Pentax Completely Abandons Screw-drive Body-AF for All Upcoming New Lenses (If Any!) >:-[

This is disclosed from an interview with the senior officials of the Pentax Imaging, at the recently held New York PhotoPlus Expo:-

http://enticingthelight.com/2010/11/01/speaking-to-pentax-at-photoplus-expo-in-new-york/

Quoted:-

• DC is a new type of in-lens focusing motor that’s intended for consumer lenses. DA* lenses will incorporate the higher grade SDM focusing.
• Going forward, all DA lenses will have DC focusing only, losing the screwdrive option. The exception will be the DA Limited lenses, which will stick with screwdrive focusing.
• The new DC 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 is DA focus only and will be available within a few weeks (the display unit I tried out is a preproduction model). It is “weather resistant” and has a metal mount. Price will be $530 in the US.
• Still no official statement from Pentax about the SDM failures. I was told Pentax USA was aware of the issues people were reporting, but that it was Pentax Japan who had to acknowledge a problem (if there is one). Pentax USA doesn’t know if the alleged issue is being addressed, but I was told the engineers are continually working on improving their designs so it could be new SDM lenses would be more resilient. As of now, Pentax Japan have not informed them of an SDM II being developed.
• No word on any possible new lenses.

Well.. Oh, NO! >:-{

When some people are always blaming me for being "negative" from time to time. But in reality, aren't all these news are just too discouraging enough? Mind that almost every person writes his/her own words in the Internet now, and I am surely not the only Pentaxian who are being "negative". Do note that the above are all told by the senior officials of the Pentax Imaging of USA. I believe that the author does not mis-quote what the officials said.

At the end of this post, I just can't help myself and just wish to ask: With the drop of backward system compatibility with all the new lenses (which are yet unknown for their actual existence!), why people should go Pentax now? Just because their SDM is known to be particularly superior in performance and more reliable?? Besides, it should be noted that the performance and reliability of the DC motor is yet not proven, but time will tell.

Finally, do note that if they now could abandon the support of those a bit older DSLR bodies that were made only back to 2006 (K100D and before), a few years later they can yet once again abandon the support of the *current* screw-driven DA/FA Limited lenses on their new bodies, which possibly by that time will only support lenses that have an in-lens AF motor in them. So, this would be something that we should really think about..

Indeed, Pentax *was* the company whom once had insisted the most on system forward and backward compatibilities. But now, everything shows that Hoya just breaks this good tradition too easily, but without good enough reasons, which is rather disgusting after all!


Read Also:-

1,000 Signatures of the Pentax SDM Petition Online!

Really NO MORE HOPE WITH PENTAX (Dozen Reasons for WHY NOT PENTAX NOW)

Pentax Starts to Drop Support for Body Driven AF