|
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-05-2019, 10:51 AM
|
| |
It's a mistake to believe that innovation has to involve technology. I follow the economist Joseph Schumpeter (he's the guy that introduced the concept of innovation into economic theory) in regarding any new combination as innovative, regardless of whether it involves technology or not. Using that standard, I don't actually regard the PLM as all that innovative. Fast focusing lenses, even fast focusing compact slow aperture lenses, aren't that unusual. But making a very slow aperture lens that performs as well as prosumer glass — that's new and different and therefore innovative. I've been looking for just that kind of lens for years and haven't been able to find it. Prior to the 55-300 PLM, if I wanted to comparable optical quality for telephoto shooting to what I had at wide and normal focal lengths, I would have to get a lens like the DA* 60-250, which is large, heavy and expensive. I just don't want to drag around something that heavy, nor would I want to leave a lens like that in the car. The DA 55-300 PLM has made feasible a whole new world of photography to me: telephoto landscapes. Why is that not innovative?
Where can you find an f3.5-5.6 SLR FF standard zoom lens that weighs less than a pound with as good edge sharpness and contrast (or very close to as good) as prosumer/pro constant aperture zooms at a $500 price point? If you want comparable image quality in a Canon or NIkon FF lens, you'd have to spend more than twice as much and bear, minimally, around 50% more weight. I know that there's a lot of people around here who seem to worship f4 zooms and think that such glass would constitute a lighter alternative to the heavy 2.8 monsters that grace Pentax's DFA lineup. But high-quality f4 zooms aren't that much lighter, and they can be pretty darn expensive. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this new DFA 70-200/4 that's coming out in the next few months winds up being introduced at an MSRP of $1,300 or more.
|
|
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-04-2019, 08:32 PM
|
| |
Saori is not the only lens designer team leader at Pentax. Takahiko Oishi's team is responsible for the DA* 11-18. There may also be a separate team responsible for the new DFA 70-200/4 (assuming it's not a Tokina rebadge). And then there's the new lens on the Ricoh GR III. If the DFA* 85 gets released later this year, then that will mean that Ricoh will have released four new lenses in 2019.
|
|
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-04-2019, 08:29 AM
|
| |
I have to admit I don't understand what the point is here. I'm not sure what kind of innovation is wanted or would be accepted as legitimate. What is desired? Never before used focal lengths and apertures? Would the DFA* 50 be regarded as innovative if it were a DFA* 52.7 f1.536? What many of us want out of a lens is excellent image quality, and if that doesn't qualify as innovative why should we care? Just because something is new and innovative doesn't necessarily make it "better." What I want is not innovation for the sake of innovation, but innovations that improve the quality of my photographic images and my experience using my photographic gear in the field. And in that sense, I do find some of the lenses Pentax has released recently to be "innovative." The two lenses I find particular relevant in this context are the DA 55-300 PLM and the DFA 28-105. What's innovative about these lenses is that Pentax has dared to put excellent optics in a compact slow aperture lens, something that is actually surprisingly rare in the photographic world (which tends to discriminate against slow, variable aperture lenses). As a landscape photographer, I don't need fast or constant aperture zooms. Nor do I want to have to lug around big, expensive zooms. The DFA 28-105 gives me the contrast and edge to edge sharpness of the high-end constant aperture zooms in a smaller, significantly less expensive package. Now that's an innovation worth appreciating.
|
|
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-03-2019, 07:47 AM
|
| |
Hopefully that means the ~70-300 on the roadmap will be a compact lens in the style of the DFA 28-105. But we also need a compact wide-angle zoom as well.
|
