On Sep 4, 2004, at 8:15 PM, frank theriault wrote:
Let's not forget that they brought out the first commercially viable ttl metering 35mm slr in 1964 - our beloved Spotmatic. It was the most popular 35mm slr in the world, outselling every other brand - combined!! Yup, Pentax sold more Spots than the slr's of Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Kodak, Yashica and everyone else combined.
The Spotmatic was the second most popular slr used by pros in the '60's.
So what did Pentax do? They stuck with screwmount until what, like 1975? They were the last major manufacturer to move over to bayonet mount.
Just imagine if Pentax had made a bayonet mount Spotmatic in, like 1968, and concentrated on making an innovative pro-level body back then, instead of coasting the way they did...
True Frank, but there were two sides to that story. Those of us who were using screwmount in the seventies were none too happy to see Pentax obsolete our lenses. I think the company was torn between being loyal to their user body and meeting the competition.
