Originally posted by stephen_G I've been scouring the lens listing here Lens list for Digital single-lens reflex camera / Lens lineup/ Lenses / Products | RICOH IMAGING to acquaint myself with what is available. Getting my head around what all of the letters mean in the lens name is a bit of a learning curve!
I see that on that site Ricoh have gone down the "equivalence" rabbit hole:
"* Focal Length w / FF: when attached to PENTAX 35mm full-frame SLR cameras | w / APS-C: when attached to PENTAX APS-C size DSLR cameras" (e.g. for a 50mm lens, 50mm and 76.5mm).
No, no, no. It's still a 50mm lens. It's just that the field of view (FOV) is different because of the sensor size. More threads about this topic here than you can shake a stick at.
There is a mental adjustment in going from a 35mm film camera to an APS-C DSLR. Your 28mm lens is a wide angle lens on the ME Super, but it's pretty close to a "normal" FOV on APS-C. For a similar wide angle FOV you need around 19mm on APS-C. After a while though you stop doing the "conversion".
All the lens acronyms are confusing. Some (e.g. ED, AL) refer to a type of element in the lens. Some (smc, HD) refer to the lens coatings. Some (WR, AW) refer to its weather sealing. Some (DC, SDM, PLM) refer to the type of autofocus mechanism. IF describes an internal focus lens (ie the lens doesn't change length when focusing).
Apart from that, Pentax lenses use different initials to describe the lens series (e.g. M, A, F, FA, FA J, DA, DA L, D FA). The D ones were designed for digital camera, although all the earlier ones work perfectly well on digital. Some premium lenses in a series are designated "star" lenses (denoted with an asterisk), some are designated Limited (relatively compact lenses with distinctive image properties).
The acronyms for each lens are described in the Pentax Forums staff review of each lens.
Originally posted by reh321 No numbers, but reports do keep dribbling in.
@Photogem can probably give more of an indication (albeit still anecdotal), but I agree with Jonathan that a problem that emerged about 10 years ago shouldn't be happening at all in a current model. There was a class action brought over it - don't know where that finished up.
Originally posted by normhead Some people expect to buy entry level cameras and get the same durability as flagships. Is that real anywhere with anything?
The irony, Norm, is that it isn't really a question of durability. The failures tend to occur not from over-use, but under-use. The K-70 might be an entry level camera, but it's listed at $A1149 at CRK. I don't think it's unreasonable for people to expect it not to fail because of a poor quality $5 part, especially when the problem has been known for so long.