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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-16-2018, 01:23 PM
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But it looks like they've been working on something for more than just a few months. Here's a few things to consider. We know that Masakazu Saori designed the DFA* 70-200 (introduced in 2016) and then commenced working on the DFA* 50. The DFA 28-105 was also released in 2016. What is the project team that produced that lens working on? What about the project team that gave us the DA 55-300, also released in 2016? What about the project team that produced the DFA 150-450, released three years ago? Or the DA 18-50, also released three years ago? And if there is a team currently working on implementing the Tokina designed 70-200 f4, what the heck was that team doing in 2017?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-16-2018, 07:15 AM
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While it's possible the DFA 70-200/4 could be based on a Tokina design, it won't technically be a rebadge. It will have Pentax HD coatings and it will likely be assembled and produced by Pentax. Technically speaking, even the DFA 15-30 and the DFA 24-70 aren't complete rebadges. A 100% rebadge would be a lens identical to the Tamron lenses except with Pentax labels. The inclusion of HD coatings makes these lens, however, only partial rebadges.
If I had to bet, I'd say this new DFA 70-200/4 is a Pentax design. There's been rumors for years that Pentax was working on an f4 telephoto zoom. Furthermore, there's at least four, possibly five lens design teams at Pentax. Between 2015 and 2016 Pentax released five in-house designed lenses: the DA 18-50, the DA 55-300 PLM, the DFA 28-105, the DFA 150-450, the DFA* 70-200. Those five lenses could not all have been designed and brought to production by the same one or two teams. So the very fact we've gone several years without any new lens releases suggests that these lens design and production teams have been working on in-house designs and that explains why it's taking so long. If Pentax was really into doing "rebadges" and using lens designs of other companies, we'd see a lot more DFA lenses. They only went with Tamron "rebadges" out of dire necessity, not because they really wanted to.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-14-2018, 07:20 AM
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You can be sure Pentax is trying to get these lenses out as quickly as they can. They're such ambitious designs that it's taking time. One question might be whether Saori, who's project team designed the DFA* 50, is also working on the DFA* 85. There's a two year gap between Saori's previous lens, the DFA* 70-200. If there's another two year gap between the DFA* 50 and the DFA* 85, that would push the release of the 85mm lens to 2020. But maybe there's a different project team working on the DA* 85. Or maybe Saori and his team solved some of the most pressing problems with making such a lens with the DFA* 50, and work on the DFA* 85 will be that much quicker.
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