Let's take them, one by one:
- "Pentax's range of lenses is just stagnating, you can go back decades, still the same old stuff" - false. Ricoh Imaging is building a D FA lens series. And in the last two years, we've seen a "wildlife" lens - the 150-450, a D FA* - the 70-200, a new AF motor - PLM...
- "the plasticy DA*16-50mm F2.8" - false
- "SDM motors, if you don't use them regularly they stop working" - false. I would left my DA* 60-250 unused for a while, not a problem.
- "the slower more dated DC motors" - false. DC is faster than SDM micromotors.
- " Pentaxians are gagging in the forums looking for lenses, and Pentax don't give them any" - false. There are some good lenses in current production, some introduced recently, more to come.
Do you think it's fair to make so many false statements? 
As for commanding "very high prices", a D FA* 600mmf/4 would likely cost 11/12k $, as with Canon's/Nikon's.
Seeing:
- "I felt kinda sad having left the K mount at first, but man am I glad that I did now."
hints that you're trying to "justify" your jumping ship. Not to be fair, but to "prove" that you were "right" to leave Pentax, because blah blah blah. Stop it. It's unneeded and unfair.
You obviously don't think it's stagnating and I do; fair enough!
Look at the comments here about Pentax lens availability, I gave you a list of lenses from the heyday of Pentax that are now discontinued, their best lenses rivaling Nikon and Canon, all gone!
Yes they have replaced "some" with new designs, but overall there are less than fifteen years ago; the 70-200mm looks nice as does the 150-450mm (a bit short for small birds) with only the very expensive DA 560mm F5.6 goes longer than that.(frankly I don't like that lens)
As Pentax rebadges some Tamron lenses I do not understand why they won't rebadge the 150-600mm, one of the most regular questions on the Pentax forum is; "does anyone know if Sigma or Tamron plan to release the 150-600 in the PK mount?"
DPreviews Pentax DSLR forum and PentaxForums have had ongoing threads about SDM motor reliability and them going to sleep if left unused for a while. Pentax finally replaced the motors with updated ones and electronics, that helped the situation, many Pentax owners avoided SDM lenses though, some were on their third motor, many were changing the lenses to screw-drive because of it! (through PKtether). There were also SDM polls and endless threads, briefly, it's all documented.
Pentax DC motors are faster and certainly more reliable than their SDM counterparts maybe, but still do not rival ultrasonic ring motors, which tend to rule the roost for sport and wildlife telephoto optics, Pentax-Forums have done many AF comparisons and while being reasonable performers they do not compare to the Canikon offerings.
So you see "no falsehoods" there at all, and I make no justifications for my change, each point reasoned from a longtime shooting K10/K20/K5/K01/K3, I just got fed up with looking at great lenses I couldn't use on the K mount, however if it isn't affecting your shooting then fine!
In reality I want to pat Pentax on the back for bringing out more lenses and I will when they do, just like I patted Pentax on the back for the K1,
I'm personally am too old to wait for them!
I obviously see they're not stagnating, and it's very visible on my bank account. The FF K-1, the new lenses? How can you ignore those?
The FA lenses were gradually introduced starting with 1991 (with a few years of advance preparation), and through 2001 - most of them being discontinued in 2004. In more than a decade, by a company which was continuously operating. You're blaming Ricoh Imaging for not building a complete-but-modern lens line in 5 years since they took over? And you call that 'fair'?
The problematic SDM lenses we're introduced in 2007, that was even pre-Hoya; and last Pentax SDM lens was introduced in 2008 - how is this Ricoh Imaging's fault? The SDM doesn't need constant usage; that might've been the case for some defective samples.
The falsehoods as stated in my previous post remains.
"I just got fed up with looking at great lenses I couldn't use on the K mount" - you're doing it again, feel the need to "explain" why you jumped ship. Who cares? Use whatever brand you can be happy with.
Interestingly enough, as I'm going full-frame the lenses I'll miss the most are ones not offered by neither Canon nor Nikon.
Nice double negative
My bad, I'm obviously not a native English speaker but willing to improve
So... "offered by neither Canon nor Nikon"?
Quote:I obviously see they're not stagnating, and it's very visible on my bank account. The FF K-1, the new lenses? How can you ignore those?
The FA lenses were gradually introduced starting with 1991 (with a few years of advance preparation), and through 2001 - most of them being discontinued in 2004. In more than a decade, by a company which was continuously operating. You're blaming Ricoh Imaging for not building a complete-but-modern lens line in 5 years since they took over? And you call that 'fair'?
The problematic SDM lenses we're introduced in 2007, that was even pre-Hoya; and last Pentax SDM lens was introduced in 2008 - how is this Ricoh Imaging's fault? The SDM doesn't need constant usage; that might've been the case for some defective samples.
The falsehoods as stated in my previous post remains.
"I just got fed up with looking at great lenses I couldn't use on the K mount" - you're doing it again, feel the need to "explain" why you jumped ship. Who cares? Use whatever brand you can be happy with.
Interestingly enough, as I'm going full-frame the lenses I'll miss the most are ones not offered by neither Canon nor Nikon.
Actually, you need to read again, I think. The great lenses are the ones that Pentax never made, and for which no K-mount lenses were made availble, i.e., 3rd party lenses.
Personally, I stopped shooting with Pentax around 1998, and although I kept all my analog Pentax gear, just before Christmas I finally got rid of all of it, quite a stack of lenses and 3 bodies. I am never going to shoot Pentax again myself, I couldn't wait either.
In the 1970s and 1980s Pentax was great, right up there with Canon and Nikon, and Minolta, Olympus, etc. However, after the LX they seemed to invest in consumer cameras only, which IMO was their downfall. Their dslrs, based on the returns a retailer friend of mine had, and stuff I heard from other retailers, was never that great, certainly not in the same league as Canon and Nikon. Most problems were AF related, with any lens, it seemed. This apart from other malfunctions.
They brought out the 645D a few years ago, and that was a camera which was very tempting, just that I couldn't afford it, and more recently the K1. Lenswise, they did not really update their range as Canon and Nikon did, or just sold the same lenses from the analog period in new packaging. Although their coatings are very, very good indeed, if not the best, their lenses are IMHO not at the same level as those of other manufacturers, and if it takes Ricoh 5 years to produce anything that is similar to the other manufacturer's products, for me that also was a much too long wait.
Great to see some defenders of the Pentax faith, but for me, and several others, it was too little too late, and it still seems to be continuing that way, even though Ricoh appears to put quite an effort in. It'll take years for them to catch up, and personally, I wasn't going to wait around anymore.
No need to feel offended, attacked, or being treated unfairly - we all have our opinions, for different reasons.
Great to see you are happy with the choices you made, but then, so am I.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
Actually, my point stands - I did enough thinking before making it 
What do you mean by "The great lenses are [...] 3rd party lenses"? It sounds very wrong, but I'll let you explain.
The rest of your post is a looong justification of why you're not shooting Pentax
I used to shoot Pentax from 2007 to 2012.
They produced great cameras with the best ergonomics at the time (maybe even now). However, their AF was ridiculously unreliable and sluggish.
They had some gems in their lens lineup, namely their pancake designs.
This being said, I agree with the others: Pentax/Ricoh have been standing still for way too long and now it is too little too late.
It is especially true, when you compare Pentax to Fuji and how quickly the latter developed a full-fledged lens lineup of awesome glass is such a short period of time!
Pentax has really no excuse and I'm afraid their sluggishness will very likely seal their fate...
Sigh... another "my decision to leave Pentax was the correct one because yadda yadda yadda and if they die my decision will be proven correct"... :p
Left in 2012, you say? So you missed all the new things done under Ricoh Imaging, including:
- the K-5II, able to focus down to -3EV
- the K-3, with the first Pentax AF with advanced subject tracking functions
- the DA 560mm, their first long lens in a while
- their first optically stabilized interchangeable lens (for the 645)
- their first 1.4x RC with autofocus
- the D FA 150-450, filling an important gap
- their first D FA* lens, a 70-200 f/2.8
- their very first FF DSLR - which was very well received
- a new and very fast AF motor (PLM)
- evolving the K-mount towards a fully electronic interface (KAF4)
It's like we're in a Monty Python sketch... besides the above and what I left out, what have Ricoh Imaging ever done for us?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWfh6sGyso
P.S. I'm still waiting for wim to explain how only a 3rd-party lens maker can make great lenses. I hope he's talking about Zeiss (though Leica would have something to say about that...).
Quote:Actually, my point stands - I did enough thinking before making it
What do you mean by "The great lenses are [...] 3rd party lenses"? It sounds very wrong, but I'll let you explain.
The rest of your post is a looong justification of why you're not shooting Pentax
If you insist on seeign it that way, yes. In short, I got disappointed almost 3 decades ago, and it still isn't much better, for me anyway. I shoot Canon and Olympus now, and am very happy with the many options I have now.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
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