Dick Graham forwarded this from his brother:
> Hi Dick,
> Our Pentax rep brought an MZ-S in last week. The one thing that
> overshadows all else about the camera is it's price.
> With a street price of $850 to $900, it will not sell very well.
> We figure, based on feel and features, it should be priced at about
> $600. The interface is cumbersome. Focus point sellection is very
> cumbersome. ... But more important than any of the above, dispite
> it's magnesium construction, it feels cheap. I fear that Pentax has
> dropped the ball on this one. We'll see. If the price gets down
> around $500 to $600 it may succeed.
Hard words.
Besides the fact that Bill didn't understand the exposure mode
interface of the camera (somehow a bad thing in case this happens to
dealers), I think this is how the non Pentax fans will see the
camera. Especially since these complains are independent from
technical features (no cross sensors, only 2.5 fps, 1/180s synch, no
program shift, only 0.5EV exposure comp., no flash compensation
in program with RTF and so on and so on), it is a very bad sign that
they can't appraise the camera in a clear way. Some European Pentax
distributors have also noted that the camera uses a lot of plastic.
In other words: If you can't immediately feel the $1200.-, and you
can't see them in the specs too, who would spend them, in case he is
not a die hard Pentax fan?
Unfortunately I see little chances that Pentax can lower the price.
That's a volume question. Technical updates on the other side are
difficult or impossible due to the small body. So we have to live
with the situation that Pentax has released a camera targeted
direct at the Pentax fan, a camera that makes sense in the special
situation of an advanced Pentax system user, while being not the big
draft for the overall market.
Ralf
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