What if Pentax one upped Tamron...

[CSpronken]

What if Pentax one upped Tamron ...

... and made a 18-250mm with SDM and a faster aperture?

The Tamron is nice and compact with only ø62 filter size, but the lens is also quite slow. What if Pentax could manage to make a 18-250mm ø72 F3.0-5.6 or perhaps even ø77 F2.8-5.1?

That would give Pentax a package that Canon or Nikon can't even come close to compete with on a consumer level. Think about it:

- IS, very welcome compared to F6.3 non-stabilized at 250mm
- Faster aperture, again very welcome
- SDM for faster focusing.

I think this would be a great way to attract more new DSLR users to the Pentax brand, what do you think?

[sft]

Yes - but it would probably be expensive. Think about it the Nikon one (which is 200mm not 250) costs quite a good amount (though that one has VR in the lens so that adds a little more) but if they made one say that was as fast as the Nikon (3.5-5.6) or sligtly faster and had SDM - I would imagine it would cost around $600 or so if not more. But I could see the appeal of it for people who want something like that and it would be convenient too I admit.

[BrendanPK]

2 things, it would probaly be made by tamron, and b tamron would still see profits from the selling of the lens
No SDM though

[bart_hickman]

Originally Posted by CSpronken

What if Pentax one upped Tamron ...

... and made a 18-250mm with SDM and a faster aperture?

The Tamron is nice and compact with only ø62 filter size, but the lens is also quite slow. What if Pentax could manage to make a 18-250mm ø72 F3.0-5.6 or perhaps even ø77 F2.8-5.1?

That would give Pentax a package that Canon or Nikon can't even come close to compete with on a consumer level. Think about it:

- IS, very welcome compared to F6.3 non-stabilized at 250mm
- Faster aperture, again very welcome
- SDM for faster focusing.

I think this would be a great way to attract more new DSLR users to the Pentax brand, what do you think?

It sounds great, but I assuming the brighter lens would have to be physically larger and thus more expensive. And since the IQ of the Tamron is reportedly quite good (even besting the Nikkor 18-200), Pentax would have to at least beat that and thus the cost goes up more.

But if they can somehow overcome all that, I think it could be a winner--even at >$800. It's hard to say how much that market segment would be willing to pay for a lens (remember, customers of this lens would probably tend to NOT be professionals, so price tolerance is lower.)

Perhaps another way to one-up the competition would be to intentionally increase the physical length another few mm so the macro magnification could be higher.

Bart

[Bob Wallace]

"...that was as fast as the Nikon (3.5-5.6)"

The Nikon 18-200 is not that much faster than the Tamron 18-250. The Tamron is 5.6 at 100mm and reaches 6.3 by the time one gets to 200mm.

That's less than a stop (less than half a stop?) given that a full stop over f5.6 would be f8.

[CSpronken]

Originally Posted by sft

Yes - but it would probably be expensive. Think about it the Nikon one (which is 200mm not 250) costs quite a good amount (though that one has VR in the lens so that adds a little more) but if they made one say that was as fast as the Nikon (3.5-5.6) or sligtly faster and had SDM - I would imagine it would cost around $600 or so if not more. But I could see the appeal of it for people who want something like that and it would be convenient too I admit.

Yes slightly faster at the wide end hopefully. Think $600 street price at introduction dropping to $550 later would be realistic. Would make it quite a bit cheaper than the Nikkor, although to have a significant impact on camera body sales it would have to be cheaper still ($50-100), but that's possibly a bridge too far.

Originally Posted by BrendanPK

2 things, it would probaly be made by tamron, and b tamron would still see profits from the selling of the lens

Yeah and that would be fine. I would just like to see them make it because I think it would be good for Pentax and their customers.

Originally Posted by BrendanPK

No SDM though

Why not?

Originally Posted by bart_hickman

It sounds great, but I assuming the brighter lens would have to be physically larger and thus more expensive. And since the IQ of the Tamron is reportedly quite good (even besting the Nikkor 18-200), Pentax would have to at least beat that and thus the cost goes up more.

Perhaps another way to one-up the competition would be to intentionally increase the physical length another few mm so the macro magnification could be higher.

I think such a lens would already have enough advantages over the competition if the optical quality is as good as the Tamron:

Compared to Tamron 18-250:
- Larger aperture
- SDM for faster focussing
- IS compared to Tamron on non-stabilized bodies

Compared to Nikkor 18-200:
- Less distortion
- Longer reach 250 vs. 200mm
- Possibly larger aperture at the wide end
- Cheaper (about $200 at current prices)

Originally Posted by bart_hickman

But if they can somehow overcome all that, I think it could be a winner--even at >$800. It's hard to say how much that market segment would be willing to pay for a lens (remember, customers of this lens would probably tend to NOT be professionals, so price tolerance is lower.)

I agree on that last bit, but $800 would be way too much if street price. I think at $600 street price you're already minimizing it's sales effect on Pentax bodies for new DSLR users, at $800 that effect would be zero.

Originally Posted by Bob Wallace

"...that was as fast as the Nikon (3.5-5.6)"

The Nikon 18-200 is not that much faster than the Tamron 18-250. The Tamron is 5.6 at 100mm and reaches 6.3 by the time one gets to 200mm.

That's less than a stop (less than half a stop?) given that a full stop over f5.6 would be f8.

Yes, that's less than half a stop and only at the long end. If they make it F3.0-5.6, at least it would be half a stop across the range, which is not a huge difference but always welcome of course.