Originally posted by Winder It makes you wonder what happened? It looks like Ricoh didn't even start working on these lenses until after the K-1 was introduced and that doesn't make any sense. The 50mm and 85mm are two of the easier lenses to design. With computer modeling a huge percentage of the work these days it shouldn't take more than 2-3 years to produce a great piece of glass. Right now it looks like the 50mm will be released 3 years after the K-1 was announced. Its hard to believe that was part of the original plan. Seems to be typical for Ricoh. The K-1 was released a year late. The D-FA* 70-200mm was a year late.
The K-1 was announced on February 17, 2016. Initially it was supposed to be announced&launched by the end of 2015 - so it wasn't announced a year late but more like 4 months, if we believe the October rumor.
The D FA* 70-200 was delayed twice, citing "design change in order to achieve the extremely high quality of the star lens". This might be more significant than it seems at a first glance: it's the first truly high-end zoom they had in a while, and making it wasn't a smooth ride. The D FA* primes likewise will be the first fast, truly high end primes since the film era.
So we have the D FA* delay - was that a setback on the new lens' development as well? - and forcing the limits on what they did before.
I wouldn't say they're "easier lenses to design"; especially after taking a glimpse at the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 monster (14 elements!). The standards are very high.
We might get another hint on mee's post:
Originally posted by mee Perhaps the idea that the K-1 was a project pushed by engineering is true... if true, and also giving (assuming true) that they had a fight to convince management this was a good idea, perhaps that is all they could get? Once they realized it was selling well, they scrambled to get more lenses out? If your funding was really strict they might wait to see how well the K-1 sells before investing more in that system..
I don't subscribe to the on/off switch idea
but it's likely that something changed after their management saw the K-1 project pays off. That couldn't happen earlier than summer 2016.
I'd say they had plans for more lenses in February 2016 (the CP+ 2016 roadmap), likely working on it. But maybe they were not going all out with the execution. Or maybe the initial plan was to launch "safer" (lower cost) lenses.
And yet another factor: new technology. KAF4 and PLM is now available; maybe they decided to incorporate one or both into the new lenses.
There are so many possibilities we can't even begin to guess, while only knowing the most basic specs (focal length and max aperture).