http://kakaku.com/item/K0000416085/picture/#tab
(in Japanese)
All of them are bird shots. Btw, the lens is now on sales at the B&H, for a price of $7,000!
View Also:-
AF Performance and Accuracy Verified for the New K-5 Firmware! ;-D
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
DA560/5.6 First User Samples (14 Nos.)
http://kakaku.com/item/K0000416085/picture/#tab
(in Japanese)
All of them are bird shots. Btw, the lens is now on sales at the B&H, for a price of $7,000!
View Also:-
AF Performance and Accuracy Verified for the New K-5 Firmware! ;-D
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Comments by IntenseDebate
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paj · 631 weeks ago
They inculde other lens' samples (i.e. DA300mmF2.8, FA600mmF4)
asahi · 631 weeks ago
William · 631 weeks ago
Barrie · 631 weeks ago
you sell 200 lenses, you charge $2500+ materials + profit
you sell 1200 lenses, you charge $416 + materials + profit.
Pentax share of the market is much smaller than Canon at around 7% vs 44%.
Economies of scale, with such a disparity in market share Pentax can not compete on price.
Arn · 631 weeks ago
Alain · 631 weeks ago
Jose · 631 weeks ago
Barrie · 631 weeks ago
A brand new lens with zero development and production costs that the Pentax community have been crying out for yet Pentax have not produced it until now, for what reason exactly?
Barrie · 631 weeks ago
You say the lens doesn't make sense comparing the price compared to other brands vs focal length and aperture. based on those 3 fields alone it doesn't. The FA 250-600 is a f5.6 lens, they very rarely show up second hand when they do the sell in the region of 7-8K. So some body out there wants them.
As for shorter lenses at more affordable prices, Pentax already make them as do third parties.
Prime lenses in this range are a specialist item bought for a specific purpose. If they where a mass market item you would see lenses in the range offered as a bundle with the body.
To take on the market leaders at there own game is not something Pentax can do at this time. I for one didn't by into Pentax because they produced the cheapest goods. It was the many little things they do different that appealed to me. Several years ago Apple had lost much of its market and became a very small player in the tech world. They didn't recover from that by turn into another Microsoft.
Comparing Sigma to Pentax is like comparing apples to cheese. While I like both they are not the same. Like wise is comparing a DA* 300mm to the 560mm. I mean look at the difference in price between a Audi A1 and the Audi R8
Alain · 631 weeks ago
To compete with the giants, being an underdog as Pentax is, simply requires more investments and research and manufacturing availability. Right now they are working on a couple of new bodies and lenses and if it is true, the FF will have a couple of nice lenses of it's own, so either all will come out together and crash the market or it will be one by one and time will tell. So far it seems that the smaller players are getting more aggressive and either Pentax is looking or preparing themselves.
As for the price increase, well their lenses were priced cheap sometimes, if you take the 50mm 1.4, they were loosing money on it, Hoya was complaining but I don't think they did proper homeworks, Ricoh on the other hand seems to know more about lens manufacturing and distribution so the prices were adjusted, hopefully properly, but the uproar is the fact that if you need bread every day and suddenly it is 25 to 50% more costly, I think we would all raise our voices, same thing here, poorly priced then adjusted and then the uproar. As for myself I did put off some purchases but I still think that in the end it is properly priced.
I agree with you that there is a need for that lens, all products finds a buyer, but how many buyers will bite? In your economy of scale, you seem to understand cost so we are on the same track here ( I work in manufacturing and distribution)but it should be affordable to be able to promote more of it, maybe they want to send a message that something else is in the work.
All manufacturers cut corners, Sigma and Pentax included, I can recall some real poor plastic manufacturing from Pentax so that's kind of irrelevant.
By making a FF lens it insures you that the future is covered. Since this was an astro lens, a modified one that is, and if I can make of what info was available, it would be in its base form too small to fit an FF body and that would require more RoHS, isn't it?
As for the weight, I don't know what type of photography you do but pros do carry the extra weight, no issues there. For the rain, all the guys I know who have a 500mm or a 600mm, carry some type of protection all the time with them. Even in winter time when shooting owls we do carry some type of adjustable plastic bag. http://www.pbase.com/graphad/lapone
I know a bunch of guys that have either a D300s or a 7D and have either a 400mm F2,8 or a 500mm F4 or even a 600mm F4, reach is the key here, in your case I don't think you do nature photography as we do because rarely do we go out shooting birds when it rains and when it does we are prepared. That's why I carry DA*300 anytime. I do lug my around my Lowepro Vertex 300 with 40lbs of equipment (not including one tripod with Jobu head and also one monopod with and RC head) and I'm not alone doing it most of my bodies do the same. I also do archiving/field photography for research biologist and carrying a seven more pounds doesn't bother me at all. So anyone who wants that lens, either FF or not will carry it.
I agree that Pentax is gaining shares, it could be faster. If you look at the Pentax forum, every day there is a K5 or a K7 or K10/K20 for sale, most say they are selling because they switching for FF, no one talks about megapixel, thats a given, more pixel, largers sometimes photosites and the greatness of better pictures but that I'm not sure, a few months back a photographer stated that the K5 is 90% a 5D III or a D600. I'm not ready to switch my K5 or K7 for that matter but I currently need more definition for my macro work and I tried the 5D III on many occasions and it is tempting to go FF. Time will tell.
As for Sony's losses, the camera division is not loosing money, television and other electronic divisions are and so is their investment portfolio. Too many expenses.
For the Pentax 200 and 300, to my knowledge, it was already on the drawing board before Hoya grabbed Pentax, this was made in conjunction with Tokina. But that's debatable.
Again for RoHS, I know all about that and in many forms. With todays computers, it is an easy thing to do. Producing the prototypes is different.
As for your last paragraph, same analysis, only time will tell, can't wait for more Pentax stuff to come out.
full_frame_now · 629 weeks ago