Originally posted by pres589 I think you're right that Ricoh is going to push a bit harder to make this a success. I think they know it as well with the 16-50 mk2 that's in the wings somewhere. And Pentax has the FA 31 and DA 35 Ltd both which are nothing to sneeze at. The FA 77 seems like a wonderful lens but I do think something like Tamron's 85mm f1.8 would be nice but probably not where I'd focus right now with the other options that Pentax already has.
They generally have the glass to support a new APS-C flagship in 2020 (although I still think a mid-20's fast-ish prime is missing, and I don't mean the FF 21mm) but they don't have the marketing which is a whole lot of different things these days.
You wrote that "Canon has a lot of really nice pancakes" and I can think of the 24mm STM and 40mm STM and that's it. What else do they offer? Pentax has the 21, the 40's, the 43, and the 70. Who's touching that?
Every single one of the primes you listed for Pentax are screwdrive. That's a non-starter, despite the optical performance. They need a repackage with an in lens motor to be more attractive imo to a broader market.
Canon has 24mm, 40mm STM as true pancakes. And 35mm macro, 50mm, and a 60mm STM for DSLR which are still quite small. There are also 22 and the 28mm STM designs, but those are EF-M though.
If Canon can design those to be as small as they are with an in lens quiet, fast, accurate motor then Ricoh should be doing something too. Maybe not that small but the standard DA zooms today desperately need repackaging. There's no excuse to be offering what they're offering on the DA side today in 2020 and consider it acceptable imo.
I'm ok with Ltds having their own... charm. But the DA series need a refresh.
If you pick up a Canon or Nikon DSLR with their nifty 50s (or 35mm's) you notice one thing -- they're (relatively) quiet and punchy/fast to focus. You pick up a Pentax with a DA 35mm f/2.4 or 50mm f/1.8 and here that obnoxiously loud zip zip, it's not appealing in a lot of photographic settings.
I think they know it too as none of their new lenses over the past 3 years have used it. Outside of that 35mm f/2 rehash, but I'm not counting that.
I think if they repackaged the DA 35 f/2.4 and 50mm f/1.8 or just launched new designs with motors and sealing, they'd have a better look when comparing brands. Throw in a DA 20 or 24mm too and it would been a boon too imo.
The Tamron f/1.8 primes are really nice, but maybe a bit big for crop? That said, if Ricoh launched all 3 in K mount it would be great for both crop and ff platforms. Sigma and Tamron both have designs that could work for K if they were licensed.
All the pieces are there for Ricoh, they just need to put them together and work some polish/details imo. Right now the system seems an odd mixture of super modern and really old cobbled together in a piecemeal fashion. If you're in Pentax today then you probably don't mind so much. But if you're outside and looking in, looking at different systems, I'm not sure that's also the case.
At least, I know it would give me serious pause. I still think they have work to do.