Do we really need/want updated DA★ lenses?

Mark Ransom wrote:

Smitty1 wrote:

Mark Ransom wrote:

PocketPixels wrote:

Several reactions in the main K-3 Mark III news have mentioned a keen desire for new DA★ 16–50mm and/or DA★ 50–135mm lenses. Aside from some Sonic Drive Motor (SDM) reworking circa 2015, these lenses haven't changed since their introductions in late 2007. Ricoh/Pentax finally rounded out the "trinity" of professional, constant-aperture ƒ/2.8 lenses in 2019 with the DA★ 11–18mm, so chances are that one will hold up until 2032

What about the 16–50 and the 50–135? Are you keen for updates to the professional DA zoom lineup?

(And I guess we can lump in the ƒ/4 DA★ 60–250, which is also a 2007 release.)

I would never touch any of the DA* lenses that use the Sudden Death Motor. To the best of my knowledge Pentax has never admitted a problem with them or updated the lens designs. If they made changes in 2015 they did it extremely quietly. At this point I'm not interested, even if they redid them from the ground up.

I got a brand new boxed DA* 16-50mm from Ricoh corporate after repair staff couldn't figure out how to repair my first one and 3x in the shop for the same issue (couldnt infinity focus; super soft) . This was 2016.

The SDM in the new one failed within a year of extremely light use. I took it out maybe 3 or 4 times that year for a couple hours at a time in fair weather.

It was around that time I sold it and a lot of other things.

My DA* 50-135mm SDM failed too. I do think they need a DC motor or some other form of drive motor.

Yes, that's the commonly reported failure scenario - the less you use the lens, the more likely it is to fail. Very counter intuitive.

Since I never give my lenses a real workout, they'd be guaranteed to fail on me.

It is an odd situation.  My first 16-50mm also had the SDM fail in it.  I was able to bring it back with some careful powering of it and racking of the autofocus ring for some time.  Eventually it came back and as long as I used the lens every week or two the SDM would stay active.

Guess its a capacitor or something in there at play?  In any case I will never buy another old style SDM lens again.