Originally posted by mee Which is why I am not so much concerned about who made the product as I am that it functions properly. It is silly to get prideful about who made a product to me. It is a product -- you use it, it gets a job done, the end.
The debate was not so much about the “who” as the “what”. So far, it seems, the differences between the Tamron and Pentax versions are the removal of the stabilisation drive and the substitution of the Pentax lens coatings. We should also add the cost of the KAF3 mount itself and the associated electronics. Let’s not forget that both Tamron and Sigma do not make any of their more recent lenses available in K-mount because they can’t make sufficient profit on that, for the expected sales volumes, so the price must rise to accommodate that.
Still, there seem to have been sufficient sales of the 24-70 and 15-30 at the higher prices to keep Ricoh interested. I expect the same to occur for the 50 and the 85, when the latter arrives.