The selling price of the ME F crashed by a third in early 1983 as photographers made it obvious that the time for autofocus had not yet come and dealers scrambled to clear out stock. Asahi Optical turned away from AF and came out with the Pentax Super-A (Super Program in the USA), a less radical SLR also built upon the M-series chassis, but offering the much more mainstream features of programmed autoexposure and TTL autoflash, in mid-1983. The Super-A broke the tradition of being capable of batteryless operation. The ME F was quietly dropped from the Pentax lineup in 1984.