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Of all the camera brands that are still producing cameras with any regularity, Pentax Ricoh is one of the less active, but now it might be working on a new lens.
The Pentax brand also happens to be just about the only camera maker that still maintains a toehold in the DSLR format market, since its most recent camera, the Pentax KF is such a device.
Thus, the rumored new lens from Pentax comes as a bit of a surprise.
This was recently spotted by the website Pentax Rumors and according to their reporting, a recently discovered Japanese patent application indicates a new wide-angle prime lens from the brand.
The model being patented is a 14mm f/3.5 K-mount optic for APS-C camera bodies. What’s more, in this new patent application, the company mentions an aim to deliver “miniaturization and a wide angle” for the new lens.
Thus, this new and possibly upcoming wide-angle lens will be quite small, or at least a lot smaller than Pentax’s most recent previous lens with the same focal length, the Pentax-DA 14mm f/2.8 ED (IF), which is by now roughly 20 years old. (again, Pentax, is hardly prolific in the camera market)
With an updated f/3.5 aperture, the new lens under patent will likely have a smaller diameter than its predecessor and will also be lighter.
On the other hand, while a new Pentax lens is good news for owners and users of Pentax cameras, there’s still the problem of Pentax hardly pushing new products onto the camera market.
The brand hasn’t moved into the mirrorless market at all and even for the DSLR lines it continues to develop, only a few have been released in the last decade.
All of these are K Series DSLR models, with the newest, the low-priced KF being from 2022.
The KF may be a bit dated by now and seem like something of a throwback as a DLSR, but it actually gets surprisingly good reviews as a tough, responsive and highly usable 24MP APS-C DSLR model.
For those who do own this and other K Series Pentax cameras, a new wide-angle prime would indeed be a welcome little surprise.
Image credit: Pentax, Japanese Patent Office
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