[Alex 007]

Superb work...bravo...only pity that Older Manual pentax lenses was NOT included in this surveying?

Peace,

Alex 007

[BadVlad]

Extremely awesome. Great effort. For me, as beginner who knows what focal lengths he's interested in, this is a very useful read. Thanks.

[Chaitanya]

Great effort. I am not surprised to see 50mm macro on the list of unreliable lenses. Lets hope Pentax updates it really soon to the quality of 100mm WR. I would certainly buy it if Pentax upgrades it.

[gaddigad]

This kind of survey was really called for, well done.
One lens I would have added to the future lenses list is a middle of the road zoom, something like a 18-90 or a 24-135. I think the DA 17-70 does not seem to be as popular as an f4 walk around zoom should have been.

[kevinschoenmakers]

Superb work...bravo...only pity that Older Manual pentax lenses was NOT included in this surveying?

Peace,

Alex 007

The survey would have been unbearably long, so that's why I didn't include them.

[smcPixellie]

Very interesting survey, Must say I think the 'Future survey recommendations' are better as I have sold lenses for other reasons that being dissatisfied.

[nulla]

Great work... this is something to keep as a reference for sure



cheers

[Ash]

What surprises me most is the result that the 16-50 was NOT a lens causing much dissatisfaction at all, but was top of the list for needing an upgrade. I did not think many would agree with me on this one, but now I know I'm not crazy in thinking so!

Great work Kevin and thanks to all involved in compiling, analysing and arranging the results so comprehensively. A thread worth being a sticky.

[Class A]

Great work and interesting results.

I think within the narrative you make quite a number of assumptions and speculate a lot. The data does not support most of these speculations so I regard them as being a bit gratuitous. However, they are easily identifiable and therefore don't detract from the data.

Regarding the list of "Dissatisfied (former) owners" I don't think the answer "I would buy this lens again if it were updated" fits in well with the answers "I plan to sell this lens" and "I used to own this lens". The latter two can be interpreted as implying dissatisfaction whereas the former actually contains a considerable amount of endorsement. If you wish for a very good lens to become excellent, you are not really dissatisfied with it.

Finally, I'm not convinced a cheap 50 prime would have the effect you forsee for it. Maybe it will instead put people off buying further primes. The price has to have impact on the built quality and/or IQ so a plastic fantastic which does not represent a quantum leap over a competent zoom might leave many wondering why to bother with primes at all.

[wowtip]

Great job! I did have some thoughts on the method, but as it is, it will be a very interesting read. I work in a market analyze related business, so I know the amount of work you have put into this. So, thank you for doing this. Hope it get some attention over at Pentax HQ (just get that 55-300 WR out now, mkay?).

[birderdave]

I use a my Pentax almost daily for photographng birds but I didn't get round to completing the survey but as the only lens I use on my K20D is a 10 year old Sigma APO 400 macro I would not have been able to add much. I look forward to a new 400mm option from Pentax.

Dave

[X3msnake]

I didn't think much of the survey. too much info. there are lots of people like me that answered the first ones and most of the rest just shot trough since there are lens there that i knew nothing about.

So IMO the best way to do such a survey would only be obligatory to answer one question from each section, and keep open the option to answer I don't know/don't answer. I'm preatty sure that this was one of the reasons for a bloated result on the "future wants" lens.

Another thing that should be used is dropdown boxes to clarify the information and reduce visual clutter.

Best Regards.
V

[kevinschoenmakers]

I didn't think much of the survey. too much info. there are lots of people like me that answered the first ones and most of the rest just shot trough since there are lens there that i knew nothing about.

I will add an option 'I don't know/I don't care' to the recommendations.

So IMO the best way to do such a survey would only be obligatory to answer one question from each section, and keep open the option to answer I don't know/don't answer. I'm preatty sure that this was one of the reasons for a bloated result on the "future wants" lens.

This is very valid criticism. Google Forms for reasons unknown to me automatically selected 'very interested' as the default answer. If a survey like this was ever held again it would probably be best if 'not interested' was the default answer (although no default answer is of course best).

[Adam]

Cool survey. Just for fun, here are the top 5 Pentax cameras by percentage of active Flickr users:

1. Pentax K10D
2. Pentax K20D
3. Pentax K-x
4. Pentax K-7
5. Pentax K200d

Most photos posted last month by camera:

1. Pentax K10D
2. Pentax K-x (battling K10D for the lead)
3. Pentax K-7
4. Pentax K20D
5. Pentax K200D

Roughly equivalent to your numbers, with the K-x and K-7 obviously switching places. Maybe more soccer moms use Flickr.

One thing I thought was odd was that, according to this survey, a DA85 f/1.4 is the most wished for lens, but the DA*55 f/1.4 is one of the least owned lenses. Is the assumption that this DA85 f/1.4 would be inexpensive? Or do people really want a 135 f/1.4 film equivalent rather than the old 85 f/1.4 that the DA*55 provides? Interesting.

It's too bad the D-FA50 Macro is an ugly duckling without a reboot. Maybe it will get one out of the blue like the D-FA 100 WR

I think that's because the FA* 85mm was just that good

[Adam]

For the sake of clean statistics, each question should default to "no response" in future surveys, IMO.

I think it might also be easier to host the survey here on our site rather than through Google. We could then use our own data structures and not have to write a parser for the results.