Pål has said that the target market is mainly well-heeled amateurs in Japan.
if you believe that, what happens in the US and Europe isn't all that
important. it all boils down to how much Pentax has to pay for the sensor.
the price leader for large sensors these days is the Canon 5D. it costs
about $3500 for a complete camera with a 12MP 24x36 sensor. the area of the
645D sensor is 35x46. even if cost only went up proportional to area, that's
almost 1.9 times the price. add to that the fact that Canon makes their own
sensors and don't have to pay as much for profit, plus CMOS sensors are
easier to fabricate, and that Canon will sell more 5Ds and get a larger
economy of scale and $5K for the 645D is just fantasy. even $8K is
marginally likely, as far as i am concerned. the Mamiya ZD is expected to
sell for $12K. that is the reasonable upper limit.
Herb....
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Robb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: Pentax DSLR future
In it's favour, advanced amateurs and small budget pros are the vast
majority of "pro" shooters.
Probably less than 1/10 of 1% of pro grade shooters are in the Never Land
that you work in.
It'll have to be priced to sell, which means it will probably not make a
whole lot of money per unit for anyone in the supply chain, but they will
probably sell every one that they can spit out of the factory.
