[DeadJohn]

So this is $100 more than the canon ...why? What is it going to do better? And for the people that say because it's new, its not like other Pentax products go down in price unless there is a replacement. The DA* lenses are still at their ridiculous prices.

Answer: Work with a Pentax/Ricoh camera.

[DeadJohn]

Yeah, that really got out of hand fast.

I was tempted to reply "NAZIS!" to trump any further escalation

[asahi man]

Looks like a good price in Europe (street price):
£199 - Sigma 1.4x EX DG APO Tele Converter (No WR)
£309 - Nikon TC-14E II 1.4X Teleconverter (No WR)
£349 - Sony 1.4x Teleconverter (No-WR)
£359 - Olympus EC-14 1.4X Four Thirds Teleconverter (WR)
£379 - Pentax HD PENTAX-DA AF Rear Converter 1.4X AW (WR)
£409 - Canon EF Mark III 1.4x Extender (WR)

So it places itself right in the middle of the modern WR crowd, only beaten by the smaller m4/3 Olympus.

That´s realistic

[VisualDarkness]

My biggest question is this:

DA* 55mm F1.4***
*** effective maximum aperture will be F2.4

I don't understand.

[krebsy75]

Pentax Announces New 1.4x Teleconveter - Pentax News - PentaxForums.com
Ricoh announces HD Pentax DA AF 1.4X AW rear converter: Digital Photography Review

I think it is interesting that the 40 XS gets cited as incompatible while the other variations of 40 ltds

More proof they aren't the same lens. I've been preaching this for awhile.

[asahi man]

They have the same lenssystem.

[VisualDarkness]

Loos to be the same kind of build as the Q-K adapter with a similar design, in other words really good!

[ElJamoquio]

$599.95 ? The SMC Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter is looking like a bargain ,

Consensus price here. Look at the recent offerings... lens prices are Nikon + 10% or so. I guess in this case it's + 20%.

[abacus07]

It's surprising how many people get upset about the pricing of an extremely niche product. There are only a few lenses that I would purposely buy this for but for those lenses this is an important piece of the lineup.

[ElJamoquio]

Yes, don't Nikon and Canon also have maximum apertures of the mother lens to ensure proper Auto focus with a tc?

I've heard that with Nikon, but it's not like they're blocking it out with my D800 - it's just allegedly slower, I can't really tell the difference though (going from f/5.6 to f/8).

[mee]

Perhaps they were inferring killer prices.

haha, no, but err.. yeah.. I was.

I was saying.. just because person A and person B do something doesn't make it right (for Person C, D or anyone).

Similar to if company A (say Canon) and company B (perhaps Nikon) charge an exorbitant amount for a product, does make it right (for Pentax or any other company to do the same)..

[mee]

It's surprising how many people get upset about the pricing of an extremely niche product. There are only a few lenses that I would purposely buy this for but for those lenses this is an important piece of the lineup.

Perhaps it wouldn't be such an extremely niche product if it wasn't priced to be an extremely niche product?

[ElJamoquio]

If this is really the best T/C out there, it's worth $600.

Personally I don't see any reason the 1.7x is ~$400 used. I don't think it's garbage or anything but it's not that good IMO. If the 1.7x is worth $400 used then the Nikon 1.4TC is worth $700 or more.

With the 560mm still being laughably priced IMO I'm a little gun shy to say that the T/C is 'worth it'. We'll have to wait until some testing gets done on some lenses. I'm sure it'll be worth it to some people who don't want to run two systems.

[y0chang]

Its actually 4 elements in 3 groups rather than 4 elements in 4 groups in the Tamron TCs. I still find hard to believe that it will be any better quality than the Tamron. Certainly not 2-3 times the price quality worth. I will hold judgement though until its tested with the DA*. I wonder if the TC will read the proper focal length and aperture. The 1.7x had one thing that made it unique which was the AF mechanism built in that focused manual focus lenses. Adding a moving element into a TC has got to drive up cost.

[crewl1]

The DA*300 is so good that I can put a cheap old manual 2x TC on it and the pictures look great.
The biggest key for me will be RELIABLE, ACCURATE, NO HUNTING AF.
With the DA*300 the pictures should be great.
WR will make it a no brainer.