[mattt]

I came across this - It may have been posted before - but its worth a repost to understand how the company came to be in the position that its in, and to express my frustration at the tremendous delays of lens release. My rant - a 70-200 zoom, and a compact silent focus wide angle prime for street - built with new tech. I'm not dropping $1,000 Cdn on a 30 y/o screw drive Ltd lens.

What are you using as a street lens on your K-1?

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[clackers]

I think you're spoiled for choice, Matt.

The lens in that ad will go on your K-1, you have everything going back to 1975 that works. Try that with Canon or Nikon!

The Limiteds or similar make for *great* street lenses, which should be small.

I love going out with just the FA31 or DA40 SX or DA*55. The DA40 is a pancake!

If small's not important, the DFA 28-105 suits the size of the body and is WR, silent fast focus, nine rounded aperture blades, etc and is wonderfully priced.

[monochrome]

When that ad was released every single maker of multi-coated lenses on earth except Leica* was paying Pentax royalties on a least some part of the Super Multi Coating process. Eventually Pentax was making and selling so many cameras and lenses (and eyeglass lenses, binoculars, spotting scopes, telescopes, medical equipment, construction laser levels, industrial products and countless other things) they couldn’t build plants fast enough to keep up with their growth. They pioneered the idea of a manufacturing campus, with employees facilities on premises. Pentax was a giant in the industry, but they were also captives of their prior investments (screwmount technology is an example of this) that were still productive.

Pentax cane to be in their position when the SMC patents ran out* and their diversified businesses weren’t throwing off cash flow during a recession. A hedge fund and Hoya collaborated to buy the distressed company in a hostile transaction. Hoya consolidated and exploited the high-margin medical imaging and device businesses. The Hedge Fund liquidated land and assets. Hoya stripped Pentax of its Japan headquarters and Factory in a Park, sold off the inventory of DA lenses at fire-sale prices in the USA, gutted the distributors of their experienced employees and abrogated their Dealer contracts, refused to make capital investments in modern manufacturing tools, then sold the husk of a company to Ricoh for $165,000,000. The first thing Ricoh had to do was buy evaporators at $1,000,000 each to bring HD coating to market. Hoya had refused to buy the machines.

You can blame corporate raiders for any delays that anger you. Ricoh has been wonderful just keeping Pentax in existence.

* Leica always maintained lenses didn’t need coating. As soon as the patents expired they started coating lenses. (Source - Asahi Optical Historical Club)

[LeRolls]

Was this lens even that good? I don't remember anyone ever talking about it...

It is disappointing that it takes them so long to put out new lenses that are actually up to date. I am interested in getting back into landscape photography but cannot justify the 15-30 no matter how good it is. I've been waiting for the rumored wide angle prime for FF. Something akin to the DA 15 which I loved on my K-3. Only semi-interested in their new 50mm as I do not shoot at that focal length all that often. Will probably pick up the new 85 but wish it was coming this year and not next year. Oh well...

[clackers]

Was this lens even that good? I don't remember anyone ever talking about it...

It is disappointing that it takes them so long to put out new lenses that are actually up to date. I am interested in getting back into landscape photography but cannot justify the 15-30 no matter how good it is. I've been waiting for the rumored wide angle prime for FF. Something akin to the DA 15 which I loved on my K-3.

I don't think it will be an ultrawide, Chris. And it wouldn't be tiny like the DA15 Limited either ... let's remember, that's a 49mm filter size, and has lots of compromises.

Probably a 35mm, a big * lens, to go with 50mm and 85mm. Possibly also sold to Canon and Nikon owners via Tokina.

And expensive. Once you look at two or three such premium primes, the DFA 15-30 makes a lot of financial sense!

[mattt]

@clackers - I have plenty of SMC manual glass. One of the benefits of the K-1 was the Safox 12 with all those focus points - benefit not realized shooting legacy lenses.
I do have the 28-105 - no complaints and sure it’s proportional to K-1 but it’s no compact prime.
@Chris - exactly my thoughts, though I do have the 15-30 - it is excellent but immense.

I wore out a DA21 on my K5iis as a walk around lens. FA 35 is acting in that role but I wish for wider and silent focus maybe with W/R. I don’t need f1.4

[jatrax]

but its worth a repost to understand how the company came to be in the position that its in,

They got where they are by making a lens that only 37 people would buy. Among other things. Like not paying attention as the rest of the world ran past them. Or making a profit.

express my frustration at the tremendous delays of lens release.

No sympathy here. Sorry you are frustrated. Too bad. You might have noticed the world has changed a bit since 1981. Anyway, lots of lenses out there if you really want one. And the new ones will come. Someday. Or not. I myself was so frustrated at this situation that I went out and bought a DFA 15-30 to protest.

[Billk]

Usual street lens on my K1: FA 77mm F1.8


Usual street lens on my K3ii: FA 43mm F1.8

[monochrome]

Boy, it sure is easy to armchair criticise 40 years down the road. Pentax did have amazing mechanical and optical engineers. Pentax didn’t have

1. A keiretsu to back it
2. The laser printer imaging engine patent
3. An industrial conglomerate that made everything from toasters to tankers behind it
4. A Board that abandoned them when the Phillips sensor didn’t work
5. A Board that sold them intentionally to a Walkman company (and kept half the corporate assets and two venerable camera names for photocopiers)
6. Their own sensor fabs
7. A Board that got caught falsifying sales numbers and finances for 10 years
8. Embedded skill in video technology
9. Bankers willing to lend them money to re-lend to American Dealers
10. Bankers willing to lend them more capital to retool plants when their old tools were still in their early life

They actually tried to be a technology leader, on their own, honestly, and what did they get?

First they get raided, and left to wither and die by the worst kind of poachers and investment bankers. Then they get criticized endlessly by their customers for not having the ability to produce everything they want as fast as they want it. Some people don’t have a clue how things actually work.

Does anyone have any idea how small Pentax really is? I’m amazed they’re actually still in business. By all rights they shouldn’t be.

[pschlute]

Picture i took last year with the lens "that only 37 photographers will buy"

[Billk]

They got where they are by making a lens that only 37 people would buy. Among other things. Like not paying attention as the rest of the world ran past them. Or making a profit. No sympathy here. Sorry you are frustrated. Too bad. You might have noticed the world has changed a bit since 1981. Anyway, lots of lenses out there if you really want one. And the new ones will come. Someday. Or not. I myself was so frustrated at this situation that I went out and bought a DFA 15-30 to protest.

They seemed to get caught flat-footed by the digital revolution but not quite as badly as Kodak....


Somebody (either an historian/ sociologist of technology or a science journalist) should write a detailed history of the digital camera revolution. It would be a great read.


BTW: We should all be very grateful to Ricoh for keeping it all going, otherwise we might all be currently expressing our frustration with Nikon or Canon instead.

[leekil]

I'm not dropping $1,000 Cdn on a 30 y/o screw drive Ltd lens.

What are you using as a street lens on your K-1?

I'm using a 20 y/o screw drive Ltd lens. (FA43)

[monochrome]

They seemed to get caught flat-footed by the digital revolution but not quite as badly as Kodak....


Somebody (either an historian/ sociologist of technology or a science journalist) should write a detailed history of the digital camera revolution. It would be a great read.


BTW: We should all be very grateful to Ricoh for keeping it all going, otherwise we might all be currently expressing our frustration with Nikon or Canon instead.

Caught flat footted? Dude.

Kodak INVENTED the digital camera. They couldn’t pay their union employees pension and retirement medical expenses.

Pentax was one of the two first companies - with Contax - to bring a digital SLR to prototype stage - the MZ-D. The Phillips sensor failed miserably, so Pentax abandoned the camera (and their entire development investment). That’s part of why they were vulnerable to the hostile buyout.

Kyocera just closed Contax. The brand went out of business, but most of the non-camera operations still exist and produce products. Tomioka still makes lenses in the same plant they’ve made them in for 80 years, going back to before the Yashica-Mat.

[jatrax]

They seemed to get caught flat-footed by the digital revolution but not quite as badly as Kodak.

Let's be honest:
They got caught out by not moving to bayonet mount in time
They got caught out by not moving to auto-focus in time
They got caught out by not moving to digital in time
They got out by not moving to FF digital in time

The astonishing thing is that they are still alive and making cameras and lens.

[clackers]

@clackers - I have plenty of SMC manual glass. One of the benefits of the K-1 was the Safox 12 with all those focus points - benefit not realized shooting legacy lenses.
I do have the 28-105 - no complaints and sure it’s proportional to K-1 but it’s no compact prime.

Not quite sure why you need a little lens on a big camera, but as I said, you have so many options.

The FA43 Ltd is so good a version was produced for Leica.

I agree with you about the FA35 ... it's a beauty, but only has six aperture blades.

One out of left field for you ... the DA20-40 Ltd apparently works just fine in that magical 24mm to 40mm range. Compact, WR, nine blades, HD coatings, DC autofocus motor, aluminium build, etc. The wide view is almost the same as the DA15 on the K5iis.

Buy it second hand, you could sell it for about the same price when eventually the FA Limiteds get replaced.

The Ricoh guy in the interview said this was further down the track than these beasty big and sharp DFA* primes, though.