Originally posted by CheepShot I wonder if Pentax is holding on putting these out until enough 08's are sold. If the IQ is close, I'd buy the 4.4mm first and probably forget the 08.
If the 4.4 is priced close to the price of an 01, I would buy it very quickly. I will never buy the 08! (I have limited need for that range, and I will never pay twice the cost of my camera under those circumstances).
---------- Post added 04-19-15 at 01:10 PM ----------
Originally posted by CWRailman Considering that most cameras are now sold by non camera stores such as Best Buy, Target, Sears and the like to many amateur photographers, this is quite understandable. Talking with a salesman at the Best Buy store in Scottsdale, Arizona last year he told me he had been in their Photography dept for two years and never sold a Prime lens for the Nikon or Canon cameras they sell. EVERYBODY buys zooms including many of those adequately informed about the benefits of a fixed focal length lens. Every time I am at the Grand Canyon I check out the lenses on the DSLR and SLR’s and I have never seen a fixed focal length lens which is the more appropriate name for a prime lens, on any of the cameras carried by the visitors. Variable focal length lenses have gotten so good that most photographers, who do not want to be accompanied by a pack mule carrying a collection of lenses, different filter sizes etc. don’t even consider using fixed focal length lenses. Why would anyone want to schlep around a bag full of primes and associated filters when one variable focal length lens will accomplish the same. Try hiking up any of the trails in Colorado with a bag full of lenses and you will soon be a zoom convertie. (Those of you under 30 or who weigh less than the recommend weight for your height need not reply to that comment.)
I can’t remember the last time I saw a photographer at a sporting event, professional or amateur, who was NOT using a Zoom lens. In the mid 1970’s when camera manufactures started selling “body only”, Central Camera in Chicago said the sale of fixed focal length lenses slowed down substantially as even back then many buyers opted for zoom lenses. All things considered I doubt Pentax sold more than a few thousand of the 08 lenses. They probably knew that in advance hence the high price which was computed to amortize the costs of the 08’s development over fewer sold units.
I understand the value of zoom for telephoto lenses; in 1979, when I got my first Pentax SLR, my first addition was a 75-205mm Vivitar lens ... but I believe that zoom was very uncommon for wide-angle until fairly recently. Considering how I usually use wide-angle lenses (for example, in museums where the aisles are crowded), a lens like the 4.4 is all that I would need, and hopefully it would be less pricey, and that would also take me back to the capabilities I had with my film Pentax SLRs.