[RonHendriks1966]

So I went to see the Salon de la Photo today and visited the Pentaxstand. To present the results on the survey over R and D spendings on new lenses that runs now for 4 months here on this forum.

You can find the survey here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/146454-wich-le...r-d-money.html Wich is still open to vote!

I had a short meet with Yazid Belmadi, who is Responsable Communication for Frans Division. I handed him three hard copy's on the results for the poll. He said that he was very glad with this input from the Pentax userbase, since communication between Pentax and his customers is very important. The three copy's are going to Pentax France, Pentax Europe and Pentax Headquarters in Japan.

Yazid Belmadi with the report:


Yazid Belmadi adressing to us, PentaxForums.com readers and members:

You Tube

You Tube

The only part missing in the pdf is the frontpage (wich is a printed picture):


Some small talk:
- The print on the invitation about a new product was a simple mistake.
- There will be no new product this year.
- There will be maybe something new in januari, but we don't have to worry about waiting untill PhotoKina.
- The Pentax camera division will not merge with the Ricoh cameradivision in the coming year.

Pentax is in France a big brand and you see a lot of users visiting the show. My guess is that 10 to 15 procent is Pentaxuser. There are also books about K-5 and K-r in French. There are brochures for all the products in French. There was also a stand for Pentax scoping.

I'll add some pictures when I get home on monday.

Here is the report:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20195454/print.pdf
The last page is in the report the first page with recommendations:

Recommendations on future development of new lenses for the Pentax K-mount:

One way to spend the R&D budget is to highest user group demand:

These are the most popular choices among the PentaxForums.com members:
1. DFA*1.4x Tele Converter. There is currently no TC available for Pentax digital camera.
2. SDM-II design with more reliabillity and faster Auto Focus and implementing them into the current SDM lenses and future new SDM lenses.
3. DA 24mm/f2.0 WR is the highest rated lens in the survey. There is some logic to it, since it is an old and good lens design and there is no other prime in the wide angle range that futures WR.
4. DA*85mm/f1.4 is the second lens to stand out in the survey. An expensive lens, but with the FA*85mm/f1.4 as a predecessor it is to be expected that there is a demand for such a great lens.
5. DA*135mm/f2.0 is the third lens to stand out in the survey. A fast tele lens that is good for concert, long lens portrait and sports (especially indoor sports arena's) to name a few. An expensive lens, but with some good prospects among the Pentax user base.

These five are among the readers of this forum favorite and there is a good reason to belief that they will be appreciated among current and future Pentax DSLR users worldwide to some extend. Having an updated and improved SDM-II version to make up for shortcomings of the current SDM (being the slowest part in AF-performance in current lenses on K-5) will be good for the Pentax brand. The other four are specialty choices, but adding three complete new lenses and a TC to the Pentax digital lens line-up. Then there are 4 more points of attention to make to this survey.

6. There is some demand for a budget friendly longer reaching telezoom and DA 135-400mm/f4-5.6 WR is the choice in this section.
7. For wildlife there is a very strong reason to bring out a good and new lens (for current userbase, attraction off new users and preventing from loosing customers) but the DFA*500mm/f5.6 is short in votes to stand out in this survey. So no advice is coming out of this survey! Demand isn't very high in this survey, but missing in lens line-up wich gives it a high priority.
8. For both Limited lens series (DA Ltd and FA Ltd) are new lenses to be considered when there is room in Pentax lens line-up (look into wide-angle or long portrait) and sales of the current lenses in this series are profitable enough. Priority is low unless one off these series is becoming the new long portrait lens and having answers to this survey is good enough for Photokina in 2014.
9. A long macro lens is good for the Pentax brand since Pentax has a good name in this area. The DFA*200mm/f4 macro has a market for it's own. It is a lens for wich users even will buy a combo camera body with macrolens, attracting new users to the Pentax brand. It is not popular enough to stand out in this survey.

Ron Hendriks, The Netherlands: info@iamphotographer.nl

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Last edited by RonHendriks1966; 12-04-2011 at 12:43 PM.

[TOUGEFC]

Good work Ron, hopefully something good will come out of the survey poll results

[elho_cid]

Thanks for representing us. I don't believe it was a simple mistake. I guess they had something prepared, but couldn't produce enough units before christmas without threatening the quality. Maybe they learned their lesson and do not want go through the stain issue trouble again.

[suncrimson]

Thanks for sharing the information, a little disappointed but I know they just need some time...

[ogl]

So I went to see the Salon de la Photo today and visited the Pentaxstand. To present the results on the survey over R and D spendings on new lenses that runs now for 4 months here on this forum.

Can you give me the link to the poll about new lenses?

[thibs]

Thanks for representing us. I don't believe it was a simple mistake. I guess they had something prepared, but couldn't produce enough units before christmas without threatening the quality. Maybe they learned their lesson and do not want go through the stain issue trouble again.

I'd rather go for 'Ricoh decided to postpone Mirrorless because they wanna be sure it fits in their strategy'. And frankly,I'd do the same, as frustrating as it can be for us.

[feishui]

Great job Ron. Thank you for your time. Waiting to see your pictures. January is not far away. If there is a mirrorless, I will probably have the money ready...

[Zygonyx]

Hello,

I had my own discussion with Yazid, i can confirm Ron's report.

As regarding new products :

- i had the chance to be shown one of the few specimen of the "prototyp Q/K" mount adapter by Yazid : this adapter includes an aperture ring able to move the diaphragm of non manual K lenses (incl. DA series), thus making possible some interesting aperture ajustment for the fixed lenses. I could test it with my DA 21mm Ltd, it looked OK. My only concern is that they should include as well an electronic shutter in this adapter, to make possible the use of interesting speeds for flash synch. and other features.

(picture found on flickr)

- i made also some lobbying with the guys of "Pentax Sports Optics" re. Pentax Q adaptor they could suggest for the telescopic Pentax Line of product, as adaptors currently exist in the K mount and for compact cameras. Of couse the Q/K mount adaptor should be possible to use in addition to the existing K one.

I can also confirm that Pentax is a much appreciated brand in France.
One of our national nature photography journal measured up to 25% of its lectors using Pentax gear in a 2010 pool.

[_lyan_]

Thanks for sharing

[Raffwal]

I'm not really surprised they won't release anything new this year. After all, they're busy restructuring things and up to some point fusing two different companies, organizations and work cultures. However, it is now months since they cut the deal, so I'd definitely like them to announce some sort of a plan or roadmap since for that they have certainly had the time to do.

[HawaiianOnline]

I'm not really surprised they won't release anything new this year. After all, they're busy restructuring things and up to some point fusing two different companies, organizations and work cultures. However, it is now months since they cut the deal, so I'd definitely like them to announce some sort of a plan or roadmap since for that they have certainly had the time to do.

Indeed. To make an release announcement with only 3 months left in the year would smack too much of a "shoot from the hip" mentality on Pentax Ricoh's part. Let us just hope that they complete the meshing of the two companies in a reasonable amount of time and come up with a roadmap as you say. The question then becomes "what is a reasonable amount of time"?

That will vary from gearhead to gearhead...

[RonHendriks1966]

Added some info in the opening post.

[Ubuntu_user]

Thanks so much for representing "us", Ron! I don't doubt that Pentax is going to at least give the report a good look over. Hmm... we just might see some real winner glass popping up here within the near future (1-2 years).

[Zygonyx]

Thank you for this all impressive and interactive work !

[RonHendriks1966]

Somehow no picture of the Q, but I had it in my hands. It is very very small. Somehow it does feel nice in your hands. Took some pictures with it, but still have to look at them.