no dof scale is a big mistake for such a lens, if they are smart, they should actually include a dual one (aps-c and "ff").
i am not sure we are clear on the fact this is a rectilinear. if it is, to be honest, especially at that price, i am not holding my breath for any miracles.
i still believe that the smart move in this day and age is to go for a fisheye design, and include (already available opensource) software for defishing. a fisheye design (spherical projection) is much cheaper to r&d and build i think, it is (potentially) smaller, and is something doable for a reasonable price. if you could also add some software in camera, to provide a decent preview jpg (defish/no-defish, on request), that would be great (that can only work if 1. pentax grabs this idea and makes such lens under their brand and/or 2. the firmware will be opensource -- still waiting for that one
). make it sharp, make it rugged, make it manual focus, smc-a, and make it weathersealed, oh, and include a second accessory sunhood for aps-c
, and pentax landscape shooters will snatch them in pairs, and the dealers will have to hire bodyguards to fend the inpatient customers off. the old zenitar already (or still) does some of the above: it is small & compact, light, simple and solid, sharp, and it would also be as good as weathersealed if it had a mount o-ring (the lens itself would be nice to have ws, but it's not that critical, i guess, but a mount sealing is mandatory at least, for outdoors shooters), and it's pretty damn sharp. it's not smc-a though, and it's not pentax, but after using it for a year, you'd have to work hard to convince me to bother with a "clunky" rectilinear ultrawide zoom and leave my little zenitar at home.
there's a niche, and it's waiting for somebody to fill it. just my two cents worth..