Pentax SDM Firmware

Dear Pentax, with all due respect with thousands of Pentax users, we have been very disappointed with your DA* lenses containing SDM auto focusing motor for a long time.

Thousands of Pentax users from Pentax and DPreview forums have been hopelessly waiting for Pentax to achieve some sort of fix for these SDM failures that occur to many of the lens owners. Many of us are hopelessly waiting for the SDM problem to be fixed so we can continue to support Pentax by purchasing lenses that contain SDM; instead we result to buying third party lenses that have a more reliable alternative, such as Sigma's similar HSM and even the screw-drive.

Thousands of the online Pentax community wants Pentax to release a firmware allowing the use of the DA*'s screw-drive on our Pentax DSLR cameras, this is what we would really want and have been waiting for Pentax to listen. Please release a firmware that allows such a fix; if the SDM motor fails, we can resort to using screw-drive instead and that is what we want.

Please check the Pentax forums and DPreview forums, we all want a firmware, one that allows us to choose and use between SDM and screw-drive. I know allowing screw-drive is not a permanent fix to the SDM fault that occurs, but it can resort to a permanent fix for many of the Pentax online community until Pentax is able to stabilise the current SDM auto focusing motors. Such a firmware will certainly increase the sales of the premium line-up of Pentax DA* lenses, we do not want to buy an auto focus lens that is unable to auto focus. Such a firmware will certainly make the Pentax userbase happier, and it will ultimately draw back the many old Pentax users who have switched to another brand due to not being able to use a reliable premium line-up of lenses such as the DA*.

Releasing a firmware to allow the selection to choose between SDM and screw-drive is not admitting that Pentax has made an error and the SDM auto focusing motor is unreliable. Releasing a firmware means that Pentax is strong enough to admit the problem and fixing it with a solution that many of the Pentax community have been hoping for. Admitting the problem and fixing it will not hurt sales as much as not admitting the problem. We do not ask Pentax to admit it in their own words, we just want Pentax to release a firmware that we ask, and that to us is Pentax showing it is strong enough to admit and fix a major problem that plagues their lenses.

More and more Pentax users are speaking of SDM failure as every day progresses, and is what will ultimately hurt Pentax sales and it is not what we want. If Pentax does not fix the problem, what they have thrown around will eventually come around right back at them. A small simple problem with the SDM motor has simply grown to become larger, and soon it will be larger than what is already a major problem. If Pentax does not fix the problem soon, we fear for the worse.

Pentax please hear our words and please show strength.