[antipattern]

From the same site, there's also a picture of another unidentified lens. It looks like either a legacy prime between 85-135mm or one of the new Tamrons, but I'm not sure. It's probably nothing new, but I'm curious anyways.



This is the original source.

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Last edited by antipattern; 03-26-2016 at 02:44 PM. Reason: Added link to original article

[christiandre]

rockvillebob : great comments, perfect 🙌

[ogl]

From the same site, there's also a picture of another unidentified lens. It looks like either a legacy prime between 85-135mm or one of the new Tamrons, but I'm not sure. It's probably nothing new, but I'm curious anyways.


.

DFA50/2.8 macro ?

[antipattern]

DFA50/2.8 macro ?

That's what it probably is! Though it seems slightly different (is the rubber ring split?), but that might just be the low resolution and the low light shooting conditions...

[rvannatta]

Well a 'light' 400mm f/4 would be a really good prime in the telephoto range. I use my 120-400mm (from Sigma) in the 350-400mm range most of the time and the f/5.6 is a bit too dark for some of my needs...

light and fast don't come together in photography. f/4 really isn't fast enough either as a 400 is still too slow for a 2x-L TC You need a f2.8 400 to make the ideal platform. It's long enough
for many shots as is and will handle either a 1.4X tc for a little stronger (560) or a 2x for 800 in the effective 6.3 range. It will focus fairly closely, and physically isn't much longer than
a 300 F 2.8, but "IT's HEAVY"

and stay tuned you will be seeing a lot more from it soon as it's going to alaska with me in June.

[angerdan]

Any news for a possible 400/4 ?

[zapp]

light and fast don't come together in photography. f/4 really isn't fast enough either as a 400 is still too slow for a 2x-L TC You need a f2.8 400 to make the ideal platform. It's long enough
for many shots as is and will handle either a 1.4X tc for a little stronger (560) or a 2x for 800 in the effective 6.3 range. It will focus fairly closely, and physically isn't much longer than
a 300 F 2.8, but "IT's HEAVY"

and stay tuned you will be seeing a lot more from it soon as it's going to alaska with me in June.

I diagree. Pentax is not in the game for a 2.8/400 or 4/600 lens. 5.6/600 would be fine as well as 4/400 - a 4/500 would be the biggest to expect, but please in fullframe and with dedicated TC. Get an APS-C body for even more reach or shop CaNikon.
Looks like the 560 was re-engineered to the worse - a collapsible version would have found its way to me. The super long version - no chance.

[angerdan]

Less than five months until photokina 2018 - so still hope for a new prime lens entry on the roadmap

[kulas3VII]

I agree with RockvilleBob because I am one of those in the million dollar fence.

I am a die hard Conowingo Bald Eagle Shooter, every weekend during the Fall Season 'till late December and back the spawning of American Shad in May-June. I travel from New Jersey about 300 miles round trip to photograph the Bald Eagles. I always excited those action shots because i can capture those amazing pick right of the water, mid air aggression, and even the catch of a drop fish from the other eagle in the mid air..because i am using fast focus lens and body. It is worthed and feel satisfied despite of the high price...i enjoy it and making money out of it. (Please visit my shutterstock). I sold a lot of Bald Ealge pictures around the world thru Shutterstock.

It was a long journey in Pentax Telephoto lens, i owned Sigma 150-500, Sigma 500 F4.5, Pentax A 600 f5.6 and even Pentax FA* 600 F4 and all of those was sold and keep the Sigma 400 f5.6 Tele/macro for travel.
It was alway disappointed every time the eagle pick the fish out of the water because of slow focus. Keeper are very low It was a hard decision to jump to other ship, but i feel satisfied and happy now.

My honest opinion..Pentax cannot compete with the fast action photography. They need a lot of improvement in the body and lenses.
Thanks a lot...just sharing my honest opinion.

Pentax produce very nice images...It is not SOFT.

[Albert Siegel]

The folks at Ricoh/Pentax know the limitations for speed, which is why they are moving to KAF4 for all their high-spec lenses going forward. They cannot achieve a very high FPS with a mechanical aperture. The KAF3 and older designs are limiting the speed of what they want to do in the future. This is another reason they will not relaunch old lenses.

Their current strategy is star lenses will be about absolute maximum corner to corner resolution going forward. They will be KAF4 and higher-spec motors for speed for the most part. The Limited series will be about rendering and 3-D look, along with resolution. The FA Limiteds will be updated, though exactly when is not given. All other series such as regular DA and DFA can be a mix of whatever they feel is best for that current design and target market, which can still offer KAF3 or older tech.

As for the 560 prototype shown in older posts above... yes, it was a collapsible design at first, but was changed to its current form in order to improve image quality. There were also potential production problems with the collapsible version. Ultimately, the final version is better built, more reliable and better IQ than the prototype.

What you can take away form this is that the people at Ricoh/Pentax do not like to release anything that they consider a compromise on quality. While they may not have the most cutting edge tech in all areas, they do make some of the best optics and most reliable gear out there due to their not releasing something until they feel it is ready rather than rush to market.

[angerdan]

The folks at Ricoh/Pentax know the limitations for speed, which is why they are moving to KAF4 for all their high-spec lenses going forward. They can't achieve a very high FPS with a mechanical aperture. The KAF3 and older designs are limiting the speed of what they want to do in the future.

This is another reason they will not relaunch old lenses.

How reliable are your informations?
The K-3 delivers 8,3fps, which is more than any non-PLM Pentax lens AF drive can follow precisely. I don't see the need for KAF4 now, at least not for speed.
When AF processing units and algorithms can compete with Canon&Nikon and the new generation motors of future lenses can archive the AF speed of their CaNikon counterparts, then electronic aperture could be the next thing.
What do you mean with relaunch old lenses? THere have been rumors about exactly this. Don't know if it's also an official interview content, since they're hard to check one by one.

[hitrate]

I am pretty sure that Albert won't answer that anytime soon.

Since I know him from his video-review about the astonishing Pentax DA*560mm on youtube...
, because i was interested in his professionality too.
I can tell you a bit about him:

He is in the news business... has been or is currently working for McClutchy newspapers company.
A company that owns/runs about 30 newspapers...
(Miami Herald for instance, where he played a role in the team that won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the coverage of Hurricane Andrew’s devastation in South Florida.)
...in the United States of America.


And he has his bonds to Ricoh-Imaging and is also resident in Japan... from time to time, he does Pentax-Gear reviews on Youtube.com


So if i have to put my 2 cents on the table, I would say, "Yes, his informations are very realiable."

[Pål Jensen]

.
What do you mean with relaunch old lenses? THere have been rumors about exactly this. Don't know if it's also an official interview content, since they're hard to check one by one.

Thats redesign. Not relaunch.

[Albert Siegel]

Yeah, I am a bit slow to reply. Hitrate, thank you for your input. I'm sorry to say I'm no longer with McClatchy as they have closed all their foreign operations. I still keep in contact with them, but their main focus is on US politics these days.

Angerdan, my information is pretty reliable as I get it directly from people at Ricoh. I only comment on facts. I make no guesses. I've been under NDA with them before, so I can't always talk about what I know, but I try to share what I can when I can.

I can give you one new fun fact though... the KP was under development for over three years before its release. They had three final designs for the body. One was very close to what you see as the final KP, the other two were quite a bit different though similar to each-other (I'm not sure I can give more details). The Japanese employees preferred the look of one while the foreign staff preferred the other. Finally, some from the foreign staff came around to the design the Japanese preferred and that was chosen as the style that became the released model. Another interesting fact is that the pointy hump, which was not part of the original design for the KP, was added to the design after the release of the K-1 mainly just to have the style match.

I don't see the people at Ricoh/PENTAX as often as I used to since they moved the PENTAX operation to the Ricoh head office about an hour or so away from me. The old PENTAX office is actually ten minutes away from my home. I used to be able to walk there. I miss that location. But still, I do keep a good relationship with them and meet when I can.

As for not seeing the need for KAF4 now, they are looking into what they will need tomorrow. True that their AF is behind some other brands, but they are working on that. When they do have something special come out, then it would be good to have the lenses that can keep up ready in the market.

What I meant about my relaunch comment is that Ricoh will not relaunch old/discontinued products even if there is no successor yet. They may look at their old designs for ideas, but they will not just place new coatings on a long-discontinued lens and call it an upgrade. They are working on new designs that are of much higher resolution with a goal of making their lenses ready not only for the next generation of sensors, but also what comes after that.

Now for my personal opinion... I think that Ricoh is increasing their efforts to make the camera division grow. They have more exciting products in the pipeline than they've had in a while. They are finally concentrating on the high-end over just releasing endless 18-whatever kit lenses. They may be a bit slow, but they really care about their products. The people behind the cameras are not just number-crunchers, but actual photographers and enthusiasts who take great pride in their work. They believe in quality even if it means a frustratingly long delays.

[siva.ss.kumar]

They have more exciting products in the pipeline than they've had in a while

This is great news.
I would still like Ricoh to release old lenses, particularly in the tele/super-tele range. Like 400/5.6 or 500/4.5. I don't think it will dent the 560/5.6 sales as it isn't much to begin with (I am not making fun of it as I am trying to get myself one )
The key is to give customers choices, or at least on paper (most of us now a days are paper/specs analysts).