I went today! i thought i would provide some thoughts/comments etc from my experience there as a pentaxian.
fyi: i don't think this post will be well organized, i just want to convey my thoughts before they are lost. all shots are k10d raw pef, processed in acr, but very minimally. exif should be intact. non-lens test shots are with fa35f/2.
i saw ned bunnell - did not meet him or anything, just saw him at the booth. also saw kerrick james and i think julie quarry (both sponsored/spokepersons). the pentax booth has the best seating that i saw - some great comfy chairs/couches.
no sign of da*30 or da15 limited - the booth attendants did not have much info (i maybe even knew more than a couple of them thanks to the inter-tubes and this forum), though one said da15 should be by christmas, i think, maybe. da*55 should be available by then also - they've had some delays with that lens.
all the other items were there. k2000 is very small, not exactly compact though b/c of the grip, etc. but small - a little too small for me (i can almost palm a basketball). (olympus e-420 is how i think small should be - no grip, like older slr's (cough...MX...cough). tried it, also too small for reall comfort, but its small in a more useful way since it has no grip). it lacks a number of controls i'm used to on the k10d that i don't think i would want to lose. the new gui for menu's and info screen is a nice improvement.
speaking of small, olympus had their micro-4/3 prototype on display. that looks really cool. i don't think it was any bigger than a canon g9.
sdm is not what it should be, imo. i had not used an sdm lens previously. it IS very quiet and smooth, but just as slow as screw-drive and no more accurate, based on my limited, non-comprehensive experience.
da*60-250 looks gigantic. i did not try it. i think i would rather get the 300, which is also quite large. 50-135 is really, really nice to hold, use (if only it had ring-drive focus motor...). k20d DNG files were noticeably slow to write on my sandisk 2gb extreme III card, versus k10d PEF's which are fine.
i was really hoping i could test out the da*55, and it happened! they had non-final/pre-production units the guy said, so be aware that that may affect my comments. it feels great on the k10d in terms of balance and size. mf feel was quite nice, a little looser than fa-limiteds i think, but noticeably damped (in a good way). better than focus ring on fa35/2 - loses the scratchy feeling, and not loose like that is. much better than da17-70 which was AWFUL - it's like the focus ring is just sitting loose around the outside, and it has maybe 1.5-2 inches of travel, yikes! focus on the 55 was not so great - slowish and not very accurate (hopefully b/c it was pre-production, hopefully). the pictures: really nice, when in focus. f/1.4 bokeh has double-lined watercolor look common to fast 50's, but stopped to f/2.4 (and maybe wider, too) it becomes much smoother. 3d look, smooth background, looks to resolve a lot... summary: i want it bad, but i hope the focus isn't as mediocre as it seemed.
f/1.4
f/2.4
fa31 and fa77: awesome! if you can afford it, BUY them! i wish i could get them. they are amazing. focus ring was not as great as i was expecting, but still much smoother than other AF lenses i have used.
fa77 @ 1.8
fa31@1.8
@2.8
i overheard a rep say that the optio w60 was the first product that hoya had substantial input on/influence over. i wonder how much they were part of k2000?
zeiss 28mm f/2: not amazingly impressive in 2 minutes of use. very heavy (feels unbalanced on my 10d imo), focus ring a little too tight, and bokeh not so impressive, based on very limited testing (~5 shots). wide open and still even at f/2.8 oof highlights are nasty - ringed and with a bullseye in the middle. they said i was the first pentax camera of the day at ~1:30 pm
.
f/2
f/2.8
new leica slr: looks amazing. body size is not all that big, but sensor is huge. however, lenses are giant. i don't know why. they looked much bigger than my 645 medium format lenses. rep said summer 2009, price "competitive with medium format cameras/backs".
metz flashguns look pretty good, they feel well put together. very few buttons on the back, so might be a little complex to change settings.
amazingly there was no panasonic booth!? i wanted to check out the lx-3. and the g-1, but they were a no-show for some reason.
photoshop cs4, lightroom 2: look really nice! definitely some impressive stuff. as somebody next to me watching some demonstrations said: "i'm sold".
the novoflex items were very impressive. if you need an expensive ball head the magic ball looked really cool and solid. if you're into spherical panoramas, their stuff looks awesome, so solid, precise, well-thought-out. the new panorama=Q 6/8 base looks really nice. gotta love that German engineering. if only it all wasn't so expensive. if they make anything of the type you need and you are willing to spend what they ask, i wouldn't even think of buying from anyone else.