The thing here is there are technical advantages to screw mounts. The are far
more accurate and stable. The seal the body better. The only real advantage to
bayonette mounts is convenience. As usual convenience wins out in the market place.
--
Paul Stenquist wrote:
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.
--
graywolf
http://graywolfphoto.com/graywolf.html
