>From: "Treena" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: Has Pentax missed again? > >I just wonder how happy Rebel digital customers will be.
Happy enough. Remember clone computers from before 1990? Real junk. But people were willing to buy cheap knowing that the good stuff would continue to drop in price and that they could afford something nicer later. But for now the cheap think would do. Same here. This next year we'll see a shake-up. Prediction: There'll be a 6Mp Pentax for $300 and built like it. ZX-Md -- Manual focus. -- No preview screen or "extra" controls. -- Just shoot and transfer to your computer. -- Pentax users will snatch it up @ 1/5 the price of the istD. -- This will be the "new" student starter camera for schools. -- Soon followed by the $400 "advanced" ZX-5nd. Yes, it'll be cheap. But it will do the job. Amateurs will be happy. PDML will be whining as always. Paal will be predicting a new flagship. But I digress ... The good stuff @ $1500 will be sitting there while the new cheap trash sells faster than hotcakes. Then the following year ... ... some new manufacturer with a creative marketing method and lots of money will arise and take over the camera industry. Sort of like Compaq. Canon & Nikon will become IBM & Apple (really good stuff but priced a for business, not the consumer) & Pentax will continue to be a "Toshiba" (good stuff, small niche). This new Brand-X will be everywhere, even blister-packed @ Aldi. We're going back to late-80s computer marketing -- Low margins, low quality, high volume -- at least for a year or two. So what to do: Get a good one now while you can. Otherwise you'll have to wait 2 years until some good stuff is fiscally able to return to the retail shelves. mnsho, CRB
