On the other hand the manufacturer lists them as available, if others don't have them I would assume it's because
they haven't ordered them not that they don't exist. Pentax USA has much larger list than any of the European sites
yet they don't list everything here.
While skepticism might be in order this is still the manufactures web site. This is close to the horses mouth that you're going to get.
Importers have their own agendas, mostly to sell what they have. If they don't have it they don't want you going elsewhere after all.
Martin Trautmann wrote:
On 2005-03-17 14:34, Peter J. Alling wrote:
I don't know why you'd say that. The D-FA lenses are full frame 35mm and if you actually visit the Pentax JP site you'd see
that there is still a full line of Pentax Primes listed. Maybe Pentax in Europe isn't importing them but they are still available according
to the Pentax Japan web site
Did you actually check through this list? How many do you feel are still around?
I guess it's rather unclear about the long teles, such as smc PENTAX 500mm F4.5 - 12 smc PENTAX M Reflex 2000mm F13.5 smc PENTAX-A1200mm F8 ED [IF] - smc PENTAX-A300mm F2.8 ED [IF] - smc PENTAX-A600mm F5.6 ED [IF] -
But how about e.g. smc PENTAX-A 15mm F3.5 - smc PENTAX-A 20mm F2.8 smc PENTAX-A 50mm F1.2 - smc PENTAX-FA 35mm F2 AL smc PENTAX-FA 50mm F1.4 smc PENTAX-FA 50mm F1.7 smc PENTAX-FA Macro 50mm F2.8 smc PENTAX-FA Macro 100mm F2.8 smc PENTAX-FA Macro 100mm F3.5 smc PENTAX-FA 135mm F2.8 [IF]
I doubt that this page is really up to date. It's from September 2004, and even in that time many of those products were no longer available, I suppose. The better Macros where replaced by DFAs, the cheap Cosina Macro is no longer listed.
I was told by now that there was little market for the 50 mm standard lenses recently - I wonder why. It could be an excellent portrait lense for digital bodies!? Cheap and bright (although the 50/1.7 was never as cheap as the Nikon/Canon/Minolta plastic models).
--
I can understand why mankind hasn't given up war. During a war you get to drive tanks through the sides of buildings and shoot foreigners - two things that are usually frowned on during peacetime.
--P.J. O'Rourke
