[zapp]

Boom, the new lens is available. No gallery shots online, no reviews. Was this lens really landed without any commercial preparation? Results looks nice so far, but a little bit more material could be expected.
Prove me wrong and add links to more pictures and stories about the new lens... this lens is not any lens, it is the start of Pentax’ bright future.

[Ole]

Ricoh has a site dedicated to Pentax star lenses and in particular to the new D FA* 50mm F1.4 here.

[biz-engineer]

no reviews.

There is a review of one user. And he started a thread and posted one nice photograph taken with the D-FA 50, but there isn't much activity continuing his thread. IMO, it is the result of seasonal slow activity of online forums, + the lens being somehow an excellent but not everyone will find a use for it. Back in spring time was a poll to know who would get that lens, but a lot of people are saying they don't use 50mm very much , and a lot of people at looking at a 20mm f4 kind of prime.

---------- Post added 22-07-18 at 15:36 ----------

Ricoh has a site dedicated to Pentax star lenses and in particular to the new D FA* 50mm F1.4 here.

They say that they were thinking of making a D-FA*85 first but that 50mm was requested more.

---------- Post added 22-07-18 at 15:38 ----------

without any commercial preparation?

The commercial preparation may be done by Tokina for september release, with testing on Canon and Nikon bodies with lots of articles on DPR.

[Digitalis]

I will be looking forward to seeing what this lens is capable of. Sadly I still don't have my optics test bench set up - At the moment, my residence is situated a few Km away from an active quarry and the seismic vibrations from the blasting would throw everything off, not to mention all the rubble trucks when they head down the hill at full tilt. *THUD*

[UncleVanya]

That focal length has the potential to be useful in both APSC and FF more than 85 would. But the existing DA* 55 is more practical for an APSC user and cheap by comparison.

[normhead]

Boom, the new lens is available. No gallery shots online, no reviews. Was this lens really landed without any commercial preparation? Results looks nice so far, but a little bit more material could be expected.
Prove me wrong and add links to more pictures and stories about the new lens... this lens is not any lens, it is the start of Pentax’ bright future.

The link is probably one of the most exhaustive pieces of information for any lens anywhere. Your attitude is becoming quite irritating. Learn to use google. As for reviews, "Do not throw your pearls before swine as they will trample them underfoot." comes to mind.

Review sites like DPR have taken Pentax pearls and trampled them underfoot, proving themselves to be true swine. Personally, I hope Pentax never provides these people with copy of the lens. Giving them anything just provides them with another opportunity to trash Pentax. Pentax has put together quotes from the lenses' designers. If you're not literate enough to sift through that information losers like DPR aren't going to do you any good either.

It says, these new lenses will be better than DA* and previous * lenses. That's all you should need to know. How they stack up compared to the best out there from other companies remains to be seen. But you rarely find reliable information of that type in reviews in any case. Even from 3rd parties.

In the days of film photography, PENTAX’s optical design included a subjective element called the craftsman’s skill or instinct. It’s not that we miss this element because it is nonexistent today: along with the advanced simulation process, we always conduct a sensory evaluation to determine whether a product is attractive to the human eye, not only at the initial optical design stage, but also in every other stage of production. This is one factor consistent for all PENTAX products.

You are not going to get this type of detailed information on any review site. Plus the article reveals all kinds of pertinent information on aspects of the current Pentax design and marketing team you aren't going to find anywhere else, and which should be required reading for anyone into the kind of negative posts at the top of this thread. All these people imagining what Pentax doesn't do are pretty much proved wrong. Things like the 50 being more requested than the 85 even though the engineers wanted to do the 85 first. Good insider information that puts the speculation we see on this site to shame.

There should be pile of naysayers who should be completely embarrassed by the mindless anti-Pentax dribble they've been bandying about for years. Turns out, a lot of it was simply slander and negative conjecture.

It's time to start using this info to start putting some beat downs on a lot of the criticism of Pentax entertained on this site.

You now have the designers perspective of what they were trying to and did accomplish. You won't find many lenses for which that information is available. Now start ragging on Canon, Nikon, Sony et al. for not providing similar information for their lenses. After all, Pentax put it all out there on the line. Why shouldn't other companies do the same?

Show us you're not so biased against Pentax, you can't give credit where credit is due.

[SSGGeezer]

The link is probably one of the most exhaustive pieces of information for any lens anywhere. Your attitude is becoming quite irritating. Learn to use google. As for reviews, "Do not throw your pearls before swine as they will trample them underfoot." comes to mind.

Review sites like DPR have taken Pentax pearls and trampled them underfoot, proving themselves to be true swine. Personally, I hope Pentax never provides these people with copy of the lens. Giving them anything just provides them with another opportunity to trash Pentax. Pentax has put together quotes from the lenses' designers. If you're not literate enough to sift through that information losers like DPR aren't going to do you any good either.

It says, these new lenses will be better than DA* and previous * lenses. That's all you should need to know. How they stack up compared to the best out there from other companies remains to be seen. But you rarely find reliable information of that type in reviews in any case. Even from 3rd parties.



You are not going to get this type of detailed information on any review site. Plus the article reveals all kinds of pertinent information on aspects of the current Pentax design and marketing team you aren't going to find anywhere else, and which should be required reading for anyone into he kind of negative spot att he top of this thread. All these people imagining Pentax doesn't do are dressed. Things like the 50 being more requested than the 85 even thought he engineers wanted to do the 85 first. Good insider information that puts the speculation we see on this site to shame.

There should be pile of naysayers who should be completely embarrassed by the mindless anti-Pentax dribble they've been banging about for years. Turns out, a lot of it was simply slander and negative conjecture.

It's time to start using this info to start putting some beat downs on a lot of the criticism of Pentax entertained on this site.

You now have the designers perspective of what they were trying to and did accomplish. You won't find many lenses for which that information is available. Now start ragging on Canon, Nikon, Sony et al. for not providing similar information for their lenses. After all, Pentax put it all out there on the line. Why shouldn't other companies do the same?

Show us you're not so biased against Pentax, you can't give credit where credit is due.

Tell us how you really feel Norm!
I have to agree that the Negative Nellies and Doom and Gloom Dimbulbs need to just cease and look at what is getting posted image-wise. Early results are in and they are beautiful!


I shoot only APSC and I am excited for all of the FF shooters here who are waiting on their copy, while thinking in the back of my mind, "would this work for me on my KP?" I suspect it would be amazing but next lens for me will be the DA* 11-18 when it pops out next year.

[normhead]

Tell us how you really feel Norm!
I have to agree that the Negative Nellies and Doom and Gloom Dimbulbs need to just cease and look at what is getting posted image-wise. Early results are in and they are beautiful!


I shoot only APSC and I am excited for all of the FF shooters here who are waiting on their copy, while thinking in the back of my mind, "would this work for me on my KP?" I suspect it would be amazing but next lens for me will be the DA* 11-18 when it pops out next year.

How do I feel?
Ja,es Brown I feel good, youtube - Yahoo Video Search Results

[SSGGeezer]

How do I feel?
Ja,es Brown I feel good, youtube - Yahoo Video Search Results

I guess I could buy the new 50mm and put the battery grip on my KP and everyone would just "know" that I was a serious photographer and not the hack that I am!
I love * and Limited lenses so the only reason not to get one is that the wife would equate the size of this lens with feelings of "inadequacy" like she does when I mount my Sigma 120-400!

[biz-engineer]

Things like the 50 being more requested than the 85 even thought he engineers wanted to do the 85 first. Good insider information that puts the speculation we see on this site to shame.

Supposing the person who wrote that statement is totally under free speech conditions. As an employee, if you want to keep your job, you have to control what you say, no all the truth is good to say.

[normhead]

Supposing the person who wrote that statement is totally under free speech conditions. As an employee, if you want to keep your job, you have to control what you say, no all the truth is good to say.

My feeling would be, if Pentax wanted to control that information, they would have just refused to make the engineers available for the interview, like every other camera company does. Let's not assume something nefarious is going on, just because Pentax has gone above and beyond the industry norm on this one. That would defeat the purpose for Pentax. What good is making the engineers available, if what they say is reputed to be propaganda?

Weird how those who want Pentax to be more open, don't believe them when they are. Hopefully they don't look at that attitude and say "well that didn't work, lets just do what everyone else does."

For those of us who have spent years trying to piece together "what is Pentax thinking?" from patent notes and obscure executive interviews, this is like a breath of fresh air.

Statements like "they were restricted by confidentiality agreements" , prove it. Prove Pentax didn't just turn them loose to relay what they thought was the relevant information. even if they were, it still wouldn't mean that what they did say wasn't their accurate observations, even if they left stuff out that they also know because of confidentiality agreements. Pentax told us what they want us to know, and that was in a nutshell, this is a new class of lens of higher quality than ltd. and "*" lenses, and that they haven't had to sacrifice their traditional Pentax design values to do that .

Essentially, "lenses for the way people shoot pictures not for the test charts" on steroids, with the "not for the test charts" part deleted.

What is it you think they are misrepresenting because of confidentiality agreements?

[biz-engineer]

Anyway, IMO, it is too early to have reviews of the D-FA*50. It's is not yet available everywhere. Amazon EU says availability after July 27th. That situation might change end of August / September time frame, especially when the Tokina version will be out, the D-FA50 may also benefit from the same lens being promoted for other mounts.

[monochrome]

Boom, the new lens is available. No gallery shots online, no reviews. Was this lens really landed without any commercial preparation? Results looks nice so far, but a little bit more material could be expected.
Prove me wrong and add links to more pictures and stories about the new lens... this lens is not any lens, it is the start of Pentax’ bright future.

Do you ever have something positive to say?

The lens isn’t really in very many hands yet. Most places will ship Monday. I expect mine Wednesday. I expect to have a set of photos up by next weekend. Will that be fast enough?

[zapp]

Do you ever have something positive to say?

The lens isn’t really in very many hands yet. Most places will ship Monday. I expect mine Wednesday. I expect to have a set of photos up by next weekend. Will that be fast enough?

Pentax is behaving very differently from the rest of the photo community. The launch of a lens is typically accompanied by media coverage, hands on releases of typical web services... The Pentax world is awaiting the new D-FA* and we have to buy it and wait for the first user reviews. Maybe Pentax is not happy with previous coverage by DPR. Ephotozine had a test of the 70-200 out long before it was available to the public - premature, but some "independent" news coverage.

I say a lot of positive things about Pentax, but it appears that my not completely positive comments really hurt some people here. I will read your review and probably check out the lens myself quite soon.

[monochrome]

Pentax is behaving very differently from the rest of the photo community. The launch of a lens is typically accompanied by media coverage, hands on releases of typical web services... The Pentax world is awaiting the new D-FA* and we have to buy it and wait for the first user reviews. Maybe Pentax is not happy with previous coverage by DPR. Ephotozine had a test of the 70-200 out long before it was available to the public - premature, but some "independent" news coverage.

I say a lot of positive things about Pentax, but it appears that my not completely positive comments really hurt some people here. I will read your review and probably check out the lens myself quite soon.

Most of us understand that Pentax only does that kind of marlketing in Japan. They don’t have the infrastructure here to support the things you find lacking - at least not in North America. They’re sold out on the lens without ‘doing anything’ traditional, so whatever they did worked, I’d say.

We need to stop looking at Pentax through the CaNiSony lens and finding them wanting. They’re different. Embrace the difference. Be different yourself. I doubt they’ll market the way you ask in my lifetime.