Originally posted by bobbotron Wow, there's just no pleasing some people.
\
Well, I was very pleased with the the DFA*50mm. Right now I have a Pentax camera and two lenses that deliver great performance - the new 50, and the DFA* 70-200mm. Unfortunately by comparison all the other lenses underperform when it comes to autofocusing and overall control, to the extent that I not use them (unless for specific requirements, e.g. 100mm macro, 15-30mm etc).
Now I want more lenses that can perform at this level. As I basically said in my other comment, there are two kinds of pentax users - those that are buying new glass and those that are happy with what they have, or mainly buy second hand. I think that this lens will mainly appeal to the second group, so I hope Pentax haven't sunk a lot of their R&D effort into it. That said, maybe they think it will be a decent seller in Japan, and maybe it was easy for them to do.
If you have been pleased with the rate of new lenses etc released by Pentax, then that's your business.