Originally posted by Mistral75 The HD Pentax-DA
★ 16-50mm f/2.8 ED PLM AW has been more than two years on the roadmap:
- first as DA Standard Zoom Lens (February 2019 - May 2020)
- then as HD Pentax-DA★ 16-50mm f/2.8 (May 2020 - February 2021)
- then as HD Pentax-DA★ 16-50mm f/2.8 ED PLM AW (from February 2021 until its announcement on the 15th of July).
In case of DA*16-50 that was perfectly logical - Ricoh was about to release K-3 III, first time a Pentax camera with decent (in terms of DSLR standards) AF and had NO standard 'reporter-like' zoom to pair with. Old version was known for many issues, from rather poor quality control (some people bought decent lenses, other - just an optical crap), slow and erratic AF which was prone to ultrasonic drive failure, and so on. And new DA* is a TOTALLY new lens, sharing just part of the name, focal length range and aperture with the predecessor, so they announced it somehow in advance. However, the LTD 'Three Musketeers' in HD version were released little bit by surprise as they are very same constructions with just new coatings and some aperture blades shape change... New 100mm macro appears on roadmap which suggests that there is little bit more changes in construction: I believe that modification of optical formula (and coatings) is a 'plan minimum', but I hope that AF drive will be also improved (DC or PLM motor instead of the screwdriver - my optimism is like 50 - 50 about this), and AF limiter added (40 - 60)...
Anyway, my dream lineup for my K-3 III will be (let's say 2 years from now):
DA*11 - 18/2.8, DA*16 - 50/2.8 PLM, NEW DA*50-135 (150?)/2.8 PLM, 100/2.8 Macro PLM and... new 300/4 PLM (dreams...)