I would suspect that these specialty lenses (like the hyper-expensive
80-200mm f/2.8, etc) simply sell in such small quantities that
they've set production to be very limited. They might sell one of
those for 1000 of the less expensive, slower models, and make 10x the
profit margin that way. Pentax has not been a vendor concentrating on
professional photographer *support* for quite a long time, other than
with their medium format offerings. Pro photog support is very
different from producing quality lenses and cameras.
Happily, the quality of the FA50/1.4 places it nicely into the realm
of professional standards in practical use.
Godfrey
On Sep 20, 2005, at 9:50 AM, P. J. Alling wrote:
If they're not meeting demand they are losing sales. Some
specialty lenses, the ones professionals use are back ordered for
months. The FA50/1.4 isn't exactly a specialty lens.
That's my experience as well. The most difficult to obtain lens
I've purchased (FA50/1.4) took 8 days from when I finally decided
to buy it to having it in my hands. New Pentax lenses are selling
very briskly, in the face of limited supplies.
I've bought several new lenses in the past six months. I think
you used too
many waits in your sentence.
...
They sold quite a few to me. They're going out of stock as fast
as they're
arriving.
...
