On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, KT Takeshita wrote: > On 03.2.19 2:32 PM, "Bruce Rubenstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > The ZX/MZ series was also introduced with a mid range camera (ZX-5). > > With a metal lens mount it is not a low level entry camera. > > There are too many armchair commentator like this, speaking > definitively as if he knows everything (as usual) mixing his own > speculations but speaking for Pentax.
I don't see the need for hostility here. Bruce isn't doing anything that we ourselves haven't done hundreds of times before. I, too, believe that it's not going to be Pentax's entry level model. Consumers buy entry level cameras primarily on a price point, and the *ist is way too good a camera to ever compete price-wise with the plastic entry-level Rebels and even with Pentax's own MZ-60. > So, it sounds to me that the *ist covers the entry level market AS > WELL AS mid level. Does this mean there will be no lower level > camera? Perhaps, but I do not know. But it seem to coincide well > with the recently announced Pentax philosophy to reduce the number of > models in the future. I can see them dropping the number of models down to about three. 1. The entry-level MZ-60 (or its replacement), designed to compete almost solely on the basis of price. 2. The *ist, meant to replace the MZ-6 and MZ-5n and to compete with the F80/Elan 7... a good mid-range camera that tries to maximize features for a reasonable price. 3. An upper-end model, which could replace or surpass the MZ-S. I can see Pentax dropping their mid and upper-end models, but I can't see the *ist being the entry-level camera they claim it will be. Pentax sells too many of the low-end SLR's to give up that part of the market entirely by trying to push a camera that costs half as much again as a Rebel 2000 or F55. chris
