[RobA_Oz]

[/B]
Off course they don't just dump it in one day. Little steps at a time. First it was removed from the company name. Then from the internet, now from the products. It's no longer a brand, Pentax doesn't exist anymore, it's merely a product line now. And they want to make sure everybody knows that. Canon-EOS, Panasonic-lumix, Ricoh-Pentax. No longer an entity like under Hoya, but just a product line. It's what happened to Minolta when it was bought my Sony all over again. Remember what Sony said about that?

Actually, I thought Konica-Minolta said to Sony "You can have the products, but not the name". The subsequent uphill battle Sony has had to be taken seriously in the DSLR market has required a great deal of money to sustain, and still, it seems, without return on the investment.

[monochrome]

Actually, I thought Konica-Minolta said to Sony "You can have the products, but not the name". The subsequent uphill battle Sony has had to be taken seriously in the DSLR market has required a great deal of money to sustain, and still, it seems, without return on the investment.

Precisely. Sony does not own the rights to the Konca-Minolta name. Ricoh apparently does own the Pentax name - at least for now.

As for being an entity, yes on paper Pentax was an entity under Hoya but as a company it sort of went out of business when eyeglass lenses were spun off and Hoya began actively managing the medical products businesses. We have no one to blame but Asahi Optical for this given the way they've managed the enterprise since 1971.

[Rondec]

I think it is funny that there is so much discussion about the Pentax name. (a) I don't really care if my k mount camera says Pentax on it and (b) Ricoh knows that the Pentax name has more cachet in the photography world than Ricoh and as long as they have the rights to the name, they are unlikely to dump it.

But who really cares?

[Gray]

But who really cares?

I do.

To the OP, I would buy the discounted DA lenses. I very much doubt the HD coating will discernibly improve image quality - any "improvement" is much more likely to be felt as a marketing gimmick impacting on perceptions of price and luxury than actual image quality. Maybe I'm wrong, but the burden of proof is with Ricoh.

[Rondec]

I do.
.

I like the Pentax name and I associate it with certain qualities. But if Ricoh is willing to continue that tradition and give me good cameras (that I haven't seen as yet) to mount my glass on, then they can put whatever name they want on the camera. I'm just not that brand oriented.

(sorry to go off topic like that by the way).

I would buy the older DA lenses and not bother with the new ones until the price comes down (which it will) and until I can actually see the difference in real life situations (I don't believe it will be obvious).

[edgedemon]

Here's what I'm almost totally sure of though: these new red-banded, non-Pentax-branded lenses are a first step in the re-branding of Pentax as Ricoh. It's about branding and marketing. Period. The HD is just an excuse to do so because image quality is going to be (see above) indistinguishable one from another. You read it here first.

RicohForums.com here we come. (Someday)

Although I like Pentax, at the end of the day it makes no difference to me if my K3 (or whatever) or the Ltd lenses are made by Pentax or Ricoh, as long as they take a good picture and feel good in the hand then I am a happy man.

[monochrome]

From Ricoh's perspective the question becomes what are the positive and negative brand attributes of the name Pentax and whether those attributes are sufficiently valuable to warrant investing money and time in promoting the name Pentax versus investing money and time promoting some other name such as Ricoh - or something altogether new..

[reeftool]

If the differences between the new HD lenses and the old crappy ones are in any way detectable to the human eye, it will be under the most extreme pixel peeping under 100% controlled environment. Then again, I have not clue because I have not tried them. But this is my prediction... that there are about 98 other factors that will influence the quality of your photograph long before the mysterious and Ricoh-esque HD coating will.

Here's what I'm almost totally sure of though: these new red-banded, non-Pentax-branded lenses are a first step in the re-branding of Pentax as Ricoh. It's about branding and marketing. Period. The HD is just an excuse to do so because image quality is going to be (see above) indistinguishable one from another. You read it here first.

RicohForums.com here we come. (Someday)

I think most of the discussion is premature right now. The new lenses may be much better and worth upgrading to. A year from now, we could very well be praising the "old" Limiteds and the HD versions will be the "new crappy ones". Until they are out on the market and in use, we won't know.

There are a lot of marketing issues at play and that is to be expected. What remains to be seen is what Ricoh is ultimately going to produce as products. As long as they are high quality and the K mount remains, it won't matter to most. Will they become like Sony, who for the most part has tried remove any trace of the Minolta brand from existence, and rebrand everything as Ricoh? So far, they say they value the name and tradition Pentax has in the industry.