Alin wrote: Unless you know something you don't intend to disclose, I'm afraid you are plainly wrong. The best the rest of us can expect is FAJ Star lenses
REPLY: According to sources that know these things intimately there will be no FAJ* lenses. FA-J is Pentax entry level lens series (FA Junior). They say the *ists and the FA-J are strictly entry level and that Pentax have to built in the features the targeted audience require, old lens compatibility isn't among those, at a very competitive price. According to the same sources this is nothing to worry about and that the "good stuff" will come in fall. No, I don't know what the good stuff means but there is at least two lenses apart from a coming FA-J telephoto zoom. I know there are at least two as it was refered to as "lenses". It could just as well be 5, 10 or 20 for all I know. The aperture ring confuse entry level users and many users think they have a faulty camera when it is just the aperture that is accidentally set at F.22; for Nikon accidentally not set at F:22! And yes, the *istD will overwhelmingly be bought by people doing point and shoot. No camera manufacturer of modern AF gear cater for users of more 20 year old lenses. Neither Nikon or Canon or Minolta do. And Pentax have even less such users. 20 years is an eternity in marketing. If Pentax will continue K/M compatibility they will do it on products placed above the *ist's. As for lenses without aperture rings, as opposed to FA-J lenses, there exist a weather sealed lens series without aperture rings. This was intended for the Z-1, which was also originally a weather proofed design. But Pentax balked out. This series is still around but so far it hasn't been released and it is uncertain if it ever will. It is also unclear to me if these lenses uses USM. In fact, some of the FA* lenses are derived from this yet ureleased lens program. This incudes the FA* 24/2, FA* 85/1.4 and the FA* 80-200/2.8. The reason these lenses have inner focusing mechanism was originally to ease a weather proofed design. These FA* lenses indicate that it was intended as a high-end lens series. I don't know whether the various FA lenses (except the FA-J's) are going to be expanded or continued. heres always the ghost of KAF3. Whether such lenses will be introduced and whether they will form a break in compatibility is anyones guess at present. What I've been told, though, is that it is premature to draw any conclusion from the *ist's as they are compromised entry level cameras. As far as the fact that the *ist's set aperture from the body; this is no worse than on any Canon EOS body where you cannot set aperture from the lens. I prefer aperture rings but suspect that most prefer one way or the other. Therefore it may make sense to make one solution or the other for camera thats going to comptete mainly on price/performance. The *ist'd should please Z-1 owners many complaining about the fact that the MZ-S cannot set the aperture (manually) from the body. Pål
