Pentax - where are the fast lenses?!

[jslifoaw]

Although more value-oriented primes would certainly be welcome, should buyers be basing their system choices on lenses that do not exist? If I was looking for a DSLR that could use AF primes that didn't cost $500-1000, I never would have had Pentax on the radar. In fact Pentax is small enough that I wouldn't even have hoped for them to start making those kinds of lenses anytime soon, and I would have directed my attention towards Canon (and maybe Nikon, although their entry bodies won't AF many of those lenses).

Anybody who has recently bought into Pentax hoping for future cheap AF primes was probably taking a gamble; I don't think it's reasonable to buy into a system missing desired lenses and assume that they'd appear once you bought the body. Aside from maybe the FA35 and FA50, the only way to score cheaper primes was and is still through the used market (for the last few years anyway).

Pentax does have some appealing features like SR, WR, and appealing ergonomics/size, but those won't really help someone looking for primes under $250, and it is up to buyers to choose another system or bite the bullet and either use cheap zooms or go for the upper-end primes. I don't think Pentax tried to screw anybody over since it has been like this for awhile.

It's sort of like choosing to buy an electric car and then becoming frustrated over why you can't use it most places because there are no charging stations and expecting that there ought to be more of them so that everyone can start using electric cars (who has one to begin with since it would be more unreaslistic to build all the stations first and hope to sell a ton of electric cars), when you could have just as easily chosen a standard or hybrid vehicle that doesn't have the same limitations.

[CanadIan]

I bought into Pentax for a Light&Small prime setup for backpacking and travel. I bought three DA ltd. lenses and a K-7 before a week long backpacking trip this august. I have now filled out my lens lignup with three old M lenses for when I'm willing to carry more weight.
Now my next lens purchase will be an f1.4 lens intended for low light and shallow DoF. It will rarely ever be used faster than 2.8. My DA40mm and DA70 are just fine at f2.8, and weight 1/2-1/3 as much anyway. I'm not going to buy an f1.4 to use at f5.6; that would just be silly.

The lens I want is one that hasn't been brought up here... the Voigtlander 58mm f1.4
This is a perfect portrait length(87mm eqv.) with decent bokeh and high quality build. It is also cheaper, lighter, and smaller than the DA*55.

The DA*55 puzzels me a bit, if I wanted a lens to be weather sealed for outside, then I would want light weight and quality construction more than wide aperture. If you sealed a Da 40 ltd, then it would be the perfect outdoor/hikeing lens. But I wouldn't take a heavy f1.4 55mm hikeing, and if I'm not hikeing then I can take it inside if it starts to rain!!

If they weren't going to give it that Ltd. touch, then what exactly was wrong with the FA50 f1.4. Why would a company focused on small and light replace a nice compact lens with a huge monster who's only advantage is weather sealing, which in my opinion is of little use in a heavy/bulky(lens+hood) lens.

Ok... done my rant for the day.

[Marc Sabatella]

Originally Posted by jslifoaw

Pentax does have some appealing features like SR, WR, and appealing ergonomics/size, but those won't really help someone looking for primes under $250

Good post, but just to nitpick a little - actually, those *do* help someone looking for primes under $250. There *are* quite a few primes available for under $250; and while they don't have AF, the presence of SR means they *are* stabilized. And given the choice between dozens of excellent $250-or-less primes that are stabilized but lack AF, or basically just two or three so-so $250-or-less primes that are not stabilized (and no stabilized primes *at all* under $1000 or under 100mm), I have a hard time seeing that as clear win for the latter system.

[jslifoaw]

Originally Posted by Marc Sabatella

Good post, but just to nitpick a little - actually, those *do* help someone looking for primes under $250.

Whoops, I meant to add "AF" before "primes under $250"

non-SR AF vs SR MF is a tough call. I can call myself lucky and say I have DA and FA primes with SR, but for a lot of people manual focus is a pain. Sometimes I tell fellow Pentax shooters that there are some nice lenses available for sale somewhere (good Pentax-A ones) and then once I mention manual focus they lose interest completely.

The value of SR is probably why a lot of folks will choose Pentax and then decide to complain about the lack of AF primes later instead of choosing another system with plenty of those lenses and complaining about the lack of in-body stabilization

[Rondec]

It is a tough situation for Pentax. I think that most people's first lens is the kit lens. Then, if they decide they need another lens, they get a telephoto. Finally, they move to the superzoom stage, where all in one seems the perfect option. Most photographers never get to this stage, but those who do, usually stop here.

There are a few brave, intrepid souls who venture on out from there into the domain of primes. There may be a few more of them for Pentax (percentage wise) than for the other brands, but there aren't very many of them. The thing is that they are very rabid and they crowd fora just like this one and the only thing they like better than a sharp prime is a cheap, sharp prime.

So there you go: the few, the proud, the primes.