[jersey]

Yes, but the D-FA 21 is unique, there is no other UWA prime lens, except the old FA or older lenses. Before its release it looked to fit perfectly a whole in the Pentax lens lineup, such missing focal length had been complained about by customers for many years. I'm surprised it's not selling in large quantities, because 21mm is very useful and long awaited (according to forum posts), I feel like there is something wrong.

I think that it sold pretty well judging by online availability, just not among PF users. People here, not all, but lots, are not Pentax customers, just Pentax users.

[biz-engineer]

Some of us are buying Pentax products.

How many forums members bought a D-FA 21 Limited? I check lens related posts, I think maybe between five and ten forum members bought that lens. I guess Ricoh needs to sell multiples of ten thousands of K3 III and DFA21 to keep fund further R&D.

People here, not all, but lots, are not Pentax customers, just Pentax users.

Hummm , that let me thinking, Pentax users but not Pentax customers.

[gatorguy]

I just took a look, Amazon says 4 left left (black), 2 left (silver); Adorama has black in stock, silver backordered; B&H says both flavors are in stock. And checking the big auction site (USA), there are none available from sellers outside of Japan.

So without knowing how things are on the supply side, it appears the 21/2.4 is selling pretty well.

That's looks like good news on the sales front. I hadn't looked again in the last several days as I decided to take a wait and see after somewhat recently buying the HD FA 16-50. That there's only 4 available now at Amazon after the initial stock selling out should be a positive.

[Kunzite]

How many forums members bought a D-FA 21 Limited?

No idea. I bought mine, though; had to have Pentax' first D FA Limited (as I had to have Pentax' first D FA* prime).
Actually I've decided not to get the D FA 15-30, and to wait (few years) for this one.

[Paul the Sunman]

How many forums members bought a D-FA 21 Limited? I check lens related posts, I think maybe between five and ten forum members bought that lens. I guess Ricoh needs to sell multiples of ten thousands of K3 III and DFA21 to keep fund further R&D.
.

Five D-FA 21 Limiteds have been registered in the PF Lens Serial Number Database so far. I guess many more on PF have bought but not yet registered.

The highest registered serial numbers are 0000715 in Black and 1000513 in Silver.

In Australia, it has been selling out almost immediately new stock arrives, especially in Black. I don't think it has made its way to any of the retailers, perhaps because direct sales from the importer CRK deplete stocks so quickly.

[BarneyL]

It's nice to see DFA 21 has gathered quite a bit of interest. Myself, I have no interest in it whatsoever (I have this focal length covered with something more universal), but I'm happy that it exists, and I'm looking forward to new entries in this series.

[Jean Poitiers]

In case this has not been posted yet ...

Ricoh Pentax: The Beginning of the End or the Start of a Bright Future? | PetaPixel

[house]

It's an extremely expensive lens. It costs Zeiss money which says something. It's also under reviewed so a bit of a unknown entity.

Despite all this my impression is that there's more buzz around this lens than say the DA*1650. Understandably so due to the very, very, very long wait for a Pentax wide angle prime lens. Still my impression is that it's doing decently.

In addition that price means Pentax really don't need to sell many unless they royally messed up and were forced to adopt a very costly design.

[Pål Jensen]

After all, it's only a press release, mostly a talk. I'm more concerned with looking at the popularity of the Pentax K3 III and the D-FA 21 Limited. So far, the images for both K3 III and D-FA 21 Limited look very good, Ricoh Imaging did a good job, but I don't see a lot of adoption. The D-FA 21 Limited lens club, two owners have posted some images, and I can count on my fingers how many forum members bought a D-FA 21 Limited, it's really not many, I don't even need my two hands for counting, pathetic for Ricoh Imaging engineers who put a couple of years of work to design that fantastic little prime lens. The five last Pentax user reviews are all K mount product purchased used on e-bay, no review of the outstanding D-FA 21 Limited lens. I think that'll be a real problem to solve for Ricoh Imaging. Rougthly speaking , customers mostly don't care about the new premium products released by Ricoh Imaging. It's nice to be vocal about defending the Pentax brand, but if you don't buy the new Pentax products released by Ricoh Imaging, the Pentax brand will disappear anyway.

Not strange. Admittedly based on old statistics, only 0.9% of all lenses sold (for the 35mm format) are under 25mm (you can bet that most of them are 24mm). 21mm is a super wide angle. A specialized optic The marked for it isn't huge.

[Paul the Sunman]

Not strange. Admittedly based on old statistics, only 0.9% of all lenses sold (for the 35mm format) are under 25mm (you can bet that most of them are 24mm). 21mm is a super wide angle. A specialized optic The marked for it isn't huge.

Perceptions of wideness and ultra-wideness have shifted over the years. 21mm seems quite mild to me these days, and to have many uses.

[house]

Perceptions of wideness and ultra-wideness have shifted over the years. 21mm seems quite mild to me these days, and to have many uses.

For ill or good you see wide angle lenses used so much more in magazines, newspapers, etc now. Even high profile portraits are quite often shot wider than 35 now.

[Rondec]

After all, it's only a press release, mostly a talk. I'm more concerned with looking at the popularity of the Pentax K3 III and the D-FA 21 Limited. So far, the images for both K3 III and D-FA 21 Limited look very good, Ricoh Imaging did a good job, but I don't see a lot of adoption. The D-FA 21 Limited lens club, two owners have posted some images, and I can count on my fingers how many forum members bought a D-FA 21 Limited, it's really not many, I don't even need my two hands for counting, pathetic for Ricoh Imaging engineers who put a couple of years of work to design that fantastic little prime lens. The five last Pentax user reviews are all K mount product purchased used on e-bay, no review of the outstanding D-FA 21 Limited lens. I think that'll be a real problem to solve for Ricoh Imaging. Rougthly speaking , customers mostly don't care about the new premium products released by Ricoh Imaging. It's nice to be vocal about defending the Pentax brand, but if you don't buy the new Pentax products released by Ricoh Imaging, the Pentax brand will disappear anyway.

I think those products have sold decently for what they are. A 1500 dollar 21 mm prime is not going to jump off of store shelves -- particularly not when a lot of the folks interested in it have been making do with the DFA 15-30, an older 20mm lens or a 3rd party option. I do plan to get the DFA 21 limited, but it will need to wait a bit. Maybe around income tax return time I can look at it. The K-3 III is a 2000 dollar APS-C camera. Once again, I think it has sold decently. I think a K-1 III would sell better, although of course, that depends on pricing too.

That's neither here nor there. This story is about Pentax releasing a statement for Japan, in Japanese, and several news sites jumping on it to make it something it never was. I suppose it is too much to ask that someone actually contact Ricoh/Pentax about the statement and see what the significance was for worldwide operations? Oh well, it gave the doom and gloom folks something to chew on so I guess that is a benefit, anway.

[Digitalis]

The highest registered serial numbers are 0000715 in Black and 1000513 in Silver.

Assuming Pentax started from 0000000 that is over 1000 lenses in slightly over a month...not bad.

[Paul the Sunman]

Assuming Pentax started from 0000000 that is over 1000 lenses in slightly over a month...not bad.

Mine is the most recent addition to the list, but also has the lowest serial number. So they may not be rolling out to customers in production order.

On the other hand, assuming they are disappearing from inventories very quickly, the very small number statistics provided by our serial number database does suggest they are doing well, given the rather niche status of 21 mm on FF that people have alluded to.

For comparison, there are only 2 entries in the PF database for the new HD DA* 16-50 (highest # 690) and 4 for the HD DA* 11-18 (highest # 1589), which have been out longer.

The FF lens on the roadmap that I suspect would be a big seller is the ~70-300 non-Limited non-* zoom.

[Wheatfield]

I work with Pentax cameras professionally, Although it is true Pentax doesn't have professional services where I'm located but that certainly hasn't stopped me, my solution is to have multiple cameras as back up. I do work with Nikon Mirrorless* and DSLR cameras but a lot of studio work is done on Phase one, Hasselblad, and Leica with my Pentax and Nikon cameras being for on location work as they have stellar durability....and let's not forget about the Pentax Limited lenses that often produce images that catch clients eyes with amusing regularity.

* Yes, I have a Z9 - it's a good camera but I find the ergonomics of the Z cameras a little awkward compared to the utilitarian design approach Pentax uses. A lot of real estate on the top plate of the Z9 is completely absent of controls which really annoys me, also I feel the rear LCD on the Z9 isn't quite as sturdy or as well articulated as the Pentax K-1.

Multiple back ups are a requirement for pro work anyway. A two day turnaround on repairs isn't going to help the photographer who breaks his camera a minute before the wedding ceremony starts.
When I shot Nikon professionally, I had 4 bodies and duplicates of several focal lengths. When I moved to Pentax, I bought 4 bodies and duplicates of several focal lengths.