[mee]

I wish this was a DAL style lens for much less price (maybe $250-300 retail).

and they would have added the DC motor to this lens for around it's current preorder price.

[elpolodiablo]

The 18-55mm lens needs SDM- IMO Pentax needs to make that their #1 priority.

Maybe unified the DA zoom range with DC motor drive?

[Alizarine]

nice to see the DA55-300 finally getting a WR treatment (and HD coating too!)

I wonder if the HD's going to trickle down to every lens soon... I always thought the HD was reserved for premium lenses like the Limiteds and the 560, but it seems not so.

[7samurai]

i'm wondering why they didn't upgrade the motor to DC. I thought DC was going to be reserved for the low end products and SDM for the high end.

[bobmaxja]

Because putting a new DC motor mean a full redesign of that lenses

[jatrax]

i'm wondering why they didn't upgrade the motor to DC.

Because there is no motor in that lens. It is screw drive, using the motor in the camera. Adding an in-lens motor would require a complete re-design. Not saying that would not be a good thing but refreshing the 55-300 with WR and HD allowed them to push it out the door in a reasonable time frame.

I know many people want Ricoh to wave the magic wand and create new lenses, new flash system, FF camera and beat all competitors but I don't think Ricoh has a magic wand. What they do have is dogged persistence to make things right. Think of Tortise and Hare story..... Ricoh will get there, I have every confidence, but on their time frame not ours. One tiny improvement at a time....

[Alizarine]

What they do have is dogged persistence to make things right. Think of Tortise and Hare story..... Ricoh will get there, I have every confidence, but on their time frame not ours. One tiny improvement at a time....

Can't call the K-3 a tiny improvement, but I agree, one at a time. What I like about the WR 55-300 is that it presents an option (for only $50 or so more) for the casual/not-so-enthusiast consumers (those who preferred/can only afford the K-30/K-50 bodies) with a long-range option they can never get with CaNikon offerings. With the K-30+18-55WR+HD55-300WR, they have everything from wide to long tele at a price range that would probably cost twice (or more) from other manufacturers.

e.g. for Canon, the least expensive model currently out is... 70D? and for Nikon... D7000, if I'm not mistaken

[ExtremeWalker]

Excellent been waiting for this, if it was announced a couple days later id have bought the SMC Pentax-DA 50-200mm F4-5.6 ED WR, lucky escape

[Mistral75]

(...)

Now, would they be making HD and WR version of the DA 16-45 f4 and DA 12-24 f4 in due time? That would give them a complete range of mid tie WR zoom lenses. (...)

The DA 16-45mm f/4 isn't manufactured any more. The lenses you are expecting are on the roadmap under the names of "DA Wide Zoom" and "DA Zoom", the former being probably the Ricoh version of the Tokina AT-X Pro DX 12-28mm f/4.

[Traditional]

Red = HD coating
Green = SMC coating

Had been the case for the HD DA Limiteds, HD 560MM and that HD 645D lens(45mm?)

Aha. Well, I guess that Ricoh had to chose some color to mark that it is a HD coating lens, I just wish it would have been some softer and more pleasant color than bright red. Why not start all over again, and show that the lenses with HD coating is the companys' finest (?) lenses by using the color gold?

[elpolodiablo]

Aha. Well, I guess that Ricoh had to chose some color to mark that it is a HD coating lens, I just wish it would have been some softer and more pleasant color than bright red. Why not start all over again, and show that the lenses with HD coating is the companys' finest (?) lenses by using the color gold?

Already done that with the DA* lens

[Traditional]

Already done that with the DA* lens

Well. If the color red means HD coating, green stands for SMC coating, and gold marks DA lenses, then I would humbly suggest bluegreen, or maybe cobolt blue, as the color for lenses with HD coating.

[Alizarine]

Tamron's rings are also gold.. like in their 17-50 f/2.8 (the 70-200 f2.8 has a blue one, though)

the metallic red looks good anyway. Canon's got the deep red (but plain) one. Though yeah, how about pearl white?

[bxf]

It all depends on the shade of each colour: Pentax green is nice. Samsung blue is nice. Tamron gold is nice. Pentax gold is nice. etc, etc. On my screen, the new Pentax red actually looks gorgeous. In the end, this is not all that important.

[bdery]

The 18-55mm lens needs SDM- IMO Pentax needs to make that their #1 priority.

It would definitely encourage people to look at other SDM lenses, creating a nice upgrade path.

The 18-55 as it is focuses decently fast and accurately, so it's not a performance issue, more of a market positioning (giving a feeling of being a serious company).