Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Pentax just announced the HD PENTAX-D FA 70–210mm F4 ED SDM WR Pentax K-mount lens. For Pentax APS-C cameras that is equivalent to 107–322mm. The lens will start shipping mid-March with a price tag of $1100.
Pentax informs us that this is a compact, lightweight and weather-resistant telephoto zoom lens for use with 35mm-format full-frame digital SLR providing great portability.
So, we don’t know what it’s called, but it will be a Pentax K mount DSLR, it will have an APS-C sized sensor and it will be released at some point in 2020. That’s pretty much all that Pentax has announced so far, other than the picture above. It doesn’t even have a name.
Perhaps some more info will appear in the coming days, though, as Ricoh say that it will be shown off at the “Pentax Meeting 100th Anniversary Special” event, scheduled to be held in Japan from September 21st.
Well, this is bad news for Pentax shooters. Sigma had already stopped creating Pentax versions of their newer Art, Sports and Contemporary series lenses, but was continuing to make the ones that had already been developed. Now, though, it seems they’ve finally ditched production of K-mount lenses completely, including the older ones.
According to a statement posted on the Czech Sigma Facebook page, the reason is to be able to focus on mirrorless systems, which is where Sigma sees the future of photography heading.
There has been a rumor going around that Ricoh will stop using Pentax brand name because it will lose the right to it. However, Ricoh has denied the rumor, saying that it will continue to use the Pentax brand when it comes to the camera business.
Imaging Resource recently published their interview with Ricoh execs at the CP+ trade show in Tokyo. They spoke about Ricoh’s plans for Pentax. But in amongst the conversation was Ricoh’s thoughts on the whole mirrorless vs DSLR debate. And, apparently, they think that the people who have switched to mirrorless will switch back to DSLRs within a couple of years.
The two new lenses from Pentax, the HD Pentax-FA 35mm f/2 and HD Pentax DA* 11-18mm f/2.8 ED DC AW leaked yesterday, are now official. People have been waiting a long time for that 11-18mm f/2.8, although the 35mm f/2 has been something of a surprise for Pentax shooters. Here are the full specs and prices, and now both lenses are available to pre-order.
It’s been a long wait. The HD Pentax-DA * 11-18mm f/2.8 ED DC AW was first announced way back in October 2017 at PPE. And, as Pentax shooters often do, they’ve been sitting patiently waiting for it to actually become a reality. Now, according to Nokishita, it’s finally coming. And there’s also a full-frame 35mm f/2 lens coming, too.
To shoot medium format has been a yearlong dream, but I have to admit I didn’t know it would be such a mind blowing experience. The Pentax 645Z (51,4 mega pixels) arrived on the market in 2014 and was the first camera to ever exceed 100 points in the DxOMark sensor test. For some unknown reason the score and review wasn’t published before 2017. There is plenty of info to be found on the internet concerning the camera specs so I won’t cover that in much detail. What is of greater interest to me and hopefully the reader is the medium format experience.
It feels like forever ago since I posted about the new Godox XPro-P flash trigger for Pentax. But it’s actually only been about three weeks. When I went out to test it, I only had the opportunity to really use it with the AD400Pro. We had other lights with us, though, which we tested to varying degrees of success.
Today, though, Godox has released a number of new firmware updates to add Pentax support to a bunch of their other lights.
I’ve reviewed the Godox XPro trigger before, a little over a year ago. Normally, I wouldn’t review the same product again just because it comes out with compatibility for a different camera system. My original review was with the XPro-C, but I didn’t review the XPro-N, XPro-F, XPro-S or XPro-O. So why am I posting a review of the XPro-P for Pentax?
Well, to put it simply, it’s kind of a big deal – at least for Pentax shooters. Pentax has traditionally had very little 3rd party flash support. It’s had some from Cactus with the whole X-TTL thing, but the recent demise of the RQ250 has left Pentax shooters with very little confidence in Cactus’ future. Other options have been iffy at best. But now there’s a new kid in town. The Godox XPro-P.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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