[ogl]

It's just one week and Photokina 2016 will start...No news from Ricoh's side...

[Barry Pearson]

Don't explain away someone's incompetence with fictional and unbelievable scenarios. It's the direct opposite of what you say.

Lenses like
— 35mm/1.x,
— 50mm/1.x and
— 85mm/1.x

are a market in itself, a dire need in itself, and on FF bodies, impossible to replace by zooms.
On crop sensors they can be somewhat replaced, with lenses like 18-35/1.8, but then Fuji goes on and delivers f1.2 primes for crop.

Now, Ricoh had seriously, and I mean quite seriously, messed up on this. They should have delivered those three lenses ahead of K-1, not a year or two after it.

People differ massively.

I favour zooms, and top-up with primes for specific purposes. For example, I have all 5 of the recent D FA zooms, 3 of them before I got the K-1. But while I will probably get one or more of the to-be-announced prime D FA lenses, I have no urgent need for them. But instead I would like Ricoh to add a couple of light-weight D FA zooms either-side of the D FA 28-105mm zoom.

[kenspo]

It's just one week and Photokina 2016 will start...No news from Ricoh's side...

Do you really expect much news? There might be a little surprise or two, but nothing major.

[Zygonyx]

Uluru got it right I have exactly the same feelings.

I don't agree at all...

K-mount fixed lenses do exist in the line-up, even quite good ones (DA 40/2.8 , 70/2,4 and DA*55/1.4 are nice example of FF compatible "portraits" lenses) and zoom lenses made such quality steps in the recent years, that Ricoh was just RIGHT to start with the f/2.8 15-200mm pro line.

I wouldn't acuse Ricoh of incompetent or missmanagement on behalf of lack of recent primes. Those are in the pipe and should come up by end of next year, not in 5 years, and as reported by asahiman, these lenses are the priority for now and the months to come.

[Kunzite]

Uluru got it right I have exactly the same feelings.

No, Uluru got it wrong, as Pentax-bashing always does. So far, Pentax/Ricoh did exactly what was right.

#1. The zooms were required. 15 to 200mm with f/2.8 zooms, that makes the K-1 a serious proposition. Then there's the 150-450 as a longer option, and an affordable 28-105 "kit" zoom.
Pentax/Ricoh did very well launching these lenses. Previously, Pentax had no FF zoom lens in production.
Oh, and said zooms are impossible to replace by primes.

#2. The prime situation is less dramatic, with 10 official FF lenses in production (not even counting the DAs which cover the format, with limitations).
35mm? There's the 31mm Limited, and the FA 35mm f/2 (and, apparently, the DA 35mm f/2.4 works quite well)
50mm? Two 50mm, the old FA and the macro. The 43mm is close enough, and the DA* 55 might work stopped down.
85mm? How about 77mm?
It's perfectly understandable why primes were second, instead of first priority.

#3. Pentax/Ricoh has limited capacity; thus, delivering the 3 primes before the K-1 actually means delivering the K-1 after the 3 primes. In other words, delivering the K-1 in 2017 or later. Isn't this a brilliant move?
(postponing the zooms is not an option, because of #1+#2)

#4. You should guess this one... yep, Pentax/Ricoh has a solution, they don't need some angry post insulting them into action. There are no less than 4 D FA primes on the public roadmap:
- a Wide-Angle Single Focus Lens
- a Large Aperture Single Focus Lens
- a Large Aperture Medium Telephoto Single Focus Lens, and
- a Large Aperture Ultra-Wide Single Focus Lens
http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/japan/products/lens/images/K_Mount_D_FA_Lens_Roadmap.pdf

#5. His "second reason", using these lenses on a crop camera, makes even less sense. First, because Pentax has more APS-C primes (so it's much less of a problem than for FF), and second, because it makes no sense to postpone the K-1 if you're going to use said lenses on a crop camera.

#6. Last but not least, I'm curious if Uluru will buy any of the new primes. My guess is that he's all talk.
By the way, I will get one or two of them.

[kenspo]

Much of the reason for the 15-200 F/2.8 zooms first, is also feedback from us pro photographers. More primes will come

[Rondec]

Don't explain away someone's incompetence with fictional and unbelievable scenarios. It's the direct opposite of what you say.

Lenses like
— 35mm/1.x,
— 50mm/1.x and
— 85mm/1.x

are a market in itself, a dire need in itself, and on FF bodies, impossible to replace by zooms.
On crop sensors they can be somewhat replaced, with lenses like 18-35/1.8, but then Fuji goes on and delivers f1.2 primes for crop.

Now, Ricoh had seriously, and I mean quite seriously, messed up on this. They should have delivered those three lenses ahead of K-1, not a year or two after it. One reason is that Sigma and Zeiss and Tamron totally gave up on Pentax primes, there are no more quality prime lenses for Pentax unless Ricoh makes up their mind and remembers they have bough Pentax some 6 years ago! And that issuing of cheap toy lenses is no longer in. And people buying a K-1, an FF camera with serious imaging abilities, can't have a beautiful normal lens, a portrait lens, but must buy a sub-par rebranded f2.8 zoom.

The second reason is that all those lenses are also superb choices for crop cameras. They become 50, 75 and 130mm lenses, again, excellent choices for all portrait and available light work, perfectly filling up a gap that currently exists in the crop lineup.

I am just stating something a competent and pro-active management of the brand, say that of the Fujifilm, would think about and deliver. They would not allow people beg for half a decade for something obvious to spring into action.

Pentax currently has the FA 31 f1.8, FA 43 f1.8, DA *55 f1.4, FA 50 f1.4, and FA 77 f1.8. To act as though they launched a full frame camera without any primes in this range is ridiculous. To me, the bigger hole in the line up is in the wide to ultra wide angle range -- a prime between 18 and 22mm in length. As far as speed goes, f1.8 is more than adequate, assuming that the lenses are usable wide open, which the FA limiteds are.

As for the zooms, they are very nice, regardless of whether they are rebranded or not. Although maybe when you use the word "sub- par" you mean excellent. I am not a golfer, but my understanding of the game is that the more sub-par you are, the better your score is, as in "That Tiger Wood really turned in an amazing sub-par performance today! He was 12 strokes under par!"

At this point, it is clear that Pentax has done well with the K-1 regardless of current primes out there and that they are planning to release some more lenses in the prime range to fill out the line up. But, it provides excellent performance with the current lenses on the market.

[ogl]

Do you really expect much news? There might be a little surprise or two, but nothing major.

It's interesting just for fun. And it's good to get surprises.

[RonHendriks1966]

Well an oldy by now, but a fast wide and a fast portrait lens are on the requist list for some time now.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/146454-wich...r-d-money.html

[Uluru]

Well an oldy by now, but a fast wide and a fast portrait lens are on the requist list for some time now.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/146454-wich...r-d-money.html

I have personally seen and witnessed dozens of people asking where is the good new 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lens in Pentax line … That is the a, b, c, the 1, 2, 3, the bread, bacon and egg of photography. It is the way photographers think and see pictures inside their heads, regardless of brand. They should have been available, nurtured and up to date, all the time. There is no valid excuse for not having them. It's like, "Good day. Ah, you have a camera system? Let me see your best 35mm and 50mm lens …" If you stumble on that, there is nothing else you can say. The answer is, "I see. Goodbye, see ya later".

[mee]

I have personally seen and witnessed dozens of people asking where is the good new 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lens in Pentax line … That is the a, b, c, the 1, 2, 3, the bread, bacon and egg of photography.It is the way (some) photographers think and see pictures inside their heads, regardless of brand. They should have been available, nurtured and up to date, all the time. There is no valid excuse for not having them. It's like, "Good day. Ah, you have a camera system? Let me see your best 35mm and 50mm lens …" If you stumble on that, there is nothing else you can say. The answer is, "I see. Goodbye, see ya later".

Fixed that for you.

[Mistral75]

Fixed that for you.

I'd have written "many photographers over 50".

Just lend a DSLR equipped with a prime lens to somebody under 25/30 and you'll get the question: "How can I zoom [in] / [out]?"

[reh321]

I have personally seen and witnessed dozens of people asking where is the good new 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lens in Pentax line … That is the a, b, c, the 1, 2, 3, the bread, bacon and egg of photography. It is the way photographers think and see pictures inside their heads, regardless of brand. They should have been available, nurtured and up to date, all the time. There is no valid excuse for not having them. It's like, "Good day. Ah, you have a camera system? Let me see your best 35mm and 50mm lens …" If you stumble on that, there is nothing else you can say. The answer is, "I see. Goodbye, see ya later".

I am not a professional photographer, but I do buy cameras and lenses, and I do communicate with others who do so. I can photograph using a prime lens - in fact, my first cameras were rangefinder cameras, each with a fixed lens, and even today I sometimes work that way because the 01 is such a good standard lens on the Q-7 - but that is not my preferred way of working. My preferred way of working is to find a spot from which to take the picture I see inside my head, and then find a focal length that provides the framing I see inside my head. I'm not willing to carry a bag of lenses - 30mm, 31mm, 32mm, 33mm, etc - so a zoom works best for me. I guess your mileage differs.

BTW - I'm 68, so I'm glad Mistral75 said "some"

[Tako Kichi]

Just lend a DSLR equipped with a prime lens to somebody under 25/30 and you'll get the question: "How can I zoom [in] / [out]?"

I ran into this last week! I let my 22 year old daughter play with my Sigma 105mm macro prime on her K-10D when I heard her shout "Hey Dad, how do I zoom with this?", "With your feet" was my reply.

She was not amused!

[Kunzite]

OK, so N people would avoid Pentax K-1 because they don't have those 3 modern lenses (and existing ones are deemed as not good enough - including the Sigma 35mm Art). Fine; I'll accept that argument.
Now, M people would had avoided Pentax K-1 if no f/2.8 zooms were available.

Uluru's challenge - if he would accept it - is to prove that N > M. I dare him to try.
(alternatively, he could try to prove that postponing the Pentax K-1 for at least an year would bring Ricoh Imaging additional revenue comparing with selling )