Bruce wrote:
> I'm beginning to strongly suspect a bit of translation/terminology > confusion going on here. What was originally meant in Japanese may not > have properly come through in English. If $300 is the cheapest body to > be sold in the US, then Pentax is dropping the biggest part of their > market. I doubt that this is the case. I'm not sure. If the fact that the *ist is indeed entry level as Pentax says and that *ist is the brand name for Pentax 35mm slr's are true, then it may make sense. Firstly, a new camera is going to be sold at "premium" price. Pentax still have MZ-series cameras to sell and the *ist is competing with all of them. When the warehouses are cleaned of MZ-series bodies, my guess is that *ist prices may drop. Secondly, if the *ist is indeed the brand name then the *ist is litterally the plain *ist. *ist D is an *ist with something added. It is conceivable that *ist [something] are the name of higher model wheres plain *ist is just that the entry level. Also, I wonder how long the bottom market of slr's will continue to exist. Now they are used and bought as advanced P&S but how long will it take before digital is capturing this market for good? Then SLR's are for the more advanced users who know what they want. The *ist fit this bill as an entry to slr photography. P�l
