Originally posted by Aristophanes Problems? Pentax publicly stated its Limited series DA primes was complete. No more to come.
Pentax's problem is it staked its revenues are higher-end lenses but watched the competition split their larger internal economies between plastic mount and pro quality stuff.
So Pentax loses sales if it does not keep up, but lose revenues if it does. So whatever is coming out now is going to be low cost, low risk, DAL. They meant it when they said Ltd is done. Time to move on.
Not sure about this one.
The DA ltd lineup is made of pancakes ranging from 15mm to 70mm.
DA15mm/f4
DA21mm/f3.2
DA35mm/f2.8
DA40mm/f2.8
DA70mm/f2.4
To me this look pretty much complete apart between 40 and 70 maybe, but then fro someone who
needs the focal length FA43/1.9, FA50/1.4 and DA*55/1.4 are all extremely valuable alternatives.
On the high end of lenses, Pentax can produce more DA* primes, bigger, faster and with weather-sealing compared to their ltd siblings.
DA*18/2.8
DA*35/1.4
DA*85/1.4
Can complete nicely the high end lineup.
But, sure, as much as I love the Kx, the lack of cheap 24 (eq 40) 35 (eq 50) or 50 (eq 85) gives a hard time advising to invest in the Pentax system for a serious beginner on a budget.
I believe at the moment, there is a gap between the snapshot maker who want "prettier" pictures than their compact (with a K-x + 18-55) and the "serious" user who is willing to invest 1000€/$ for a setup with decent creativity potential (K-x + 35ltd or DA21ltd)
The later are really fantastic combos and great teacher for someone willing to learn seriously but a 35/2 at 200€/$ would just be more relevant for this population (before they drool on the DAltd lineup ...)