[Uluru]

I agree. Also inevitably the rendering will be different (I'd put my money on edge to edge sharpness at the expense of smooth bokeh) and so the legacy FA limiteds will have an appeal still.

It's not an "if" these lenses will be discontinued of course, all lenses eventually are, and these FA limiteds have already had a long life.

I won't mind lack of aperture ring if the selected aperture is visible on the top display, and the lens is made up to DA Ltd build and quality standards. Which means, proper manual focus, quick shift and DoF scale.
If it's focus by wire piece of nonsense, I'll abandon Pentax system then and there, sell a car and buy a Leica,

PS. Or simply continue using APS-C camera and get DA Ltds I'm still missing.

[Uluru]

I'm surprised the DA 70 is so popular. I had one briefly and it's very nice, but ahead of the DA 40?

I'd be very surprised to see the FA limiteds go, unless they're being replaced with DFA versions. Having said that, if they mess with the optical formulae they risk affecting the pixie dust that so many see.

DA70 is the 105mm 135 format equivalent, and it's a damn beauty. I absolutely adore that lens. It's pefect for portraits and medium telephoto, with rendering to die for. Even if you point it into a garbage bin, the result is art.

Re second part, I sincerely doubt Pentax would screw up that much and kill the most amazing lenses in their lineup. They can only improve on them. So I hope for their DFA treatment, and addition of the quickshift. Maybe the aperture ring will go, or maybe not. If they release an LX styled FF camera, they can sell it as a premium kit with all three DFAs, delivered in a beautiful leather bag.

Now, THAT, baby, would rock! It would be a kit of the lifetime.

[Allison]

Are you talking about PF or CA?

I've had good luck with CA, bad luck with PF, admittedly in LR3. I have LR4 now, but haven't looked into PF tools.

It is very easy and very effective in lr4. The gray edge that boss a mentions does take an extreme case, but if it happens I just fix it in photoshop instead.

[garywakeling]

Very interesting that KEH has just received $600,000.00 worth of pentax digital equipment from the wholesalers to clear the decks .

Pentax Australia has also been offering discounts ( unheard of in the past ) over the last month on DA lenses. I also picked up a K-01 for $199 including the 40mm XS lens, very happy at that price.

I understand many people obsess over the latest camera bodies, however for me it has always been about the lenses Pentax has produced over the years. The joy of fitting an old screw mount lens to my current lightproof recording box, always gives me a warm inner glow. I have all three FA limiteds and whether they are fitted to the LX or K5, the joy of moving the metal focusing ring around , watching the image become sharp, is a feeling I hope Pentax will always provide to me.

In the meantime check out those LN bargains at KEH before the future catches up with us.

Happy Pentax user from Asahiflex to whatever they introduce next as Ricoh/Pentax

[Raffwal]

Happy Pentax user from Asahiflex to whatever they introduce next as Ricoh/Pentax

I had to read that again and again without understanding until I realized you're not talking about the member "Asahiflex" but the SLR.

[garywakeling]

Sorry for the confusion, I'm just an old long time pentaxian who is still trying to work out the reuse of names KX film/digital, MX/MX-1 .
I can now predict the new camera will be the Ricoh Asahiflex-1

[Aristophanes]

The only 2 true FA lenses left in the line-up from this brochure are the 50 and 100 macros.

This is almost exclusively a DA brochure, so a non-FF assembly and marketing push.

Also, every lens description starts with the eq. to 135. That's a conscious play, especially right at the top description.

So, one can read it as the consolidation of what is really an excellent APS-C line-up. Only 2 of the macros will be crossovers in the FF world. I still think many of the DA lenses are over-priced and over-engineered for the APS-C market.

[solar1]

imho, this and similar threads should have been closed ages ago. The FUD machine runs rampant through the mob mind.

[Zygonyx]

The lens brochure distributed by Pentax during the "Salon de la Photo" (Paris, November 2012) did not include any FA Limited either. Oddly, A converters (1.4x and 2x, S and L versions) were included.

I just checked : this has been the case for french brochures at least since may, 2008.
I have a Japanese brochure dated February, 2011 that includes FA Limited together with some A, FA-J... So i think Pentax only adapts it's communication to local market

[yusuf]

Thank god they are discontinuing. We need newer lenses with better coating than hanging on legends. I simply prefer my Samyang over FA77 due to CA. I do own couple of FA lenses (FA77/35/50) and they are nice however discontinuing them is a path to get newer lenses.

[yusuf]

Hopefully the prices shoot up and I can sell my 31mm for the new Sigma 35mm F/1.4.

Agree, this kind of reflect what I just said above. At this moment I am really happy with my Sigma 30/1.4 compared to FA35.

[Raffwal]

The FUD machine runs rampant through the mob mind.

Classy.

[Unsinkable II]

I also picked up a K-01 for $199 including the 40mm XS lens, very happy at that price.

Wow.

Where?

[garywakeling]

Wow.

Where?

Pentax Australia web store, they had an easter sale, it was advertised as body only and I was happy at that price. I was even happier when it turned up with the kit lens in the box. The price actually went up after 2 days ( they must have realised they had been too keen even on a closeout price )

[Wired]

no matter what happens.. I still need a FA 43