--- Peter Jansen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> "Let's hope the price of D100 & D60 won't be
> dropping
> so fast it killed the Pentax again. :("
Peter, at current retail prices, only the stores are
making money. Manufacturers like Canon, Nikon and
what not loose money on DSLR. Price drops are common
when a newer replacement model comes out, but I simply
don't think you drop the price of a DSLR just because
they want to, except ofcourse many makers offer some
sort of value protection for their products.
>
> What killed the Pentax was the lousy 6 MP Phillips
> chip. Contax used it & look at the results: a
> disaster. Thankfully Pentax pulled it. Now that
> technology & chip quality is much better & cheaper,
> it
> should be no problem to produce a very good quality
> DSLR for less that the competition.
>
I disagree that it was just the lousy chip. People
here have to start thinking beyond the mist of
misinformation that the photographic industries put
out and stop treating the CCD chip like film.
Different CCD chips don't behave like a Kodak
Kodachrome 25, or a Fuji Provia or even a Fuji Velvia.
People seems to think that if a certain maker uses
Foveon, then the image quality will be vastly superior
than, arghhh other chips made by Sony, Matshushita
etc... That's a myth rather than reality.
The reality of the matter is in the design of the
image processing system, software (pixel algorithm),
color balance (which they are still perfecting), glass
optics and contrast, which digital cameras have yet to
produce as good as the very best films that the
current market has to offer.
However, these things will improve, but I think the
CCD device is just a piece of hardware in a digital
camera, like a shutter block to a zoom compact.
Everybody uses shutter blocks made by Seiko, but do
these shutter blocks made better pictures for Nikon,
Canon or Pentax? I'm afraid not. It is the type of
film you use and or the glass that's on the camera.
The shutter block has no bearing in making better
pictures with 35mm camera like a CCD with digital.
> However Pentax just better be ready. Looks like they
> have no choice at this point in the game...
>
> Do or die!
Admittedly, Pentax was a little slow getting into the
digital game. But Apple Macintosh and IBM PCs with
the now ATI Radeon and or Nvidia GEForce cards were at
the same spectrum when the Commodore Amiga and the
Atari ST/TT or Falcon were at the height of the micro
computer stature. Their graphics potential far
outstriped Apple's mono screens and IBM's Hercules
graphics card. And yet, who survived?
Pentax needs to produce an innovative product to
command pricing power. What's killing Pentax now is
the 35mm market. It is priced like a commodity. Many
DSLR cameras on the market are priced almost like
commodities. Look at how they advertise exclusively
on the chip they use, when in fact, the chip is
actually a commodity. So they commoditized their own
product and hence, they loose money.
Rick...
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