Originally posted by germar Maybe it's just me, but I want the best possible gear to shoot my photos. And I love what the Pentax does in respect to color rendering and image. I don't want to look at an image and say "It's not as good as I wanted, but hey ... that lens had a 4 year warranty!"
Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to drop almost $1000 on a lens when I'm not guaranteed to get more than one good year out of it. Why is Pentax only willing to stand behind their lenses for one year?
I bought the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 over the Pentax 50-135mm f/2.8. The Sigma has comparable image quality to the 50-135mm, but it beats it hands down in focusing speed. So I did NOT settle for an inferior product. But what really tipped the scales in the Sigma's favor was the 4-year warranty.
Photography is a hobby for me. I'm raising a family on one salary, so any money I spend on photography comes from money I'm able to raise on the side by working extra or buying and reselling things. So when I spend $800 or $900 on a lens, I need to have some confidence that the lens is still going to be working more than a year later. With a Sigma, I KNOW that I will get at least four years out of it. And with Tamron, you're guaranteed six years. But Pentax will only stand by their product for ONE year.
So Pentax charges more for their lenses, but gives you MUCH less warranty.
And I'm just not seeing reports of people experiencing MULTIPLE failures on the Sigma HSM lenses. Same thing for the Canon and Nikon lenses. So I don't completely believe that the SDM issues are just a lot of belly aching by a few dissatisfied customers.
As others have pointed out, the one-year warranty IS costing Pentax customers. I gave my $800 to Sigma rather than Pentax. But despite this, Pentax has made a business decision to only stand by their lenses for one year. One can only assume that it would cost them too much to warranty their lenses for four years or six years.
Pentax doesn't need people apologizing for them. They need to step up and address the issue. And then I'll start buying their lenses.