I went today to the Photo Expo West (http://www.photoexpowest.com/) -
a Photo Exposition organized in San Diego by Delkin.
A few impressions and a few bits of information (FWIW).
I had a chance to talk briefly with the West Coast distribution manager
(or something like that) of Pentax.
1. Pentax SMC 18-250 is ready. They were showing the preproduction
unit, and indicated that they expect the shipping to the stores very
soon, possibly at the end of the next week, or the following week.
(Boris, - I believe you were interested in that lens.)
Regarding its design and manufacturing he responded that it is indeed
based on the Tamron but manufactured by Pentax ("it has Pentax glass"),
and it is manufactured in Japan (the one on display was labeled as
such). The MSRP is set at $499.
The external design and feel of the lens was exactly the same as that
of the Tamron one that was also present at the show.
2. The DA* 200 and the 300 (both SDM) were expected to appear in stores
before Christmas. It is still possible they will, but it is not clear
right now.
3. DA* 60-250 will not be on the market before Christmas.
It is unclear when, but it is possible that it will be late January,
or at least by/before the PMA.
4. To my naive question about the rumored new body, he smiled and
said that "PMA will be interesting this year".
That's all about Pentax.
Overall, Pentax table was much smaller than that of either of
Nikon, Canon, and even Tamron.
Pentax's table was in the middle, which probably helped
them a bit with attracting attention, but Nikon and Canon areas were
much more crowded.
Sony was in the back, so at least at the time I saw that table,
2 or 3 representatives were talking with only one visitor.
I was impressed by the quality of the HP-branded canvas paper
(and a black-and-white print by HP photo-jet printer on it).
Sorry, I didn't register the printer model number, but I suspect
it is the one competing against Epson R2400, costing, IRC, $699,
including cartridges, which cost $33 each and can be replaced
separately.
These are the main impressions.
Unfortunately, I had rather limited time, so I didn't have time
to see what interesting was presented by N. and C.
Actually, I was impressed by the size of a telescope-like looking
Canon lense, mounted on a heavy-duty tripod.
My wife who suggests that soon we'll need a pony to carry around my photo
gear, agreed with me that that lens will be too heavy for the poor pony.
"That's all news, folks!"
Igor
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