[Mistral75]

Now that, thanks to amazon.co.uk and to our recent fellow @Mountainmann, we know the exact name of the lens that Ricoh Imaging will announce in less than 50 hours:

HD Pentax-D FA 70-210mm f/4 ED SDM WR

and got a first picture of it:

I would suggest we pursue our discussion in this dedicated thread.

Remember, the other recent piece of rumour concerning this lens is its price in the Euro zone: €1,199. That's around $1,100. Besides, the February availability is confirmed by Amazon (unfortunately, the dedicated page is now down).

Added on the 21st of January:

amazon.co.uk published the product page yesterday but promptly withdrew it, amazon.es did the same this morning, which makes it possible to report the main features and specifications of the HD Pentax-D FA 70-210mm f/4 ED SDM WR:

HD PENTAX-D FA 70-210 mm F4ED SDM WR: Teleobjetivo de Zoom para cámaras DSLR, Potente con Apertura Constante f/4, construcción Resistente a la Intemperie, mín. Distancia de Enfoque de 0,95 Metros.: Amazon.es: Electrónica

- 20 elements, of which 3 ED elements and 2 made of anomalous partial dispersion glass, in 14 groups
- HD coating
- fluorine water-repellent coating of the front element (Super Protect)
- weather resistant (WR)
- internal focusing
- ring ultrasonic motor (Ring SDM)
- full time manual focus override (Quick Shift focus)
- minimum focusing distance: 0.95m
- electromagnetic aperture command & control (KAF4)
- rounded aperture blades
- focus limiter
- filter diameter: 67mm
- no tripod collar in the box
- weight: 819g
- announcement on Wednesday the 23rd at 10pm UTC (Thursday morning in Japan)
- available on the 14th of February
- €1,199 € (€1,219,15 at amazon.es).

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Last edited by Mistral75; 01-21-2020 at 04:52 AM.

[Kunzite]

Indeed. €1,199, VAT included ≈ €1,000, VAT excluded ≈ $1,100.

I deleted the post as soon as I realized you compensated for VAT.

[Riddler]

Tamron?

[Mistral75]

Tamron?

That or they got an extra R&D allowance to go from 70-200mm to 70-210mm.

[Kevin B123]

Question 1 & 2: Is the Tamron mounting foot a direct fit, and will there be a Pentax alternative?

[FozzFoster]

I've heard many, many people ask for the 85mm on the lens roadmap.
I'm glad to see new products being available, but I really would like to see that 85mm added to the lineup.
Hopefully soon!

[Mistral75]

Question 1 & 2: Is the Tamron mounting foot a direct fit, and will there be a Pentax alternative?

If @Mountainmann comes here, he will tell us whether there were pictures with a mounting foot on the Amazon webpage.

[sculptor666]

ok, i'll stick this here too:

[Serkevan]

Can we count on any improvements to the lens? I assume coatings will have the special Pentax sauce and the VC module will be removed - but if they made it work together with IBIS and kept it, now that would be interesting.

I would say that 1200€ when the Tamron is 479€* is beyond ridiculous, but it's not like we have a lot of options.

*And yes, I am aware that the MSRP was higher, but we will be paying a significant premium for a lens that others have been enjoying for about a year and a half at this point...

[BarneyL]

I'm not super happy at this thing being a rebadge of Tamron, but without optical stabilizer and 1,5x the RRP... however, at least coatings should make a difference, as the original isn't great when shooting against light: Tamron 70-210 mm f/4 Di VC USD review - Ghosting and flares - LensTip.com

[Mistral75]

Can we count on any improvements to the lens? I assume coatings will have the special Pentax sauce and the VC module will be removed - but if they made it work together with IBIS and kept it, now that would be interesting.

(...)

I can only quote what PENtaxKlub (a group of French people, close to the people managing La Boutique Pentax in Paris), wrote two days ago:

[18/01/2020] DFA 70-210 ou DFA 70-200 f/4 en approche

Translated by yours truly:

'(...) Other sources rather indicate that it would be a Pentax version of the very good Tamron 70-210mm f/4 Di VC USD, the firm having bought the rights to the optical formula with a 'high-end' manufacturing based on Pentax specifications and high quality lens elements.'

Sounds like marketing talk, if you allow me. However, manufacturing tolerances tighter than those usually retained by Tamron are definitely a possibility.

[Serkevan]

Yeah, mistyped there, my bad
I feel a bit flat after the leak, but maybe there is something that makes the lens better.

[Doundounba]

Sooo... Probably lighter than the DA* 60-250mm F/4 (~850g vrs 1040g) and with much better close focus (0.3 vrs 0.15 max magnification)? Might be a good lens even on APS-C...

[Riddler]

the lens people wanted

[boriscleto]

Yeah, mistyped there, my bad
I feel a bit flat after the leak, but maybe there is something that makes the lens better.

It says Pentax on the outside, and presumably has Pentax coatings. Plus, it's K-mount. The Tamron is not available in K-mount and never will be.