Mark's comments:
It would have helped to have come out with bayonnet mount 3 or 4 years earlier, but 10 years? I don't think so. Until the end of the sixties, screw mounting was not seen as a problem."If Asahi had offered the K bayonet mount at least 10 years earlier, Pentax would still be a brand of choice for the professional user.
I think Pentax stopped to be a camera favored by part of the professionnal photographers after Nikon came with its F model in late 1959. So they really only had a few years of "glory" and even then, I think that many professionnals stayed with their rangefinders (Leica and Nikon mainly) for most of their photos, some of them having a Pentax for some of their jobs.Staying with the M42 mount was the main cause of the decline of Pentax as a pro camera brand."
Pentax was concentrating on offering cameras and lenses of very high quality and reliability for the "middle class masses". They never offered as much accessories as the Nikon system, so readily lost the pro market as Nikon was setting the standard (in terms of a complete system with different finders, etc...).If Pentax had abandoned the M42 mount and continued to the the cutting edge leader in 35mm camera production/technology
It's fun to imagine that... But I think Mark that indeed you and me would probably not be with Pentax then! And we would know better the local rerpairman...that implies that they would have applied advances in autofocus, image stabilization, hypersonic type af motors and who knows what else. If this was the case, how many of you would be still shooting with Pentax (a majority brand)? Or would you be shooting Canon FD and poking jealous fun at Pentax snobs <G>?
Andre
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