I just heard from my Pentax source about the PMA show. He says it was a wild success. The Pentax booth was mobbed the whole time. Says he's never seen anything like it, either with Pentax or his previous employer (another major Japanese camera maker).
The Optio S was a huge hit. There was also great enthusiasm about the *ist-D. Interestingly, he reports how *everyone* he spoke to (hundreds of people) absolutely loved the fact that it can take old Pentax lenses. He (and I) thought it would be just the die hard Pentax enthusiasts. My theory is that very few of them will ever actually be *used* with a manual focus, much less screw mount, lens, but people love the idea that Pentax *supports* its products (and customers) to such an extent. I think this will impress a lot of consumers in two ways: 1 - It will convey Pentax's long and venerable history (many regular folks don't know that Pentax has been making cameras as long as they have) and, 2 - it will show them that Pentax tries to prevent it's products becoming obsolete. In other words, I think the lens compatibility will turn out to be a great idea for reasons having nothing to do with being able to use lenses! My source believes that virtually every Pentax digital scheduled to be imported is already spoken for *now* (at the dealer level). That's of the cameras we know about: There are 5 more digital cameras expected to be introduced by the end of this year. (No clue at all as to what they are.) BTW: He says the *ist-D specs that are on the DP Review web site are all that anyone in the U.S. has on the camera yet. I'm standing by my prediction that the *ist-D (and the Optio S) are going to put Pentax on a lot of store shelves where Pentax hasn't been seen much lately. His final word was that Pentax "kicked ass" at the show. He was clearly well and truly psyched about how well all the new stuff was received. IOW: He expects to make a lot of money from Pentax sales this year. :-) -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
