>The problem that I see is that the Pentax high-end body planning and
>release
>cycle is not well-run at all! How many of us would have been ecstatic to
>be
>able to buy a camera derived from the PZ-1p, but with updated auto focus, a
>real battery grip, and a vertical shutter release? As another example,
>the
>ZX-5n/MZ-3 used to compare well in spec to equivalent C***n and N***n
>products, but they are aging and no one is talking about replacements.
I think the Pentax life cycle is quite different from Nikon and Canon. If
you checked carefully, there were K series, M series, A series, SF series,
Z/PZ series, and now MZ/ZX series. For each series, there is only 1 top end
model. The exceptions are SFXn/SF1n and Z-1p/PZ-1p where both are minor
upgrades of their predecessors. But in general, they are not different
models but a minor upgrade.
For Nikon and Canon, there is no clear division. Each time new bodies were
released, they were trying to improve from the previous model instead of
introducing a whole new series. For instance, F401->F601->F60->F65,
F70->F80, F801->F801s->F90->F90X->F100, F->F2->F3->F4->F5 etc. With this
approach, almost all models carry similar designs, and they could replace
any single model anytime they wanted without disturbing the whole series
(because there is no clear division).
But Pentax do not have this freedom. Trying to fit a Z-1p like model in the
MZ series would be next to impossible. Besides, unlike Nikon and Canon, a
new approach would be carried out with every new series from Pentax. I think
that's one reason why Pentax has not been able to update their bodies as
much as the other manufacturers. Because they have to consider the whole
series rather than one single model. I think Minolta is taking this route
too, except they replaced each series a lot sooner than Pentax do. As a
result, none of their cameras live too long on the market (could be one
reason why Minolta AF bodies do not carry as much resale value?).
regards,
Alan Chan
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