For the angry words of various members I saw since I joined this mailing list, I wish to give my 2 cents.
Some of you wanted USM or IS. Pentax has always been lagging behind other manufacturers for several years. One of their industry firsts was to put a built-in flash on an SLR body but do you care stuff like this ? If you were back in those days would you brag that your had the only SLR with built-in flash. I personally never expect Pentax to lead and innovate, although sometimes they do. What I expect of them is precisely the opposite. For example, a single AF sensor on my Z-1p is adequate because any more is a waste of time to select between them and more light is lost for the AF sensor. I used to have some Canon equipment including the very fine EF300/4L USM, but today I would still try to find the non-IS version if I were to use Canon again because it is cheaper and the optical formula is old and proven. There is always the worry that the IS is not as sharp optically especially when you really use it. Let's face it, the hey days of Pentax were over. Now it is Canon. If you think Pentax is a sinking ship it is never too late to sell and switch to another brand. For me, the lens line-up that Pentax built-up in the 80's and the 90's looks great to me. For the future, that they will have a *ist D is good enough for me. Despite all the compatibility complaints the only manual focus lens I have is a Tamron and it has an "A" apatall mount, although I can see others with a vast wealth of K/M lenses with a problem. Screw mount lenses would work better than K/M lenses, though, from what I gathered. My girlfriend does have a ton of screw mount lenses. I must confess that at a point I wanted to "switch" and dump about half of my Pentax outfit. I bought a complete Contax G2 set and found it worked much better for me. But this year I can see the whole world going digital, with prices coming down and quality going up closer and closer to film. For film I use Contax G unless I need long telephotos (then it's Pentax), but only Pentax has a digital upgrade path, so I am glad that I have not sold any of my Pentax gear yet. I am pretty sure I don't like the Contax N series by the way. My dream digital would be something like the G2 (i.e. interchangeable lens electronic rangefinder) but everybody wants to make a DSLR these days.
