Originally posted by normhead To me this is more about product positioning in the market place, more than the needs of more than a few customers. The availability of high end glass makes your cheaper glass look like a better deal. The only thing on my horizon would be the 55-300 PLM. I want to experience that quiet operation and fast focus speed, but from an focal length and aperture perspective, I don't need the lens.
If everyone was like me the lens Pentax would be coming out with would be the 200mm 4 macro. Somehow I guess they'll do better with the 50 1.4.
The new D FA* 50mm and 85mm lenses are indicative of exactly your statement, positioning. And in a declining market that makes the decision all the more important to position FF as the high end performance product where the margins are. The APS-C market is probably going to be more for the hobbyists and the FF for the professionals. And isn't that what the February interview brought out? They said so in so many words that FF is for the high end performance. That is their stated goal and they really are following though on that. One high quality lens at a time, and the K1 will sell for "a few more years" before they upgrade it.
Believe it or not, the APS-C lenses are probably now the "legacy" glass!!!
As legacy, they can keep pumping those out for the foreseeable future until APS-C needs a radical change (like curved sensors or the decision to jump to mirrorless). Those costs are sunk and just like the old Limiteds, will keep producing those APS-C lenses until they don't sell anymore. That is why they are perfectly happy to come out with a K3II successor, they don't "have" to come out with anymore lenses.
Whether they are actually successful at this strategy remains to be seen (you are right, it is a big risk but they have no choice other than just sell the company to someone else). The high end demands better continuous auto focus, video/multimedia, flash sync speeds, depending on which type of professional you talk to. Not to mention the range of glass needed for a professional
to feeI/perceive confident to invest in Pentax FF. Pentax FF will have to carve out a niche amongst the pros and hopefully the lens offerings will reflect the depth of reflection and thought that they may (or may not) have put into this problem. This confidence problem is the real problem with this strategy!!! If they don't become MORE aggressive with FF as a Platform for various kinds of professionals, then they will NOT buy into it (but if RI can muscle-up to it, then they will buy from various portions of the pro spectrum). Kind of like computer systems, you need confidence that is not misplaced in order to invest a few hundred thousand $$$ as a solution to a business problem!
Thank you all for this discussion. I actually think I understand the decisions Ricoh has been making and can make more informed decisions of my own. As an APS-C user, I may have the best of both worlds. Because of K-mount, I can get a dedicated APS-C lens, older FF, newer FF, or even a third party lens of either type (
although I would rather buy a Pentax lens to support their efforts to try to be successful).