Originally posted by zapp Bottom line: There will be no new APS-C lenses in the not so distant future. Startegy of the FF system may be judget after 2017 after the appearnce of the new primes. Curently all lenses are big - the opposite of what Pentax used to represent. FA Ltd will fade out.
That's what wory me most. The 70-200 from Pentax is maybe the heaviest of all manufacturers. And the 150-450 is a huge beast.
People speak of Pentax soul and explain how this soul remained intact with Ricoh and they are very happy about FF.
But they forget that a good share of that soul was make small/light/well built gear. The FAltd are the the very example of best Pentax design and goals.
Very good compromizes, maybe not ultimate best test charts, but solid great performance and also full of character and pixie dust.
The DA ltd already in all honestly lost the fast appertures (f/1.8-f/1.9 all around for FA ltds) and honestly most of the pixie dust. But they are still great lenses in their own mind, albeit less special. And they kept the small size/weight.
Whatever your choice, DA plastic wonder, DA ltd, FA/FAltd you had a choice of rather small, good compromize lenses and still reasonnably priced lenses.
I don't care if a lens cover FF if I can put it to good use. Just the crop factor mean I get more reach on my APSC. But this isn't going to happen to any zoom weighting more than 500g or any prime bigger than an FA31 that already at the limit for me.
But do will actually get new lenses in that spirit in the years to come? Sure that the latest releases are quite the opposite. The last one was the 20-40 and in the spirit of DA (vs FAltd) they didn't manage to have it small and fast.