New lenses from Ricoh/Pentax

[Pioneer]

To those who may still be interested, I suspect we are witnessing the end of Pentax as a brand. The newly redesigned DA Limited lenses have been announced and they no longer carry the Pentax brand. They don't actually say Ricoh yet but that will happen with time. Much like Minolta before it, a once great company is coming to an end.

 

[ic-racer]

Already ended when they put the pentax name on a plastic digital camera and stopped making film cameras.

 

[benjiboy]

Pentax was bought by the Hoya Corparation years ago.

 

[lxdude]

I saw Pentax on every one of the new DA lenses I looked at. The 70mm /2.4 (marked 2.4/70) reveals the name when the focus is racked out. The coating on them is called HD in place of SMC.
I would think it very foolish of Ricoh to dump the Pentax name on its high-end stuff, because Ricoh has never been the name on that level that Pentax has been (though Ricoh has made some nice cameras over the years).

 

[lxdude]

Pentax was bought by the Hoya Corparation years ago.

Hoya and Pentax merged, with Pentax Corp. ceasing to exist, then they later reconstituted Pentax as a company and sold it to Ricoh.

 

[clayne]

Already ended when they put the pentax name on a plastic digital camera and stopped making film cameras.

This.

 

[lxdude]

Already ended when they put the pentax name on a plastic digital camera and stopped making film cameras.

What the hell? Just because they started making digitals, that doesn't mean they ended as a brand. They didn't exactly have much choice. If they had tried to continue to make just film cameras, they would have gone under completely. They made film cameras as long as it was viable to do so, including their medium format cameras and lenses until late 2009.
No one can last long making stuff they can't sell. At least with them around, repair parts could be supplied for seven years after models were discontinued.

Not that I don't understand what you're getting at, but I think it's silly and emotional.

 

[Pioneer]

I saw Pentax on every one of the new DA lenses I looked at. The 70mm /2.4 (marked 2.4/70) reveals the name when the focus is racked out. The coating on them is called HD in place of SMC.
I would think it very foolish of Ricoh to dump the Pentax name on its high-end stuff, because Ricoh has never been the name on that level that Pentax has been (though Ricoh has made some nice cameras over the years).

You are correct lxdude. I didn't look at them with the focus racked out. I apologize for the false alarm on the branding issue and I stand duly corrected. Thank you.

I suspect that most people know this but the Pentax DA prime lenses still work with my Pentax PZ1p and MZ-S as those cameras (and perhaps others) allow the aperture to be adjusted in-camera. The quality (as well as size) of these newer Pentax DA lenses are magnificent, so if you have the opportunity I recommend you give them a try. Obviously, if you are working with the older cameras then this is not possible.

 

[lxdude]

What about coverage, as the DA are made for their digitals?

 

[Pioneer]

A lot of the DAs seem to work just fine on full frame. An awesome example of this is the DA* 300mm. I also use the DA 35 and the DA 40 which both work just fine on full frame. As for the rest someone else will need to chime in.

 

[Nuff]

The wide angle 21mm and 15mm will not work on FF, but the others will.

 

[Tom1956]

New lenses--for WHAT? Cell phones have spelled the end for photographic instrument manufacturers. Companies are buying and eating up each other like cannibals trying to stay alive.

 

[lxdude]

Cell phones and P&S digitals are for the snapshooters' market. Time was, that market was served by the likes of Kodak, and companies like Nikon and Pentax did not even make a small rangefinder, much less a point and shoot. I think that's how it's going to be again eventually.

 

[Tom1956]

I think its a matter of too many chiefs and not enough indians.