SMC Pentax K 1.8/ 85 mm portrait lens

[monochrome]

Originally Posted by Lowell Goudge

In my opinion, the ability to use old lenses on the new DSLRs is coming to an end, All the really good ones are gone, or people just kept them (like me) and bought a Pentax DSLR.

There is not much left except to rummage through the junk bin and sell anything that fits a pentax

Yes there are those who trade up slowly, as can be seen on Ebay and in the market place, but prices are getting out of hand,

I would bet the several sites that rated Pentax lenses when there was a REAL concern Pentax would die (2003 - 2005) and the PDML members made an effort to keep the information available have something to do with the insane prices for these 3 0r 4 lenses.

I'm thinking specifically of the sites that get the most internet hits - Mark Roberts', especially for the Vivitar 70~210 and his "equipment list", Stan's PDML comments extracts, Bojidar's just because the information is available, Paul Provencher's Die Cast Pro Spotmatic/Takumar pages, J. Colwell's SPLOSDB, the LX site from Malaysia, the Cult Classics pages (when they were working), Pentax-Manuals.com and some of the larger collectors' For Sale sites such as Kevin's Cameras.

KEH doesn't hurt anything just by being there to browse.

What these sites did 5 years ago was give people like me, who had some K and M Pentax lenses and maybe a K1000, KX or MESuper already, the confidence to spend significant money on a Pentax digital body.

As the sites have stayed on line, and their hit numbers have kept them at the top of the search lists, they now serve to promote demand for a very few lenses that many buyers can never and will never use, evidenced by the recent sales of FA* zooms on ebay, and the listings of anything rare by Matisuya [sp?] Store (I saw an A* 1200/8 complete with case sell for I think $12,000 in June).

I confess I am as guilty as anyone of having lenses just because they are old and neat - but I'm talking K135/3.5 or K200/4 - $90 lenses, and at least I am trying to use them.

Maybe I should have sold into strength, but no one on this forum seems to want to buy the lenses that I want to sell - and I don't expect to make a profit, or even necessarily to get my money back - my offers just languish for weeks, getting an occasional bump from a well-informed and generous member - so I put them all back in my bag and I'll just keep them for posterity.

My bet is that, except for the odd rare lens such as the 85/1.8s, the DEMAND side has largely died, so the SUPPLY has been put away by the collectors - the collections have all been taken off the market becasue the demand has dropped.

As evidence I submit that the seemingly endless supply of screw mount lenses and bellows, then K mount lenses John C. O'Connell has had for sale for 7 years has dried up - he is now selling extremely high end audio equipment much more often than Pentax lenses.

If Pentax ever releases a FF body, I'd bet the supply returns.