Pentax Request

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

Thousands of Pentax users from Pentax and DPreview forums have been tiredly waiting for Pentax to achieve some sort of fix for these SDM failures that occur to many of the lenses owners. Many of us are tiredly 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 or 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 that will allow us to choose between using 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 and it will certainly boast the sales of the premium line-up of Pentax DA* lenses. 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 use either SDM or 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 strong enough to admit and fix.

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.

Pentax please hear our words and please show strength.