Navigating the Road Map

[PentUp]

I need some help navigating / understanding the The Pentax K-Mount Lens Road Map.
It has had two somewhat curious lenses sitting on it for what seems like an eternity... but maybe that is because the engineeers are just as confused as I am, with regard to what these two potential lenses are meant to be?

https://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/japan/products/lens/images/K_Mount_Lens.pdf

1. Colour Coding: The 60 something mm to 300 ish mm lens is colour coded Red... a colour that does not exist in the Colour Code Key (which only shows orange and dark green for D FA lenses & yellow and light green for DA lenses)...
2. Large Aperture Wide-Angle Single Focus: My understanding of "Single Focus" in that marketing tongue twister, was always that it signified a Prime (i.e. non-Zoom) lens...

So:
A. apart from focal range, what is it that we can glean from the red lens? Why red when any of orange, yellow, dark green or light green would have given a clearer picture of intent? And maybe also give the Pentax engineers standing around the water cooler a clearer idea as to what they were suppopsed to be doing at work??

B. If the Orange lens (i.e. clearly then a D FA* ) is a "Single Focus" (i.e. prime) lens, then why does it cover a focal range of +/- 24 - 45mm? Or is it really a D FA* zoom lens that is single focus, i.e. that can only be focused once (a single time) before you throw it away and buy another?? If so, bold move!

 

[dirk]

 

[PentUp]

Thanks Dirk, but I would have thought that just having the link to follow, or not (at the reader’s choice) would have been less usage of space on your forum site? Do you prefer if we upload images of link content to the thread, rather than post the link?

 

[dirk]

Do you prefer if we upload images of link content to the thread, rather than post the link?

Yes. That makes it easier to read. Screenshots are easy done and do not take a lot of space by the way.

 

[James O'Neill]

I need some help navigating / understanding the The Pentax K-Mount Lens Road Map.
It has had two somewhat curious lenses sitting on it for what seems like an eternity.

What's on the roadmap is hope rather than commitment

1. Colour Coding: The 60 something mm to 300 ish mm lens is colour coded Red... a colour that does not exist in the Colour Code Key (which only shows orange and dark green for D FA lenses & yellow and light green for DA lenses)...

It's extremely curious because it looks to be another in the range of ~70 to ~250 maybe a bit more at each end. But there are already two 70-200s
Red suggests they have not settled on whether it would be a DFA or DFA*

2. Large Aperture Wide-Angle Single Focus: My understanding of "Single Focus" in that marketing tongue twister, was always that it signified a Prime (i.e. non-Zoom) lens...

Yes it's a "single focus distance" i.e. prime.
It looks to be about 35mm, and a DFA*. Possibly a baby brother for the DFA* 50. Whether the world wants a wide is general area to be 28 or 35 I don't know, but I've never really liked that as a focal length - not really a standard or a wide - but some people do. I quite like the idea of DFA* of 28 and 135 eventually as these were traditional focal lengths.

If the Orange lens (i.e. clearly then a D FA* ) is a "Single Focus" (i.e. prime) lens, then why does it cover a focal range of +/- 24 - 45mm

They always put "somewhere in the range of" until they are ready to announce what the focal length will be. It's not going be wider than 20 or longer than 50.

 

[RBIV]

If Pentax would just release a Body roadmap, with just one nice smaller FF body with improved focusing system, I'd be as happy as PentUp viewing a 55-500 on the Lens one. And my Body roadmap would take even LESS space on the server. Maybe...

 

[Dino26323]

I need some help navigating / understanding the The Pentax K-Mount Lens Road Map.
It has had two somewhat curious lenses sitting on it for what seems like an eternity... but maybe that is because the engineeers are just as confused as I am, with regard to what these two potential lenses are meant to be?

https://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/japan/products/lens/images/K_Mount_Lens.pdf

1. Colour Coding: The 60 something mm to 300 ish mm lens is colour coded Red... a colour that does not exist in the Colour Code Key (which only shows orange and dark green for D FA lenses & yellow and light green for DA lenses)...
2. Large Aperture Wide-Angle Single Focus: My understanding of "Single Focus" in that marketing tongue twister, was always that it signified a Prime (i.e. non-Zoom) lens...

So:
A. apart from focal range, what is it that we can glean from the red lens? Why red when any of orange, yellow, dark green or light green would have given a clearer picture of intent? And maybe also give the Pentax engineers standing around the water cooler a clearer idea as to what they were suppopsed to be doing at work??

B. If the Orange lens (i.e. clearly then a D FA* ) is a "Single Focus" (i.e. prime) lens, then why does it cover a focal range of +/- 24 - 45mm? Or is it really a D FA* zoom lens that is single focus, i.e. that can only be focused once (a single time) before you throw it away and buy another?? If so, bold move!

Yes it is confusing. It is all part of the mystery. It is all mysterious. Will it appear. What is it.

( At work today I looked through your gallery shots. I have not been through them all yet. There's a big cat shot that is my favourite so far but a lot of them are interesting because at the end of the day they are the truly wild animals of the planet that you have gathered with your pentax ( or other brand ) . Sorry my work pc is not logged into DPR but I will visit on this screen at some point. Everyone's gallery is under appreciated on DPR and yours is no exception. Remember though that most views likely don't even show up as a count on DPR. A lot of people are not logged on that visit other folks galleries. EG at work or on the bus )

Regards
Dino26323

 

[PentUp]

Yes it is confusing. It is all part of the mystery. It is all mysterious. Will it appear. What is it.

( At work today I looked through your gallery shots. I have not been through them all yet. There's a big cat shot that is my favourite so far but a lot of them are interesting because at the end of the day they are the truly wild animals of the planet that you have gathered with your pentax ( or other brand ) . Sorry my work pc is not logged into DPR but I will visit on this screen at some point. Everyone's gallery is under appreciated on DPR and yours is no exception. Remember though that most views likely don't even show up as a count on DPR. A lot of people are not logged on that visit other folks galleries. EG at work or on the bus )

Regards
Dino26323

Thanks Dino, all of my wildlife photos are with Pentax bodies K7, K5II and lately K-3iii (though the K-3iii is yet to visit Zambia with me). Lenses used in Zambia are primarily the Sigma 50-500mm DG OS HSM, Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX Macro HSMII, Pentax DA 18-270mm SDM, Pentax smc DA 55-300mm, and some with the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 HSMII.
For general travel in other parts of the world... one of the above mentioned Pentax DSLRs (mostly combined with the 18-270 SDM or a Sigma 17-50mm f/2,8 HSM), plus at times (when I had them) the Pentax istDs, Pentax K10D and the Mrs' Panasonic Lumix FZ300.
I don't quite have the eye for capturing good urban scenes and people that you do, so when next travelling in a city environment, I will be keeping your B&W urban series in mind when looking at composition

 

[PentUp]

It's extremely curious because it looks to be another in the range of ~70 to ~250 maybe a bit more at each end. But there are already two 70-200s
Red suggests they have not settled on whether it would be a DFA or DFA*

My hope is that it is a D FA (* or not don't bother me) 60-300mm F/4. This would be a suitable replacement for the discontinued DA* 60-250 F/4. Something that I would definately buy.

 

[Flektogon]

I wish Pentax to come with a renewed KP body (no price renewal, please)!