Quote: Well one of the guys that frequents another forum I watch had what's called "DemoDaze" with all the reps from the major suppliers and product displays etc there. So for all you waiting on the Tamron the news he has direct from the source is
"Tamron, likely will announce 80-200mm 2.8 at PMA 01-08. Pentax mount will likely not be included with Canon & Nikon, so this lens may never make it to Pentax AF mount. Bummer. Oh well. Sony will get issued before Pentax if Sony gets issued. Tamron's goal now is to move their entire lens line over to Image Stabilized lenses so this is likely why Pentax and Sony will get left out since they have anti shake bodies."
Thanks for this bit of info. Now that is a bit worrying. Tamron is planning to move their
entire lens line over to IS? If so then will they bother to make
any lenses for Pentax? The 90mm Macro and even the budget 70-300mm are obvious choices for IS-ification; will even these disappear in K-mount? And ditto Sigma's options since they are working on their OIS too?
Call me alarmist if you want, but look what's happened since Nikon released the D40 and D40x... Tamron went out of their way to make "D40-friendly" glass. As usual, Canon and Nikon and their users call the shots... the third parties fall over themselves catering to those two; something which will surely only continue as dSLRs become cheaper and everyone and their dog are told they need a Canon or Nikon dSLR for "better photos"... will the third parties even remember we exist?
I always liked Tokina and hope that we can see some Tokina lenses for Pentax again, though I suspect it's unlikely because of the Toktax/Pentina lens situation... and they have some way to go, because I believe the number of current Tokina lenses available for K-mount is a grand total of... 2.
I suspect that if we just wait and see, and hope that the third party companies realise there's still money to be made from the K-mount, we could end up being disappointed... and not just those of us who want a 70-200mm f/2.8, but people who want third-party options and choice in general. Now I might have disagreed with the specifics of this poll, but I support any effort to tell the third parties we're still here, and that we would like them to take us seriously and not totally abandon us in favour of CaNikon. So again thankyou Peter for taking the time to do this, and thanks to all the voters and posters, of which I hope we see more.