Wow did that hit a nerve! Emails started popping in about as fast as someone could have read the article after I posted it, and haven't stopped flowing in since. A few things:
- I'm going to separate the article out into a separate article with its own URL when it falls off this page. The reason will become clear later when I add one of your suggested thoughts to it.
- Why didn't I include the 17-55mm DX instead of the 16-85mm? A few things: first, I think 16mm is important for that market now. 24mm equivalent is better than what works out to be 26mm+ equivalent. Second, the 17-55mm DX seems like a pro lens in all respects. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but... Third, based upon my surveys the Nikon DX enthusiast is buying the 16-85mm instead ;~).
- On a similar vein, the old 50-135mm f/3.5 Nikkor isn't all that far off the mark for what DX needs, and it's a good lens. But buying used to solve a problem isn't for everyone.
- And what about the recent 16-35mm f/4G? Well, it's got the right focal length range for a DX mid-range zoom (24-52mm effective), but it's a big lens to hang off the front of a DX body and that f/4 part isn't optimal.
- Several people correctly pointed out that Pentax is already there. To illustrate that, I put together a Pentax Enthusiast list to show you how it goes together. Price for the whole kit? ~US$4300. Pentax, like Nikon, has always had a high enthusiast component in their mid-to-high range sales. Unlike Nikon, Pentax seems to have produced the right lenses. So why doesn't Pentax do better? The whole transfer to Hoya didn't help confidence in the brand, especially since Hoya executives haven't exactly expressed confidence in the brand themselves. But there are more components to Pentax's current position than just that. One is dealerships, which have eroded. Another is marketing on point and in people's faces, which isn't happening. You can make the right product, but if no one knows about it and can't get it in their hands to check out, they don't buy it.
- Enthusiast brands? Historically: Leica, Nikon, Pentax. Add: Minolta, oops, I mean Alpha, no I mean Sony, somewhat less so. Canon is probably the least enthusiast-heavy in terms of percentage of users, though Canon's sheer volume means that there are still a lot of Canon-wielding enthusiasts. But my point would be that the Leica, Nikon, and Pentax brands were built on the enthusiast market as much as the pro market. When Leica re-connected with their users with the M8/M9, they were re-embraced. Where's the FM2 embrace?