Speculation, Rumor, and Innuendo

[Joseph Tainter]

One of our local stores hosted a bunch of reps today. I've met the 
Pentax guy before. He had heard no feedback on the *ist D (Christmas is 
coming and he's on the road), and so was very glad to hear that I like 
it, and that those on this list do also.

I mainly wanted to ask him when the DA 16-45 will be available. He made 
a call but the only answer he could get was "maybe soon." He actually 
sounded encouraged by that because he had thought it might not be 
available until spring. No list price yet, but he expects it to be 
expensive.

I had a chance to play with the AF 360FGZ on the *ist D. The double 
flashes for P-TTL come in such quick succession that I doubt anyone 
would have time to blink between them.

The Pentax booth, btw, had customers besides me.

I told him about the fast, wide primes that I think Pentax needs to 
develop for the *ist D. For some reason he volunteered that Tamron is 
working on digital lenses. Maybe Pentax plans to rebadge some of them?? 
Just my speculation.

Then I went to the Kodak booth to ask about the discontinuance of 
manufacturing carousel projectors. The Kodak rep has not heard of that, 
but said that she wouldn't necessarily hear what happens in that 
division. Then she gave me two rolls of E100G, and a roll apiece of 
E100GX and Portra 400 UC. They don't seem to fit into my *ist D though.

As we already know, Pentax Japan tells Pentax USA very little, and 
listens even less.

Joe