Pentax Q 09 telephoto macro lens
A new strange rumor about the Pentax 09 Telephoto Macro lens surfaced online from the Japanese photographer Kimio Tanaka:
いま、試用中のレンズ。
小さい、軽い、AF高速、至近も無限もとんでもなく描写がいい。レンズのスペックなどはおいおいと・・・。若者よ、希望を捨てるな。PENTAXがんばれ。 pic.twitter.com/B6f0PLKoTT— 田中希美男 (@thisistanaka) April 22, 2017
Translation:
“The lens I’m currently testing. It’s small, it’s light, autofocus is fast and the pictures are superb at both macro and infinity positions. The specs and stuff are awesome. Young people, don’t give up hope yet. Keep it up Pentax.”
and his other comments further down:
“Oh, I forgot to mention I borrowed this lens from abroad. Ricoh don’t know about this at all. Just in case.”
“Ricoh didn’t explicitly say that the Q series was discontinued nor that they had terminated the development of TELEPHOTO MACRO. Unfortunately, the situation is rather heading towards the ‘minus’ side.But here, there is the possibility to reverse the trend towards the ‘plus’ side if everyone stands up and cheers. So I won’t give up and I will acclaim.”
Kimio Tanaka is a well-known photographer in Japan who has often been involved with Ricoh Imaging / Pentax events and promotions, such as giving a lecture on the K-1 on the Ricoh Imaging stage at CP+ 2016. The page dedicated to KP on the Japanese Ricoh Imaging website includes his review of the camera and two pictures of him:
Kimio Tanaka had also this comment on his blog the day following the issue of the devastating report from Nikkei on Ricoh’s plans about Ricoh Imaging:
“The other day, there was a report that Ricoh would stop producing cameras for the general public. Reading it, I did not even care (I thought it had to be fake, it was pretty exaggerated, unthoughtful information) (I was making a big noise when I saw the net).
I have asked Ricoh about the development of the successor to the K-3 II and interchangeable lenses, and about the next model of the GR that they said is the closest to commercialization. It is unbelievable they would quit.”
Via Digicame-info + additional info from Mistral75