new lens in 2012 in k mount- 560 f5.6 and 50 f1.8

It's funny, there are all these people on the forums complaining that 560mm is too long. After so many years of requesting a long telephoto...and now it's too long???? I hope Pentax prices it at $300 so they can also complain it's too cheap.

At least Jeremy will be happy with the 50mm f/1.8 that's rumoured to be in the DA 35mm f/2.4 plastic style.

There's also a new 645D lens and probably some new lenses for the Q. Read about it here: (link)

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/02/07/Pentax_In-development_lenses

A 560mm would be great. I hope that I could afford it but I would really really like to see is a 70-210mm f/2.8 DA*. That would be my most useful lens by far, right now that focal range is such a huge hole in my lineup.

If I hadn't just picked up a Pentax 600mm f5.6 A I think I would be stealing from my daughter's college fund for this one. You simply have to have a lens minimal 400mm to do any kind of bird photography; from there a teleconverter is often a must. So IMHO a 200mm f2.8 + 2X is not a solution for bird photography. A 560 f5.6 will be very welcome.
I wonder about balance though; with 'the future norm' possibly being a mirrorless body I really wonder how this lens will be developed to accommodate that future. With my 600mm f5.6, a long plate, and a loaded battery pack with the K7, the 600mm f5.6 is just starting to get balanced (it's front heavy) . If I were Richo I would make sure that I include some sort of accessory to this lens (a long Arca Swiss plate?) that makes balancing a lighter body a possibility.

An interesting question though, reflector or refractor?

Mis, people are saying it's too long? Ha ha ha ha, that is a good one.

PJ Vesterback wrote:

I hope that I could afford it but I would really really like to see is a 70-210mm f/2.8 DA*

Consider the DA55-300mm, an excellent lens with image quality good enough to have the star, even if the build is more mid-range. It's only one stop slower than 2.8 through most of the range. Really a complete bargain.

I think initial reaction is, *whoa* -- 560mm? So long, nothing between 300mm and 560mm in the lineup?

Second though though is that it's a good idea. It's probably a good length for birding/wildlife...which is the primary reason people want a lens > 300mm, and it's faster and probably a better performer than a 300/4 + 2x would be, and probably cheaper/lighter/better than a 400/4 + 1.4x would be -- and realistically, those who'd buy a 400/4 would probably end up using a TC on it anyway. As far as gaps in the range, there's a good chance Pentax is planning to fill that with a DA 100-400/4.5-5.6 (length & speed are guess from roadmap vagary) zoom in sometime in the next two years.

Incidentally, there's no way this is going for $300 -- despite that it's labeled so far as "DA" rather than "DA*", this is NOT going to be a cheap lens by Pentax standards (image source, right-click-view-image for full size image):

The DA 50/1.8 appears to be pretty much exactly like we'd guessed, in the spirit of the DA 35/2.4 -- and I'd expect a similar price in the $175-225 range. Too bad they didn't do something more interesting like make it 60mm.

Glad to see that Pentax is exhibiting a possible tele zoom for Q. IMO this should have been announced (at least as a future/delayed product) when the Q was announced, as this helps distinguish the benefits of a camera system from point & shoots with limited zoom range. There's also an adapter Q for K-mount lenses -- obviously of somewhat limited use due to the big crop factor but it will allow your DA17-70/4 to become roughly a 100-400/4 with none of those pesky issues with limited depth-of-field. The image shows that the adapter includes an aperture ring and what appears to be a leaf shutter as well.

Another interesting possible product, what appears to be something like a 'XS Limited' of unknown speed and focal length (again, photo from here):

• It appears to be of DA Limited-quality build/materials.
• It appears to take advantage of the vacant mirror box to extend the optics into a K-01-class body (and incompatible with SLRs unless they introduce a full-time mirror lockup mode in future SLR models for live-view-only operation -- IMO, a good idea if they're going to build lenses like this)
• Amount of glass appears relatively generous vs. DA40, looks a little more like a DA21 or DA70.
• My guess is that it's wider than the 40 due to the surfaces I can see through that front element in the image, plus the efforts to extend into the body.
• We can hope this is something in the 24-32mm range (presumably f/2.8 or faster) for K-01 though this would be an uncharacteristically savvy move for Pentax, no?

So much for the reflector vs refractor question! Thanks for the post Andrew. There is probably no real point to speculate on the price (I will anyway), say 5-6K would be a ballpark though.

A nice long tripod mount. Good thinking! That should be able to accommodate a lot of different body sizes.