[plooksta]

I've carried my Pentax gear into rough country and wild adventures since the late 70's, (although I also shoot resorts and cities, etc.), and looking back on all the Pentax 35mm, 67 and digital bodies and lenses I've used around the planet, I can honestly say we've never had it so good. This is the new golden age of Pentax for real serious shooters, and we owe a debt of thanks to Ricoh for investing and turning up the volume, and serving our visions. That's my two cents as a working pro who carries the K-3 and 645Z everywhere now, and looking forward to the new K-3IIs and eventual FF.
Off to Mexico next week to shoot beaches and ziplining and culture for my magazine markets, but hey, it's a living... Kerrick James

You are very lucky! 645Z and K-3 ii would be the absolute dream team as far as I'm concerned. Wouldn't care if Pentax never made another strap.

[Kerrowdown]

these lens can serve you 'till eternity !!

Well I have had them a fair while already, but eternity's a bit strong.

your collection of super rare Pentax lens

They certainly weren't rare when I bought them.

[TER-OR]

Integrated GPS and open hotshoe might be a decider for me - for my field insect survey work. In bright sun, no need for flash but sometimes it would be helpful.
As far as lack of lenses? The only real lack is long fast zooms - like the sports and birders can use. Otherwise, where's the gap? Sure, some third-party providers don't release in K mount, but that's strictly market share issue from what I can tell.

Weathersealing, ruggedness, innovative features all point to a healthy system.

Personally, I look at the Canikon offerings and see them slipping for the most part, just a little dress-up difference in the low and mid-range but no steps. So lots of bodies and lenses with lots of overlap and no major value to moving up to a newer body. Where is the impetus really? I guess jumping up to the FF range, but the lower end FF cameras don't really seem to offer a lot of features for the money.

[JinDesu]

Integrated GPS and open hotshoe might be a decider for me - for my field insect survey work. In bright sun, no need for flash but sometimes it would be helpful.
As far as lack of lenses? The only real lack is long fast zooms - like the sports and birders can use. Otherwise, where's the gap? Sure, some third-party providers don't release in K mount, but that's strictly market share issue from what I can tell.

Weathersealing, ruggedness, innovative features all point to a healthy system.

Personally, I look at the Canikon offerings and see them slipping for the most part, just a little dress-up difference in the low and mid-range but no steps. So lots of bodies and lenses with lots of overlap and no major value to moving up to a newer body. Where is the impetus really? I guess jumping up to the FF range, but the lower end FF cameras don't really seem to offer a lot of features for the money.

You bring up a good point. I think Canon made a specialty 60D for astrophotography, and this could also be considered a specialty camera for geotagging wildlife on the fly. Giving you the hotshoe slot means an option for a proper flash and extender, or a macro flash - where the on-board flash means nothing anyways.

[totsmuyco]

As far as lack of lenses? The only real lack is long fast zooms - like the sports and birders can use. Otherwise, where's the gap? Sure, some third-party providers don't release in K mount, but that's strictly market share issue from what I can tell.

Weathersealing, ruggedness, innovative features all point to a healthy system.

Weathersealing, ruggedness and innovative features are the reasons why I chose Pentax. Yes I totally agree with the lack of fast long zoom lenses. I have recently acquired a HD 55-300 WR. Decent lens but not so good when comes to autofocus.

[Matthew Saville]

...
As far as lack of lenses? The only real lack is long fast zooms - like the sports and birders can use. Otherwise, where's the gap? Sure, some third-party providers don't release in K mount, but that's strictly market share issue from what I can tell.

Weathersealing, ruggedness, innovative features all point to a healthy system.

Personally, I look at the Canikon offerings and see them slipping for the most part, just a little dress-up difference in the low and mid-range but no steps. So lots of bodies and lenses with lots of overlap and no major value to moving up to a newer body. Where is the impetus really? I guess jumping up to the FF range, but the lower end FF cameras don't really seem to offer a lot of features for the money.

You're forgetting the lack of the opposite: an ultrawide fast zoom. Considering that Tokina and Pentax have apparently teamed up in the past for optical design sharing, I'd love to see a weather-sealed Pentax version of either the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, or the new 11-20mm f/2.8. For landscape shooters who also do astrophotography, this would be huge. Otherwise, I'm "stuck" with lenses like the un-sealed, plastic-fantastic Rokinon 10mm f/2.8 and 16mm f/2, if I want to do justice to a extremely pixel-dense sensor like the K-3 / K-3 mk2... (Not that that's a bad thing; if anybody has tried that Rokinon 16mm f/2 they'd be able to vouch that it's insanely sharp, even when challenged by 24 megapixels and no AA filter. But then again, even Canon, Nikon, and Sigma lenses are all hard-pressed to beat some of the Rokinons for sharpness or other astrophotography qualities such as coma / field curvature!

BTW, it's official, my entire collection of Nikon APS-C gear is now gone. I'm gonna pre-order the K-3 II just as soon as I can, and happily await the May 22 (?) ship date!!! Now the only question is, what lens to buy first, as an astro-landscape lover?

=Matt=

[totsmuyco]

You're forgetting the lack of the opposite: an ultrawide fast zoom. Considering that Tokina and Pentax have apparently teamed up in the past for optical design sharing, I'd love to see a weather-sealed Pentax version of either the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, or the new 11-20mm f/2.8. For landscape shooters who also do astrophotography, this would be huge. Otherwise, I'm "stuck" with lenses like the un-sealed, plastic-fantastic Rokinon 10mm f/2.8 and 16mm f/2, if I want to do justice to a extremely pixel-dense sensor like the K-3 / K-3 mk2... (Not that that's a bad thing; if anybody has tried that Rokinon 16mm f/2 they'd be able to vouch that it's insanely sharp, even when challenged by 24 megapixels and no AA filter. But then again, even Canon, Nikon, and Sigma lenses are all hard-pressed to beat some of the Rokinons for sharpness or other astrophotography qualities such as coma / field curvature!

BTW, it's official, my entire collection of Nikon APS-C gear is now gone. I'm gonna pre-order the K-3 II just as soon as I can, and happily await the May 22 (?) ship date!!! Now the only question is, what lens to buy first, as an astro-landscape lover?

=Matt=

A weather sealed Pentax superwide is much awaited by a lot of forumers. I couldn't wait so I purchased a Sigma 10-20, 3.4-4.5. Sigma also has a 10-20 with a fixed 3.5 aperture but cost 50% more than the 3.5-4.5. Both are Pentax superwide substitutes and are much cheaper. Both lenses have excellent reviews.

[mee]

A weather sealed Pentax superwide is much awaited by a lot of forumers. I couldn't wait so I purchased a Sigma 10-20, 3.4-4.5. Sigma also has a 10-20 with a fixed 3.5 aperture but cost 50% more than the 3.5-4.5. Both are Pentax superwide substitutes and are much cheaper. Both lenses have excellent reviews.

Do you really have an f/3.5-4.5?? I have the f/4 - 5.6 and only thought there was my lens and the 3.5 only ?

[Matthew Saville]

Do you really have an f/3.5-4.5?? I have the f/4 - 5.6 and only thought there was my lens and the 3.5 only ?

Yeah, I think that was a common typo, the older Sigma 10-20 is indeed f/4-5.6. Most people who buy such a lens spend all their time at f/8-11 anyways, so the max aperture doesn't matter that much.

If I was any less into astrophotography, I'd get the f/4-5.6 and be totally happy. (I've reviewed both versions, and found the new f/3.5 constant version to NOT be worth the 82mm filter threads it requires, if anything its extreme corners are even LESS sharp when stopped down than the older version!)

Unfortunately, one of the main reasons I'm switching to Pentax in the first place is for their WR lenses, so I hope there is a 10-16mm f/2.8 WR, or a 11-20mm f/2.8 WR, or some other version of such a lens, in the near future. I see one on the Pentax Roadmap at present, however from the ambiguity of the chart it appears to not be as "ultra" as I like my wides. Then again, if they went the route of the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 Art, and delivered an f/1.8 or f/2 zoom that started at 12, 13, or 14mm, I sure wouldn't complain!!!

=Matt=

[totsmuyco]

Do you really have an f/3.5-4.5?? I have the f/4 - 5.6 and only thought there was my lens and the 3.5 only ?

Sorry you're right. It's 4 - 5.6. I get mixed up with all my lenses' specs.

[philbaum]

One of the specific capabilities that is key to Pentax, is its IBIS. Canon and Nikon decided to forgo that in favor of putting OIS in the lenses. Even Sony was putting OIS in their lenses.

Then Olympus came out with their 5 axis thing and everyone raved. Then Sony came out their 5-axis thing and that A7mkII is probably the most popular A7 version yet. Then Olympus came out with pixel shifting. So now Pentax is doing pixel shifting, improved 4.5 stops of SR, astrophotography shifting of the sensor, using the sensor for anti moire control, etc. Suddenly, those companies with IBIS, i.e. Pentax, Sony, Olympus, have the hot ideas. Canikon find themselves unable to emulate the specific IBIS related innovations without undermining their own VR lenses.

Judging by the popularity of Olympus and Sony model A7mkII, a lot of photographers seem to get the value of IBIS. This is a good thing for Pentax to be part of the in-crowd.

[mee]

Sorry you're right. It's 4 - 5.6. I get mixed up with all my lenses' specs.

No worries.. at least I'm not missing out on another variant of the lens

[Zygonyx]

@Mattew : there "soon" should come something as 15-30 High end K-mount zoom ; but for now if i was intending to go for astrophoto i think the DA24/2.8 would be top of my list.

[UncleVanya]

@mattew : There "soon" should come something as 15-30 high end k-mount zoom ; but for now if i was intending to go for astrophoto i think the da24/2.8 would be top of my list.

da 24?

[Rondec]

da 24?

Probably means the DA 14 f2.8.