Pål Audun Jensen commented: June 18, 2002 7:05 AM ....Why some Pentax lenses are rare in North America may be that Pentax didn't sell many there and/or that people simply don't offer them for sale. I'm also sure that the Pentax lens population may look different from the Nikon lens population but even a rare lens as the A 300/3.8 is so abundant that some major second hand retailers (in North America mind you) saw the need to dump them. Sure, some lenses are made in small volumes but this hold true for exotic Nikon lenses as well; some of them were only made in volumes as low as 60. I'm not denying that Pentax lenses in general may be harder to find than Nikon lenses, but I'm denying that pentax lenses in general are rare.
Pål I think that perhaps with the advent of auto focus, Pentax strayed from the design philosophy that was successful for them previously, and also they were not at the forefront of that development as they had been with TTL exposure and other such developments. They did well in the P&S market, but not until they came out with the MX/MZ series did their auto focus cameras get back into contention in the SLR market. They also made the mistake of power zoom lenses which didn't go anywhere. I don't think their lenses following the Power zoom series, were on a par with those in the M and A series that existed just prior to auto focus. At that point they seemed to target the P&S market who wanted to move up to an SLR as opposed to the serious hobbyist or professional. However, the offerings in the last few years seem more on track, although, they seem to be bringing out more quality MF lenses than in the 35mm arena. Excepting of course the Limited series, but only 3 lenses in that line! As a matter of interest, I was just in my local camera dealer, who commented that used Pentax cameras and lenses do not sit on the shelf for long. I think there are a lot of traditional Pentax users who have stayed with older manual cameras and lenses, and as Pål suggested from the sales figures he quoted, there are an awfull lot of those around. However, I think many of those people, like myself who did not get into auto focus till the MZS. However, when I did, and looked at aquiring a series of AFlenses, Pentax didn't offer me the selection I wanted. I know the FA* series lenses are great but the 28-70 and 70-200 f2.8 are both power zoom, which did not appeal to me, and extremely expensive, so I went with the sigma EX series of lenses and built my battery of AFlenses in that line. I think Pentax need to come out with something better than the like of their 80-320 consumer zoom, and redesign and drop the power zoom on their FA* 28-70 and 70-200 2.8 lenses. Also they need to make cosmetic improvements to their 50 and 100 mm macro lenses. It seems though, generaly they are back on track, just that their resources are spread between MF and 35 SLR where as none of the other major manufactures are in the MF market. Anyway, just some rambling thoughts on this topic. ...cheers! Mike. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
