Pentax K7 and WR lenses production numbers revealed!

We will have more on the K7 tomorrow, but if you missed the initial K7 excitement, be sure to check the 26-hour jam-packed countdown.

One thing that might be of immediate interest is the Japanese announcement of the camera which revealed the initial production numbers for the three newly announced products.

The initial monthly production output for the hot-shooting Pentax K7 is *drum-roll* 20,000 units per month. Not a bad number for a camera that starts at $1300 and it is not a CaNiKoN. And if you are the hypochondriac type, don't read the next sentence! If the camera has crossover success with users of other mounts, could we see an "LX3 effect"? And can Pentax make adjustments? (these are speculative questions in case it wasn't obvious).

And now let's move to the two WR kit lenses. The 18-55mm WR, as expected, it is expected to be the most popular, and it will be produced at a clip of *drum roll* 14,000 units per month. Its sidekick and partner in crime, the 50-200mm f4-5.6 WR will be produced at a rate of 5000 units per month.

So, now if we put on our self-appointed authority master-of-the-obvious hats, we observe that we have more camera bodies than lenses, and considering that the new WR lenses will also be wanted by current Pentax DSLR users who may not be interested in the K7 right away, we see why the K7 is available as body-only, instead of what may have seemed more logical to some, with the 18-55 WR kit lens.

PS: Computer-translated "food", in this case, is "hood". They are just two letters away, both on the keyboard and in the alphabet ;-)