is a Canon upgrade, the Sigma lenses have to be adapted. For the third parties, I suspect, although Canon and Nikon dominate the market, other companies represent a larger proportion of their output. I accept it that it is a somewhat blinkered approach not to continue selling PK fit products given that they don't depreciate as much as EF/F-mount versions.

Going back to the Original topic, a DA-L variant of the 150-450 at a discount could be done I think. But Pentax would have to be careful to avoid cannibalising sales of the D-FA or to sell a product that at around £700-800 that is fit for purpose....

From my perspective Canon and Nikon users with a bit of cash to splash prefer to spend money on EF or Nikkor glass, not Sigma or Tamron. If they want a fast 300 mm 2.8 - they would consider the Sigma 120-300 EX. The new A C S Sigma lenses have a cost premium over older models so they won't appeal to users with less cash available.

Nikon and Canon 80/100-400 are £1600-1800...if they go to f6.3, you might as well but 60-250 plus the 1.4x and keep with f5.6...in practical experience you do begin to get some compromises IQ and handling wise....