Lensbaby no longer making Pentax mounts

**Serkevan** · 08-20-2019, 01:14 AM

Originally posted by clackers

Yeah, they and Tamron have never been embraced by Pentaxians.

Several reasons, I suppose.

... My last three photo outings (a couple city walks plus some fireworks) I only brought the Twin Tammys (17-50/2.8 and 90/2.5 macro AF).

Do I still get to keep the Pentax club card?

Jonathan Mac · 08-20-2019, 01:19 AM

I really don't think this is a big blow to the K-mount...

**clackers** · 08-20-2019, 01:26 AM - **2 Likes**

Originally posted by Serkevan

... My last three photo outings (a couple city walks plus some fireworks) I only brought the Twin Tammys (17-50/2.8 and 90/2.5 macro AF).

Do I still get to keep the Pentax club card?

You and I can't be blamed for how few Sigmas or Tamrons are owned by Pentaxians or how few pictures taken by them are posted here, Serkevan.

From Tamron I own the 17-50, 28-75 (twice - one for Canon), 70-200 and 90 Macro.

From Sigma I have the 10-20, 12-24, 17-50, 150-500, 35 Art, 85 and 105.

Lonely.

I'm so lonely.

RonHendriks1966 · 08-20-2019, 02:18 AM

Originally posted by Jonathan Mac

I really don't think this is a big blow to the K-mount...

I think most people discover lensbaby after they have decided on wich camera mount to join.

**Rondec** · 08-20-2019, 02:22 AM - **1 Like**

People didn't buy a whole lot of Sigmas. And those who bought the 35 Art and 18-35 f1.8 zoom complained a lot about the auto focus. I don't know that it was every lens, but enough people had weird focus shifts that just weren't present with Pentax lenses. As Mike said, this is probably due to Sigma not actually working with Pentax and just reverse engineering their lens protocols.

I own the Sigma 50-150. I was told that it is faster to focus than the DA *50-135 and just as sharp. Honestly, I don't like the colors, the contrast isn't great, and it doesn't focus well (sometimes front focusing sometimes back focusing). Certainly even though the motor in it is faster than with the DA *50-135, I haven't seen any improvement in number of good photos with it.

dstar · 08-20-2019, 06:00 AM

My personal experience with Sigma I like 10-20 and 17-70 art
Another good result 18-200
But I mostly use withK3

dicki · 08-20-2019, 07:40 AM

My next lens will no be Lensbaby. I look for New Pinhole Zoom Lens.
On photo Shows Lensbaby have no pentax mount. I like to check out the lens first. If they can not show the produkt I am not interested.
So they have to look out for Nikon customer.

victormeldrew · 08-20-2019, 09:52 AM - **2 Likes**

Originally posted by Jonathan Mac

I really don't think this is a big blow to the K-mount...

Maybe not this brand in particular, although they are far from the toys people think they are, they obviously aren't every photographer's cup of tea, certainly not Pentax photographers.

But every time a photographer looks at a lens that they've seen in a magazine, or in a blog, or advert, they drop down the 'available in' drop down and they see:

Nikon
Canon
Sony
Fuji
Olympus

Then they think, what about a flash, I like the look of that fancy TTL unit, or trigger system I saw...look at the 'supports' list:

Nikon
Canon
Sony
Fuji
Olympus
Pentax*
*manual control only

What about that fancy post-processing software with the tethered shooting I probably don't need but think I might want:

Nikon
Canon
Sony
Fuji
Olympus
Pentax*
*some or most features not supported

What about that remote control with the intervalometer on fleabay? What about that waterproof housing? What about that third party grip? That L bracket? The answer is always the same. After a while, they start to think there's one brand I should definitely avoid if I want any of this cool stuff I keep seeing in my favourite magazines and blogs. In fact, they would be forgiven for not knowing that Pentax even exists. I subscribe to The British Journal of Photograpy and B&W Magazine...90%+ of the stuff they review, use and recommend is not available for Pentax, the only recent exception being the K-1, which they loved apart from the fact that the 3rd party support is woeful and the current native lens selection is tiny, forcing you to buy aging lenses second hand to get what you want.

Unless you want a body, a couple of very 'straight', standard native lenses and a native flash, Pentax is not a fun system to buy into. That setup definitely appeals to some people, but to turn that into lots of people, you need to be in most or all of those support lists, magazines, blogs and videos so that at least the brand is visible to people who want to do more than take lovely sharp images of their kids, flowers and sunsets. Anybody with even the slightest artistic and creative intentions will be put off.

So no, Lensbaby by themselves is not having a huge effect on the existing fans of Pentax here. But they are (yet) another mark in the 'cons' column for people who have their mind open to buying into an ILC system and that can only be bad news.

stevebrot · 08-20-2019, 11:05 AM - **3 Likes**

Amazing that this thread morphed into everything-not-lensbaby!

FWIW, the 5.8mm fisheye, 56mm Velvet, and 85mm Velvet are current product in Pentax-K at B&H. Shoot Nikon-F and you can add the 35mm Burnside; ditto for Canon EOS.* It appears they have abandoned Nikon and Canon as well? Perhaps not yet, though I might wonder whether this news regarding the dropping of Pentax-K resulted in a stampede by Pentaxians to buy whatever residual product is available from dealer stock. Well, at least we are in good company, they offer zero product in TL or SL mounts.

I have been hanging out here on PF for a number of years and can't say that I remember much Lensbaby buzz among our members. It seems that enthusiasm to do Lomography or fuzzy tilt/shift miniatures with a high quality dSLR is rather subdued in these circles. All that being said, I suppose I could cruise down to their offices (they are local to me) and see if the CEO wants to join me for lunch. He might very well say something like, "Pentax? Are they still in business".

Steve

* Sony-A has a single lens available...the 5.8mm fisheye, though no longer officially offered by LensBaby

**BigMackCam** · 08-20-2019, 11:51 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by stevebrot

Sony-A has a single lens available...the 5.8mm fisheye, though no longer officially offered by LensBaby

As someone who shoots Sony A-mount (with my Hasselblad HV), I can honestly say that it's in a very similar position to K-mount, but even worse. On one hand, it does have a few lenses that are currently missing from the Pentax line-up - specifcally, fast, high quality 24mm, 35mm and 85mm primes. But, so far as I can tell, no new lenses are being developed by either Sony or third parties (LensBaby, btw, no longer offers A-mount - I am, as you might guess, crestfallen

)... It seems to be a case of selling off existing stocks. Of course, there's all the vintage Minolta AF glass to choose from, but I'm not all that impressed by much of it (there are some gems, but not that many). Thankfully, I'm more or less kitted out with the lenses I need, so it's not a problem...

**luftfluss** · 08-20-2019, 12:13 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by clackers

You and I can't be blamed for how few Sigmas or Tamrons are owned by Pentaxians or how few pictures taken by them are posted here, Serkevan.

From Tamron I own the 17-50, 28-75 (twice - one for Canon), 70-200 and 90 Macro.

From Sigma I have the 10-20, 12-24, 17-50, 150-500, 35 Art, 85 and 105.

Lonely.

I'm so lonely.

I've a whole fleet of Tamron Adaptalls, Clackers. Does that count?

17/3.5, 24/2.5, 24-48, 35-80, 90/2.5 Macro, 70-210/3.5, 300/2.8, 200-500/5.6, 400/4

Zooland · 08-20-2019, 12:43 PM

Other than Pentax, who is still producing k mount lenses?

**luftfluss** · 08-20-2019, 12:55 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Zooland

Other than Pentax, who is still producing k mount lenses?

I can't think of any new AF lenses being made, but Samyang, Irix, etc. are making new manual focus K-mount lenses.

**SteveinSLC** · 08-20-2019, 12:57 PM

Yeah, this isn't really at all surprising. Pentax is a niche market these days, and Lensbaby is a niche market too. Cross-over between those two things means a really small potential client base. Maybe you could get away with it if you were a premium/luxury product like Leica, with corresponding prices. But Lensbaby is not that.

Sigma and Tamron are not at all comparable. They have huge standard offerings that in K mount would have pretty broad appeal. I'd have no issue getting some of the new Tamron G2 lenses that were either Tamron branded or Pentax badged, like the 15-30.

**clackers** · 08-20-2019, 12:59 PM - **2 Likes**

Originally posted by luftfluss

I've a whole fleet of Tamron Adaptalls, Clackers. Does that count?

17/3.5, 24/2.5, 24-48, 35-80, 90/2.5 Macro, 70-210/3.5, 300/2.8, 200-500/5.6, 400/4

I like that, but you're a disappointment to the Tamron board, you bought all of those secondhand!

Btw, something Ricoh has had to deal with is that Pentaxians don't have a fetish for new products like other brands, there is a culture of accepting, even celebrating, vintage lenses.

I think part of the reason the Sigma 35mm Art sold so badly is that it couldn't compete with the old but legendary FA31 Limited as something to lust after.

08-20-2019, 11:05 AM - 3 Likes	#54
stevebrot Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 42,007	Amazing that this thread morphed into everything-not-lensbaby! FWIW, the 5.8mm fisheye, 56mm Velvet, and 85mm Velvet are current product in Pentax-K at B&H. Shoot Nikon-F and you can add the 35mm Burnside; ditto for Canon EOS.* It appears they have abandoned Nikon and Canon as well? Perhaps not yet, though I might wonder whether this news regarding the dropping of Pentax-K resulted in a stampede by Pentaxians to buy whatever residual product is available from dealer stock. Well, at least we are in good company, they offer zero product in TL or SL mounts. I have been hanging out here on PF for a number of years and can't say that I remember much Lensbaby buzz among our members. It seems that enthusiasm to do Lomography or fuzzy tilt/shift miniatures with a high quality dSLR is rather subdued in these circles. All that being said, I suppose I could cruise down to their offices (they are local to me) and see if the CEO wants to join me for lunch. He might very well say something like, "Pentax? Are they still in business". Steve * Sony-A has a single lens available...the 5.8mm fisheye, though no longer officially offered by LensBaby Last edited by stevebrot; 08-20-2019 at 11:37 AM.

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08-20-2019, 01:14 AM	#46
Serkevan Site Supporter Join Date: May 2019 Photos: Albums Posts: 5,976	Originally posted by clackers Yeah, they and Tamron have never been embraced by Pentaxians. Several reasons, I suppose. ... My last three photo outings (a couple city walks plus some fireworks) I only brought the Twin Tammys (17-50/2.8 and 90/2.5 macro AF). Do I still get to keep the Pentax club card?

08-20-2019, 01:19 AM	#47
Jonathan Mac Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,897	I really don't think this is a big blow to the K-mount...

08-20-2019, 01:26 AM - 2 Likes	#48
clackers Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Melbourne Photos: Albums Posts: 16,397	Originally posted by Serkevan ... My last three photo outings (a couple city walks plus some fireworks) I only brought the Twin Tammys (17-50/2.8 and 90/2.5 macro AF). Do I still get to keep the Pentax club card? You and I can't be blamed for how few Sigmas or Tamrons are owned by Pentaxians or how few pictures taken by them are posted here, Serkevan. From Tamron I own the 17-50, 28-75 (twice - one for Canon), 70-200 and 90 Macro. From Sigma I have the 10-20, 12-24, 17-50, 150-500, 35 Art, 85 and 105. Lonely. I'm so lonely.

08-20-2019, 02:18 AM	#49
RonHendriks1966 Banned Join Date: Jan 2009 Photos: Gallery Posts: 9,675	Originally posted by Jonathan Mac I really don't think this is a big blow to the K-mount... I think most people discover lensbaby after they have decided on wich camera mount to join.

08-20-2019, 02:22 AM - 1 Like	#50
Rondec Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Gladys, Virginia Photos: Gallery Posts: 27,653	People didn't buy a whole lot of Sigmas. And those who bought the 35 Art and 18-35 f1.8 zoom complained a lot about the auto focus. I don't know that it was every lens, but enough people had weird focus shifts that just weren't present with Pentax lenses. As Mike said, this is probably due to Sigma not actually working with Pentax and just reverse engineering their lens protocols. I own the Sigma 50-150. I was told that it is faster to focus than the DA 50-135 and just as sharp. Honestly, I don't like the colors, the contrast isn't great, and it doesn't focus well (sometimes front focusing sometimes back focusing). Certainly even though the motor in it is faster than with the DA 50-135, I haven't seen any improvement in number of good photos with it.

08-20-2019, 06:00 AM	#51
dstar Pentaxian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Albuquerque NM Photos: Albums Posts: 475	My personal experience with Sigma I like 10-20 and 17-70 art Another good result 18-200 But I mostly use withK3

08-20-2019, 07:40 AM	#52
dicki Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2018 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 180	My next lens will no be Lensbaby. I look for New Pinhole Zoom Lens. On photo Shows Lensbaby have no pentax mount. I like to check out the lens first. If they can not show the produkt I am not interested. So they have to look out for Nikon customer.

08-20-2019, 09:52 AM - 2 Likes	#53
victormeldrew Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: South West UK Photos: Albums Posts: 1,493	Originally posted by Jonathan Mac I really don't think this is a big blow to the K-mount... Maybe not this brand in particular, although they are far from the toys people think they are, they obviously aren't every photographer's cup of tea, certainly not Pentax photographers. But every time a photographer looks at a lens that they've seen in a magazine, or in a blog, or advert, they drop down the 'available in' drop down and they see: Nikon Canon Sony Fuji Olympus Then they think, what about a flash, I like the look of that fancy TTL unit, or trigger system I saw...look at the 'supports' list: Nikon Canon Sony Fuji Olympus Pentax* manual control only What about that fancy post-processing software with the tethered shooting I probably don't need but think I might want: Nikon Canon Sony Fuji Olympus Pentax *some or most features not supported What about that remote control with the intervalometer on fleabay? What about that waterproof housing? What about that third party grip? That L bracket? The answer is always the same. After a while, they start to think there's one brand I should definitely avoid if I want any of this cool stuff I keep seeing in my favourite magazines and blogs. In fact, they would be forgiven for not knowing that Pentax even exists. I subscribe to The British Journal of Photograpy and B&W Magazine...90%+ of the stuff they review, use and recommend is not available for Pentax, the only recent exception being the K-1, which they loved apart from the fact that the 3rd party support is woeful and the current native lens selection is tiny, forcing you to buy aging lenses second hand to get what you want. Unless you want a body, a couple of very 'straight', standard native lenses and a native flash, Pentax is not a fun system to buy into. That setup definitely appeals to some people, but to turn that into lots of people, you need to be in most or all of those support lists, magazines, blogs and videos so that at least the brand is visible to people who want to do more than take lovely sharp images of their kids, flowers and sunsets. Anybody with even the slightest artistic and creative intentions will be put off. So no, Lensbaby by themselves is not having a huge effect on the existing fans of Pentax here. But they are (yet) another mark in the 'cons' column for people who have their mind open to buying into an ILC system and that can only be bad news.

08-20-2019, 11:51 AM - 1 Like	#55
BigMackCam Digitiser of Film Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North East of England Posts: 20,674	Originally posted by stevebrot Sony-A has a single lens available...the 5.8mm fisheye, though no longer officially offered by LensBaby As someone who shoots Sony A-mount (with my Hasselblad HV), I can honestly say that it's in a very similar position to K-mount, but even worse. On one hand, it does have a few lenses that are currently missing from the Pentax line-up - specifcally, fast, high quality 24mm, 35mm and 85mm primes. But, so far as I can tell, no new lenses are being developed by either Sony or third parties (LensBaby, btw, no longer offers A-mount - I am, as you might guess, crestfallen )... It seems to be a case of selling off existing stocks. Of course, there's all the vintage Minolta AF glass to choose from, but I'm not all that impressed by much of it (there are some gems, but not that many). Thankfully, I'm more or less kitted out with the lenses I need, so it's not a problem...

08-20-2019, 12:13 PM - 1 Like	#56
luftfluss Site Supporter Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: NJ Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 11,619	Originally posted by clackers You and I can't be blamed for how few Sigmas or Tamrons are owned by Pentaxians or how few pictures taken by them are posted here, Serkevan. From Tamron I own the 17-50, 28-75 (twice - one for Canon), 70-200 and 90 Macro. From Sigma I have the 10-20, 12-24, 17-50, 150-500, 35 Art, 85 and 105. Lonely. I'm so lonely. I've a whole fleet of Tamron Adaptalls, Clackers. Does that count? 17/3.5, 24/2.5, 24-48, 35-80, 90/2.5 Macro, 70-210/3.5, 300/2.8, 200-500/5.6, 400/4

08-20-2019, 12:43 PM	#57
Zooland Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2019 Posts: 370	Other than Pentax, who is still producing k mount lenses?

08-20-2019, 12:55 PM - 1 Like	#58
luftfluss Site Supporter Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: NJ Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 11,619	Originally posted by Zooland Other than Pentax, who is still producing k mount lenses? I can't think of any new AF lenses being made, but Samyang, Irix, etc. are making new manual focus K-mount lenses.

08-20-2019, 12:57 PM	#59
SteveinSLC Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2017 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 568	Yeah, this isn't really at all surprising. Pentax is a niche market these days, and Lensbaby is a niche market too. Cross-over between those two things means a really small potential client base. Maybe you could get away with it if you were a premium/luxury product like Leica, with corresponding prices. But Lensbaby is not that. Sigma and Tamron are not at all comparable. They have huge standard offerings that in K mount would have pretty broad appeal. I'd have no issue getting some of the new Tamron G2 lenses that were either Tamron branded or Pentax badged, like the 15-30.

08-20-2019, 12:59 PM - 2 Likes	#60
clackers Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Melbourne Photos: Albums Posts: 16,397	Originally posted by luftfluss I've a whole fleet of Tamron Adaptalls, Clackers. Does that count? 17/3.5, 24/2.5, 24-48, 35-80, 90/2.5 Macro, 70-210/3.5, 300/2.8, 200-500/5.6, 400/4 I like that, but you're a disappointment to the Tamron board, you bought all of those secondhand! Btw, something Ricoh has had to deal with is that Pentaxians don't have a fetish for new products like other brands, there is a culture of accepting, even celebrating, vintage lenses. I think part of the reason the Sigma 35mm Art sold so badly is that it couldn't compete with the old but legendary FA31 Limited as something to lust after.