Would you buy modern releases of legacy MF classic glass from Pentax?

I just thought of something, would you buy NEW model MF glass from Pentax? I mean that seriously. I think as long as there is an "A" setting I might for some wider glass. Not sure my eyes can reliably let me Mf anymore. I've tried a few different focusing screens and either I've totally forgotten how to quickly focus or I just can't see right anymore...or, and here is the most likely, AF made me a lazy, lazy guy!!

But I think some retro MF glass updated from Pentax might be a lot of fun to buy...think of some of the old classics which are so far out of my budget I'll never own one before croaking but a new version with a reasonable price, perhaps that could change. And I don't mean a dozen 50mm lenses but some of the neat old glass like an 85/1.8 or a 14/1.8 or even 14/1.4....if Samyang can make them and keep the price reasonable why could Pentax not leverage the fact existing shooters love old MF glass and pay good money...and would likely gobble up modern versions of those old keeper lenses we can't afford at collector prices.

No, I would never buy new and probably expensive MF lenses.

I did bought a "new" A50/2,8 macro a few years back, but it was cheap

brecklundin said:

I just thought of something, would you buy NEW model MF glass from Pentax? I mean that seriously. I think as long as there is an "A" setting I might for some wider glass. Not sure my eyes can reliably let me Mf anymore. I've tried a few different focusing screens and either I've totally forgotten how to quickly focus or I just can't see right anymore...or, and here is the most likely, AF made me a lazy, lazy guy!!

But I think some retro MF glass updated from Pentax might be a lot of fun to buy...think of some of the old classics which are so far out of my budget I'll never own one before croaking but a new version with a reasonable price, perhaps that could change. And I don't mean a dozen 50mm lenses but some of the neat old glass like an 85/1.8 or a 14/1.8 or even 14/1.4....if Samyang can make them and keep the price reasonable why could Pentax not leverage the fact existing shooters love old MF glass and pay good money...and would likely gobble up modern versions of those old keeper lenses we can't afford at collector prices.

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If it is good and reasonably priced, why not? I love using my SMC-M 28 f3.5 and M 50 f1.4 lenses. I also loved my friend's Samyang 35 and 85mm f1.4, Samyang makes fantastic MF lenses too.

brecklundin said:

I just thought of something, would you buy NEW model MF glass from Pentax? I mean that seriously. I think as long as there is an "A" setting I might for some wider glass. Not sure my eyes can reliably let me Mf anymore. I've tried a few different focusing screens and either I've totally forgotten how to quickly focus or I just can't see right anymore...or, and here is the most likely, AF made me a lazy, lazy guy!!

But I think some retro MF glass updated from Pentax might be a lot of fun to buy...think of some of the old classics which are so far out of my budget I'll never own one before croaking but a new version with a reasonable price, perhaps that could change. And I don't mean a dozen 50mm lenses but some of the neat old glass like an 85/1.8 or a 14/1.8 or even 14/1.4....if Samyang can make them and keep the price reasonable why could Pentax not leverage the fact existing shooters love old MF glass and pay good money...and would likely gobble up modern versions of those old keeper lenses we can't afford at collector prices.

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It's possible, MF on a Pentax Apsc body, if you change the focus screen, but it does take good eyes and often several shots to nail it. That plus the fact that releasing old FF lenses for use on a crop body makes no real sense, I doubt there would be much interest. A different matter is the recent release of a new Zeiss MF "Loxia" lens family for use on FF mirrorless. With the aid of focus peaking, focus magnification (which is triggered as soon as you turn the focus ring), and the compact, relatively lightweight design, this provides a compelling MF system. Pentax would do better on further improvinf their AF and release new AF Apsc lenses.

Chris

There are no legacy fast wide primes like the 14mm f1.4 you crave. Even Samyang don't make one of those.

The Pentax legacy is 35mm based and are 30 year old+ designs so they are not a good choice for current APS cameras. It may be a nice dream that all Pentax has to do is dust off the old designs with some new coatings but it isn't realistic. Just to re-issue the old lenses would mean changing lens elements as some of the old glass formulations are no longer allowed. And fast wide primes never existed in the first place.

If Pentax did try this it would end up in Zeiss Z series price levels and of course Zeiss dropped K mount as it wasn't economic. The simple truth is there is only a very tiny market for K mount MF lenses. Maybe if Pentax had leading edge video performance there would be a stronger demand but video is not a Pentax strength.

No and no and no! With the new DSLR's, I have a hard enough time manual focusing the few times I need to do it now! Then to change my focusing screen, to do something I rarely do now and maybe screw-up my autofocus that I use 99% of the time. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The good old times weren't always so good. I "inherited" an old film SLR and I have been thinking about playing with that, then asked, "Why?" Then I decided to put it on my display shelf! There was a reason I left film for a long time before getting back into photography with digital. This is just me saying, someone else might enjoy it, but not me.

It's a very cool idea, but I would not be a potential customer, since I already have a collection of wonderful old glass just waiting to be used. My lenses don't have auto apertures, but I think I will be able to use them in aperture priority with an adapter on a Fuji body.

Not I. While I do use manual focus for a variety of things, my eyes are not as good as the AF in most circumstances. For example, when I shoot panos, I autofocus on the selected focal point for DOF and then switch to MF to retain the same focus for all shots. If Pentax/Ricoh want to put money and effort into lenses (and they should/must), let them update the DA* series zooms, add a 10-20, 40-100. etc. to the new Ltd. WR zoom series, a longer zoom, say 120-400+, add WR to the rest of the small primes, etc. Those that want MF can still buy legacy glass and a KatzEye focus screen - the IQ is still pretty good and the other more subtle output qualities hold up.

Personally I wouldn't be a buyer for manual focus lenses from any manufacture today. I still have my LX and bag full of manual focus lenses from the 80's but after about an hour of playing around with them on a digital body back in the closet they go for another year or two. I did find a Pentax Lenses and accessories catalog from probably the late 70's as it is pre LX that has all the lenses and their specifications made at that time. Here are a couple of scans from that catalog.




Lens Road Map


optional someone to carry this guy


The Tamron 150-600mm predecessor

No, with possibly two exceptions:

• A* 85mm 1.4

• A* 135mm 1.8

I choose those two because the used market sets those lenses at a premium that it may be possible that new copy would be less expensive than the original.

As far as every other lens, the used market is sufficient that a lens I would want could be had at a reasonable price.

Which is why I have a bag of manual focus lenses, and shot for one year exclusively MF with my K10D. I had a few with my ME Super growing up, and added to my collection, foregoing kit lenses before I started buying big AF glass. Gifted my 75-300 FAJ to use instead an 80-200 f4. Upgraded my A 50mm 1.7 to an A 1.4, bought an A 35-105. Also pulled out my A 35-70.

Shooting with them, provided you have a split moon focusing screen, is great. Certainly lightens the load.

But, I would prefer Pentax to simply update these lenses with new AF models, or come up with all-new lenses which match the range, but keep the size down compared to traditional AF models. Like the FA 77mm Limited. I would love to see how this lens is compared to the FA* 85mm 1.4 I currently have - one I love except for the weight.

Really, an expanded AF lineup and lower overall prices (I cannot believe the prices of some of these lenses, on sale!) would be a better use of resources than building new manual focus lenses (which they probably do not have the dies anymore).

brecklundin said:

I just thought of something, would you buy NEW model MF glass from Pentax? I mean that seriously. I think as long as there is an "A" setting I might for some wider glass. Not sure my eyes can reliably let me Mf anymore.

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Nope, I wouldn't; I would rather pay for modern AF lenses.

Alex

What would be the point when you can get old manual focus Pentax lenses for next to nothing on eBay ?

As for manual focus - I don't see the problem, easy

I just can't seen them selling the lenses cheap enough such that people would buy them. The effort in releasing old lenses in new packages is probably a much more expensive exercise than you think as well as they'd need to sort out the whole manufacturing process again. The machines use to make lenses 30 years ago no longer exist and todays machines most like work off a design they didn't have 30 years ago.

My opinion. Pentax needs to pay attention to Sigma. Ramp up the QA/QC and turn out new designs that can wow everyone. DA* 17-40 constant f/2 modern AF WR. Or 15-85 f/2.8 AF WR. Add in a DA* 100-320 f/4 AF WR. All we need to add is a UWA, portrait (I like 70mm on aps/c but others 90 or 55) and something fast around 200mm.

But I know I won't use the legacy MF glass much. My PK/A 50mm f/1.4 and PK/A 24-50 f/4 tend to do a lot of shelf sitting unless I get out my voigtlander adapter to put them on my NEX-7.

Cheers.

Petroglyph said:

My opinion. Pentax needs to pay attention to Sigma. Ramp up the QA/QC and turn out new designs that can wow everyone. DA* 17-40 constant f/2 modern AF WR. Or 15-85 f/2.8 AF WR. Add in a DA* 100-320 f/4 AF WR. All we need to add is a UWA, portrait (I like 70mm on aps/c but others 90 or 55) and something fast around 200mm.

But I know I won't use the legacy MF glass much. My PK/A 50mm f/1.4 and PK/A 24-50 f/4 tend to do a lot of shelf sitting unless I get out my voigtlander adapter to put them on my NEX-7.

Cheers.

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They seem to be in no mans land. Some fast APS-C lenses would probably confirm their commitment to APS-C but probably annoy those hopeful for a FF camera. I don't think Pentax really knows which way to go right now. IMO its not as clear a path as many think it is.

But re-releasing MF lenses would cost way to much and isn't as simple as many think it would be. A series of fast primes is more useful. The zooms you mention would be too big and expensive for Pentax to make. A DA* 90 f2 or a DA*macro above say 150 would be welcomed and maybe 2 more f1.4 lenses.

Or was a couple of years ago at least.

I think they could probably sell a few legendary lenses with no AF equivalent , Nikon still sells 50mm 1.2 new manual focus.

Daedbird said:

No, with possibly two exceptions:

• A* 85mm 1.4

• A* 135mm 1.8

I choose those two because the used market sets those lenses at a premium that it may be possible that new copy would be less expensive than the original.

As far as every other lens, the used market is sufficient that a lens I would want could be had at a reasonable price.

Which is why I have a bag of manual focus lenses, and shot for one year exclusively MF with my K10D. I had a few with my ME Super growing up, and added to my collection, foregoing kit lenses before I started buying big AF glass. Gifted my 75-300 FAJ to use instead an 80-200 f4. Upgraded my A 50mm 1.7 to an A 1.4, bought an A 35-105. Also pulled out my A 35-70.

Shooting with them, provided you have a split moon focusing screen, is great. Certainly lightens the load.

But, I would prefer Pentax to simply update these lenses with new AF models, or come up with all-new lenses which match the range, but keep the size down compared to traditional AF models. Like the FA 77mm Limited. I would love to see how this lens is compared to the FA* 85mm 1.4 I currently have - one I love except for the weight.

Really, an expanded AF lineup and lower overall prices (I cannot believe the prices of some of these lenses, on sale!) would be a better use of resources than building new manual focus lenses (which they probably do not have the dies anymore).

Click to expand...

I agree with you. I still have the A* 85mm 1.4 and A* 135mm 1.8 from older days, and use them in low-light conditions. I am keeping them in the hypothetical event of a FF K-mount camera....

[No message]

Depending on your shooting style (landscape, architecture) certainly! Think of the Pentax 28mm shift lens I regret having sold. I have bought several MF lenses like the the cheap but bitingly sharp Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm F1.7, chose the Samyang 14mm over the AF Pentax 14mm because of the corner sharpness and picked up the renowned Carl Zeiss 35-70mm because I was unhappy with my AF lenses and never regretted it. There are excellent and cheaper MF lenses out there, outperforming modern and far more expensive AF lenses. I use them on my K-5, (low light) focusing is not a problem at all in my experience.

RemcoR

Yes, I would buy them!

Actually I am following ebay for old Pentax lenses or lenses with PK mount. The good ones are sold there for prices that are somtimes more than they have cost as new ones.

I own the 135 mm, F=2.8 Pentax lens from the first K series. I also have a Tamron 180 mm 2.5 from the legendary aniversary series. From my analog days I sitll have an use my 50 mm 1.7 Pentas lens with A aperture transfer to the camera and an old 28 mm F=2.8 lens from the K series. My 80-200 mm lens from the M series (first generation) is no more used by me.

I was glad to find a 300 mm lens from the A series. I think that the new 300 mm lens is better - but I do not have the money to buy a lens for 1000 EUr or more - so I was glad to get the old one which is build like a tank and very small for a 300 mm lens with a maximum opening of F=4.0.

To me the great sensor of the K5 with its good high ISO quality has a greater impact on my photography than AF technologies. Most of the time I do landscape and macro photography. For macro AF is not useful at all and for landscape photography you have either a wide angle lens you could use as a fix-focus lens or it would be better to distribut the range of shaprness according to your actual f-value of the aperture to get everything sharp you want than let the AF find a point to select sharpness which causes a not optimal distribution of sharpness in your picutre.

My first AF camera was the Mz5n. That days I had it with the 28-200 mm lens from Tamron which I used quite frequently. It was a lost camera generation for me as a hobby photgrapher - my IQ went down due to that crabby lens and a technology (AF) which never was of any advantage for me.

I would like to have some of the great old lenses with a pka mount for the prices you can get them at ebay at the moment as used.

Of cause, we should look if these lenses fit with the digital sensor technology. I still have an old 100 mm F=2.8 macro lens from the Pentax A series which is not useful now as you have rfelections from the last lens element of that lens which is quite plane and has a big diameter. These lenses are not useful anymore and the new ones are better.

Best regards

Holger