Originally posted by Nicolas06 In 2-3 years with drop in price for the body and more FF lenses availables (like a 24-105 f/4 and 70-300 f/4-5.6), there would be far fewer cases for APSC (except compactness).
I agree that those factors will make the Pentax FF range much more attractive. But I am suspicious about the lenses you suggest.
Consider the current 28-105mm lens,
which gives me very high image quality. My own tests indicate that
it is only f/3.5 right at the wide end, and by 31mm has become f/4. In other words, it is more like a 28-105mm f/4-f/5.6 lens, with a
slight aperture bonus at the
very widest setting.
I've seen regrets that it doesn't reach 24mm and/or that it isn't a constant aperture. But I'm convinced that either of those would have
greatly increased the size, weight, and cost. And/or would have reduced the image quality. I believe that, given the (mostly) no-compromise Pentax FF lenses that are currently available, Ricoh should introduce new zooms that concentrate on high image quality, small-size, low-weight, and "affordability". And I think such lenses would be much more limited in their parameters than your suggestions.
My observation is that as the sensor gets larger, providing a lens with a largish zoom-ratio
rapidly escalates in size, weight, and cost. Compare typical zoom-ratios for medium format, FF, APS-C, m4/3, and smaller sensors. Physics gets in the way!
I think the best strategy for Ricoh would be to take it for granted that people wanting a lower-price FF system
will buy the 28-105mm lens, then they will want a wide zoom and a longer zoom that overlap just a little bit with it. In other words, offer a 3-lens range, each of them biased towards the above parameters, including cost. Perhaps an 18-30mm or 18-36mm variable aperture zoom and a 100-300mm variable aperture zoom.
(Although I have the 4 recent professional-class FF zooms, I also have the 28-105mm lens, simply because it is light enough with high image quality to be worth having near my K-1 all the time. I might buy the two lenses I've just suggested for similar reasons, perhaps as a convenient FF travel-system).