Some comments embedded. Not disagreement, just comments.
"I don't mean to imply that Pentax work logically, or that
leaving the istDS2 off the market for any length of time is at
all a good idea, but in the case of the FA* lenses, sales are
rotten. Really, horrendously rotten."
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The limiteds are on eBay all the time. The FA* 24 shows up there
regularly. The FA* 85 and 300 show up less often, but they do
show up. The FA* 400 comes up 2 or 3 times a year. For rotten
sales, there are a lot of them floating around.
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"People clamor for them here, but how many buy them? Besides,
the PDML is hardly representative of the buying public."
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You should see the demand over at dpreview. A lot of them buy,
or would if they could. The new dslr owners are the ones driving
up the eBay prices.
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"My bet is that the "discontinued" FA* lenses are actually
"we're finally running out of stock" lenses."
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I got an FA* 24 in 2003, a very popular lens. The one I got
(from B&H, I think) had been manufactured in 1995 or so (at
least that is what the booklet suggested). Then I got an FA 20
in 2004. This is a less popular lens, yet there was apparently a
production run in 2003. I suspect that mostly, indeed, Pentax is
selling off stock, but there were some recent manufacturing
runs. Another Pentax mystery.
Joe
