Originally posted by derekkite chhayanat: I didn't know that about the Kowa. I wondered. So it is equivalent to an M42 manual lens then. Too bad. I would consider it if it had A functionality.Of interest, I was reading recently a review of scopes. They compared the Kowa, expensive and perfect, with a couple other very capable ones. The difference was about $1k and very very small, undetectable to most decrease in image quality.
If Pentax can find that spot, very good image quality at a price that doesn't remind you of a good used vehicle, they will be successful. We would always have the opportunity to spend another few thousands of dollars on some superb piece, but for most of the market those are dream toys.
Let alone the Pentax-A functionality, Kowa's Prominar lens/scope does not even respond like an Pentax-M or Pentax-K lens where the diaphragm can be stopped down by the green button.
As to price, the reason why I chose the Pentax-M 400 f5.6 in 1981 was precisely that the competition, Minolta, Canon, Nikon and Olympus (not even mentioning Leitz and Zeiss), made lenses of comparable focal length which were much more expensive than the Pentax. Your analogy of the price of a second hand car was what I habitually used myself. Price and backward compatibility do matter to Pentax owners. This would apply to the 560mm f.5.6 as well.
Chhayanat