At 09:32 AM 6/7/03 +0200, you wrote:
Dear Pentax Corporation,
For more than 14 years I am a user and a big enthusiast of Pentax k-mount equipment. I have spent a huge amount of money both on new and used Pentax k-mount equipment. In all this time the one feature that never let me think much about other brands was the unsurpassed compatibilty of the k-mount. I use and combine with pleasure bodies and lenses in all variations of the k-mount. And I would like to continue doing so when acquiring a digital SLR body.
Now Pentax is finally ready to release its first digital SLR. Like other Pentax users I have been very patient waiting for one. Thanks to a very friendly Pentax sales person I have been able to try a pre-production *ist D. Generally it is a very nice and well-made camera which I would happily buy. However, I then could use my 30 beloved lenses with plain k-mount only at wide open aperture (in aperture priority mode) or without metering (in manual mode). This really stops me from buying the *ist D. I need and want full k-mount compatibilty, or at the very least, I want the camera to offer a mode of operation in which it meters correctly with K- and M-series lenses at any aperture. One solution would be that the camera would meter when the lens is stopped down via depth-of-field preview. This feature could easily be installed by a software update.
I want you to know that
1.) I will buy a new Pentax digital SLR body ONLY, if it offers a correctly metered mode with K-series and M-series lenses at all apertures.
2.) I will NOT buy any Pentax film-based 35mm SLR which is not fully compatible with the k-mount.
3.) I will NOT buy any Pentax 35mm SLR lens which is not fully compatible with the k-mount unless it offers image stabilisation.
Greetings from Hamburg, Germany,
Arnold Stark
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. --Groucho Marx
