[H. J. Simpson]

[quote name='dave9t5' timestamp='1355085707' post='21152']

Yes, you are missing some things, specifically:



[indent]SMC PENTAX DA 18-55MM F3.5-5.6 AL WR

SMC PENTAX-DA 18-135MM F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR

SMC PENTAX DA 50-200MM F4-5.6 ED WR



SMC PENTAX DA STAR 16-50MM F2.8 ED AL (IF) SDM

SMC PENTAX DA STAR 50-135MM F2.8 ED (IF) SDM

SMC PENTAX DA STAR 60-250MM F4 ED (IF) SDM



SMC PENTAX DA STAR 55MM F1.4 SDM

SMC PENTAX D FA MACRO 100MM F2.8 WR

SMC PENTAX DA STAR 200MM F2.8 ED (IF) SDM

SMC PENTAX DA STAR 300MM F4 ED(IF) SDM

HD PENTAX DA 560MM F5.6ED AW[/indent]



...a list which grows by one or two lenses every year.[/quote]

The first 3 are crap kit zooms (18-135 is just totally useless garbage if one to believe the reviews) and all the primes are specialty telephoto lenses of very limited use, so for me there are only 3 decent weather-sealed lenses from Pentax at the moment. 55/1.4 is more or less useful, still it's a short telephoto lens that doesn't seem to perform good wide-open and considering it's price 50-135 is a more sensible option (for the kind of shooting we're talking about, that is outside in the elements).

[quote name='dave9t5' timestamp='1355085707' post='21152']

That's inaccurate as well. The prices of many Pentax lenses did indeed jump in the spring of this year as Pentax seemingly changed their strategy and brought their formerly excellently priced lenses more in line with the rest of the market. However, they have not swung between $750 and $1500, see here:







The price was around $900~$1100 before the price jump this year but now it's stabilized around $1200~$1300.[/quote]

I don't know about Canada and was referring to B&H prices. A week or two ago Pentax 16-50 was ~$750 at B&H. Today it's $1500: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/48..._8_ED.html

Something very similar was happening with 50-135. And it's not the first time it happens, the prices were going up and down like crazy at least 2 times in the past few months.

[quote name='dave9t5' timestamp='1355085707' post='21152']Lots and lots of options in Pentax land, not at all like the picture you are trying to create.

[/quote]

I don't see any options. There are 2 bodies (k-30 and k-5), only one standard zoom and a couple of telephoto zooms, that's basically it. You can post a long list of all those telephoto primes, but the thing is no one really buys them, they're specialty instruments for specialty shooting. For normal use the options are very limited. "Lots and lots of options" are in the Canon system... you've got a couple of APS-C weathersealed cameras (although 50D is old now and 60D isn't weather-sealed) and a couple of full-frame cameras (even 3 if 6D is weather-sealed), you've got affordable weather-sealed zooms (24-105, 70-200/f4 is), you've got expensive weather-sealed zooms (24-70, 70-200/2.8), you've got all sorts of weather-sealed high-quality primes (including superfast wide-angles like 24/1.4, 35/1.4 and specialty TS lenses), you now even have 3-rd party weather-sealed lenses from Tamron! Now that's a lot of choices, and compared to that Pentax line-up is very limited.