Yes. But it doesn't mean I have to agree that they're going about it the right way. Since you point out the costs of what they've done here are low, why not invest a bit more and make the product stand out more, come out with something that will actually draw people's attention a bit more than saying "Hey now you can have dust reduction... oh and support for lenses you won't or can't buy yet".

Yes. Yes it does. Where exactly did I say I don't want Pentax to increase market share? I said I would like Pentax to focus on existing customers as well as potential new ones. More to the point, I also said that I don't believe what they've done with the K100D Super is going to be all that good for the purposes of attracting people to Pentax... in other words, i don't think it's really going to increase (or do all that much to secure) market share, because I don't think it does very much to appeal to the people it's trying to appeal to. I have made that point in two posts now but people seem to be able to reply to my posts without reading them.

Right, but I'm suggesting that very few people will be attracted to Pentax by this increased spec. The only lenses to use SDM when the K100D-Super is released will be the two f/2.8 zooms (and that's assuming they are released then). They're both comparatively high-end lenses, not the sort of thing that most potential entry-level dSLR buyers will be looking at.

No, I don't have to upgrade. I do however have to watch as the company uses its time and money doing things that I don't consider all that useful, when they could be doing other things that to me would seem more constructive, and beneficial to Pentax users (which I take to include current Pentax users, not just potential ones...)

I say "well done" in response to either achievement or effort. Both of which are absolutely minimal here.

They have added SDM. I don't count a dust reduction system of questionable effectiveness as a real addition, as far as I'm concerned it's just the SDM. Because low-range dSLRs have such low resale or trade value, I can't see too many people trading in their K100D or other recent *Ist-based model just to get SDM on effectively the same camera. So Pentax are almost certainly targeting it at people looking for their first dSLR. People who, and yes I'm being a snob and generalising, are mostly impressed by specs and pixel counts and a good number of whom have probably bought into the myth that Canon and Nikon are inherently better.

As I see it, the K100D Super will only appeal to those people if they were already considering a Pentax and it was only the autofocus which put them off... how are you going to advertise it to everyone else, say "The new Pentax K100D Super supports super-sonic lens motors"? They're going to say "Hang on, didn't Canon and Nikon already have that in most of their cameras?"

So basically my problem with the K100D Super is because firstly it doesn't do much for me as someone already invested in the system... and also because I don't expect it to be all that effective for what I assume are the intended goals of drawing in new customers or creating publicity and showing that Pentax is "still in the game" as others put it.


That's because by then we hadn't had the exact same camera 'refreshed' quite so many times.

I went on a good long rant about this on another forum. I'll spare you that and instead provide the abridged rant...

Not impressed. Not at all. If this turns out to be one of the two "new" Pentax dSLRs then I will be many miles from impressed. This is not a new camera.

DS, DL, DS2, DL2, K100D, K110D, K100D-Super...
What next, K110D Super? K100D Super 2?
Or will we have a K10D Super or K10D 2, followed by years of minor variations on that?

Honestly I don't want 10mp. Not stuffed in the same old camera. The K100D is good, the K10D is good. What I'd like is a bit of product differentiation that goes beyond "Stop looking at that Rebel and D40, we have one like it for less!" Personally what I'd like to see is something like what Olympus have done, namely designing cameras that are not simply small but have a small profile - this would be an ideal body for the Pentax pancake lenses, it would recall the small 35mm bodies like the MX (at he moment Pentax use names like "K100D" and "Super" to recall their great cameras of the past when all they're doing is made slight improvements to the same camera). Of course that's just one idea. There must be others. My point is, something different please...

... or at least take time off fiddling with existing bodies, and either restart production of FA lenses or bring us a bit closer to that magical DA road map. At this rate Pentax will soon have more dSLR bodies than current lenses, which I'm fairly sure is not the way it should be.

You are right - the AF Assist only works in AF-S. I nearly always use AF-C and it didn't occur to me that I might have used AF-S on the occasions when I used the AF Assist lamp. Problem solved. Thanks for the help everyone, and George, sorry I doubted you

Edit: I was wrong

OK it may not have been a high voltage, but if the Sigma did not cause the problem then it seems a very strange (and even more unlikely) coincidence that this problem would only develop during and after using the Sigma...

Surely either the Sigma caused the problem or the K100d caused the problem, one way or another something went wrong with that combination which has now altered the functionality of the camera.

Hi, I recently posted in the Flash section of the forum that the AF Assist lamp on my new Sigma flash was not working (on a K100d). I've since noticed that the AF assist function of the K100d's pop-up flash also does not work in any mode except "Auto Pict". Now I never use Auto Pict, ever, so this isn't much use to me. I also know that the AF assist previously worked in Av mode. Does anyone have any experience of the AF Assist not working when it clearly should (I tried using it in a completely dark room where autofocus was clearly impossible)?

Edit: I just realised the obvious answer. A fairly disconcerting thought. The AF assist on the K100d used to work in all modes. I attached a Sigma on which the AF assist did not work, and now the AF assist on the K100d doesn't work... could the Sigma have messed up the K100d's flash? It's certainly possible for overly powerful flashes to completely fry the flash circuitry, so is it possible that a lesser fault could cause only partial damage?

If so this is fairly annoying since I will have to return the faulty Sigma and have the K100d fixed, and both were from different shops.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

The Samsung is indeed the Pentax lens in disguise with only a couple of minor physical changes - I now have one, I should have mentioned that. Thanks for your post.