A new Pentax dSLR? FF? APS-C? Do you care?
Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter April 9, 2026
A new Pentax dSLR: FF? APS-C?
We have new hope for another Pentax dSLR after an interview with Kazunobu Saiki the head of the camera division at Pentax and Ricoh. It sure sounds like a new Pentax dSLR is on the way! But no hints as to whether it would be full frame or APS-C.
Do you care? Are you ride or die with full frame? APS-C? Or are you ride or die with Pentax and any dSLR it puts out? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know why you do what you do in the comments!
Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, Forum Member Angus_M89 reviews the SMC Pentax-F 28mm F2.8; New Member barm explains why the SMC Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter is a fantastic piece of kit; and Site Supporter robincawhite shares his Pentax camera collection.
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, please take a moment to join the almost 1,600 Pentaxians who have subscribed to our free curated compendium of the hundreds of great images and post shared each week in our Pentax community. Please let us know your thoughts here in the comments and on our Pentax Forums, and have a perfect Pentaxian week!
Threads of the Week:
April 5, 2026 • Ricoh GR Series • 1 replies • 357 views
mysterick said — Flooded Cuyahoga River at Mantua, Ohio. Read more »
From film to digital and back again
April 3, 2026 • Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras • 13 replies • 682 views
robincawhite said — Pentax cameras in my collection My camera collection is predominantly Pentax cameras, both film and digital, starting with the first Pentax camera I owned: the Spotmatic. I have adopted the strategy of collecting the principal Pentax camera of each era from then (and wherever possible in black). Read more »
Artemis II Photos from the far side of the moon
April 8, 2026 • General Photography • 7 replies • 170 views
BertieK said — With 28 cameras aboard ranging from old Nikon DSLRs to GoPros, Artemis II may become the most comprehensively photographed space flight in history. Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Pentax Lenses
SMC Pentax-F 28mm F2.8
Reviewed by Forum Member Angus_M89
Review Date: April 4, 2026 Recommended | Price: $60.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: IQ, resolution, sharpness Cons:
A fantastic lens. Really!
In the middle, this lens is 10/10 for sharpness and general image quality. The corners can be mushy but I don’t spend much time looking at the corners of my photos. This out-resolves a lot more expensive lenses for me and does it with really beautiful colour reproduction.
Small, compact, quiet and un-assuming. Aesthetically I avoided the F series like a plague but now I question my judgement for form over function. This is my only 28mm auto focus lens but it nails pretty much every shot and does it really well.
I hadn’t used it much for some reason this past six months. Recently I threw it on for some kids running in the yard, playing with bubbles and it just blew me away again.
SMC Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter
Reviewed by New Member barm
Review Date: April 7, 2026 Recommended | Price: $120.00 | Rating: 9
Pros: Converts MF lenses into AF Cons: Adapted lenses require workarounds
Before I get into my rambling, I want to just say that this is a fantastic piece of kit, and one of the most useful ones I’ve picked up to date. It’s high quality, easily serviceable. I love manual focus lenses, and from an early age got my grandpa’s Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic SP IIa with a SMC Takumar 50/1.8. I still have that lens with the dented filter ring. It works great til this day. I took a hiatus from shooting cameras for about 10 years now, and I recently picked it up again. Manual lenses have been a joy, and I recently learned about this product. Sure it’s out of print and no longer made, but it sure is a terrific little adapter.
Like many others have said, it’s sharp, and the limitation will be the glass that you put in front of it. One limitation is the lack of support for adapted M42 lenses. I was poring over late 2000s and early 2010s discussions finding dead links. I realize this adapter was very popular in Japan’s astrophotography community (BORG). I didn’t delve too much into it, but it looks like something I’ll have a ton of fun looking into. I think Kenko Tokina makes the glass, and you have a lot of customizability over your kit. Anyway, the BORG community really took to these, since this turned their telescope into semi-AF supertelephotos. In order to get it to work, I got a roll of copper tape (5mm width, 0.05mm thickness) and cut out a little strip to short out pins 6 and 7 (farthest from the red mounting dot indicator). I’m testing it now with my Industar 50-2 50mm f3.5 and it works great!
Comment of the Week:
Loyal Site Supporter TwoUptons on Are you a photo provocateur? The Best of Pentax Forums April 2 Poll: One poll aspect I missed... the poking moose with a stick...
A little over two decades ago I visited Yellowstone, and they had a book they sold at the bookstore that my mother bought that basically chronicled all the ways people had died in the park.
Pro Tip -- the most dangerous way to visit Yellowstone is apparently as a Boy Scout, followed closely by fisherman... the former tend to drown in the lake during storms and the latter tend to find unexpected (and fatal) hot springs while they are wading through the water.
But the most remarkable was the people who think the Bison and Elk in the park are tame. "Hey, let's do a photo of little Billy on the Bison's back..." is apparently not uncommon (and leads often to the death of Billy or his father).
It is also the only place I've ever seen someone get a ticket for toothpaste (leaving it out in their camper where the bears could get at it; they are serious there about the bears).
A new Pentax dSLR: FF? APS-C?
The Best of Pentax Forums April 9 Poll
We have new hope for another Pentax dSLR after an interview with Kazunobu Saiki the head of the camera division at Pentax and Ricoh. It sure sounds like a new Pentax dSLR is on the way!
But no hints as to whether it would be full frame or APS-C.
Do you care? Are you ride or die with full frame? APS-C? Or are you ride or die with Pentax and any dSLR it puts out? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know why you do what you do in the comments!
This poll closes April 15.
And here's this week's PentaxForums YouTube video:
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Posted By: xs400: Welcome to Weekly Challenge #735: Farms
Thank you TyBabbie for selecting my photo as the winner of last week’s contest!.
This weeks challenge is Farms. It can be farm buildings, farm animals, people working on a farm, farm equipment, or farm fields.
The challenge will run until midnight next Sunday, April 12th 2026 at midnight PST. I will announce the winner the next day.
And here’s the entry from Loyal Site Supporter pacerr: Mule-power - Jon & Procter “You’re gonna trade me for a diesel what . . . ? Jon, that’s crazy. Why, diesel’s over $6 a gallon an’ them fools are puttin’ good eatin’ corn in gasoline.”
The Home Place, a working farm of the 1850’s.
Homeplace Working Farm - Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Pentaxian Profile: Angelescu Stefan
A studio photographer from Romania
By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Feb 24, 2012
My father has played a big role in my life since I was a little boy. As a movie director and an adept of the Russian cinematography, he always dragged me to film festivals and photo exhibitions and that, I think, determined the way I see the world through the lens today. He also gave me my first camera, a Pentax MX which I still use today, and that was my first contact with Pentax.
PentaxForum Front page stories April 2-8:
Announcing “Street” - Our April 2026 Photo Contest
Win prizes in our official monthly photo contests
By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Apr 2, 2026
We’re herewith announcing our monthly photo contest for April. The theme for this month is Street.
We’re excited to launch our April photo contest celebrating the raw, vibrant, unpredictable world of street photography. Whether it’s a fleeting moment, an expressive face, a striking composition, or the quiet poetry of everyday life, we want to see how you interpret the streets around you. Your challenge is to capture a photo that embodies the spirit of the street — its people, textures, stories, or atmosphere. Urban or rural, busy or serene, candid or abstract… if it lives in the street, it belongs here.
First prize is a $50 gift card to B&H Photo, second prize is a one year forum account upgrade, and third prize is a box of photo paper form Red River.
The official contest rules are found here. Click here to submit a photo for the contest.