Originally posted by gnaztee I didn't get the sense they bashed Pentax at all, they just don't count older, MF-only lenses as "good" options. That says to me that they are AF users, but not ignorant of Pentax advantages.
I agree, but would also point out another bias - the idea that having *more* AF lenses in production makes Canon "better". Of course, I'm no saying having fewer is better either. But it's really going to come down to who has the lenses you actually want, and how they compare in price and quality.
In particular, I know Canon & Nikon have a larger variety of basic general purpose wide to telephoto zooms than Pentax does. But really, does anyone need more than one of these? If Pentax has the one that covers the range you've decided you want for a basic walkaround zoom as the best comparomise between price, quality, size, and focal length range, great! And in that case, not having as many *other* versions of a wide-to-telephoto zoom should hardly count against Pentax.
Also, while it might be technically true to say that older Pentax lenses don't have coatings to help *specifically* with digital, this glosses over the fact that the basic SMC coating Pentax has used for years is actually very, very good already, even without any specific "digital" tweaks.
Still, again, I agree with your general characterization - those were mostly quite reasonable responses from people who naturally had a somewhat different bias than we tend to over here.