On Thu, Dec 01, 2005 at 04:14:42PM -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: > >I don't think it would be a significant number. If you're that much > >of a geek, you can probably already find a dis-assembler, etc. > >But, in any case, that's irrelevant. I don't really see the benefit > >to Pentax in doing this - if the camera is already discontinued, > >then it's not going to increase sales. And it *will* increase the > >number of support calls, even if the only answer is "sorry - you > >messed with the firmware, so we aren't going to look at the camera". > > > I don't know if I'd agree with that. There are a rather large > (and growing) number of geeks that have embraced open-source style things. > Given the fairly equal technical footing of all the major brands of DSLRs, > ones that have geek-appeal will likely sway a large number of them.
Even if Pentax got 100% of the geek market, would that be significant? We see post after post here bemoaning the fact that cameras are being dumbed down to appeal to the masses - it seems unlikely that those masses are found amongst the geek community. > Geek-friendly features of Pentax as compared to other > brands already include: > > - Standard batteries (friendly with other geektoys) True. > - HUGE array of old and cheap lenses with K-mount everything. There are even more Nikon (and Nikon-compatible) lenses out there. > - SD memory... also friendly with other modern geektoys Only on the DS; this started out discussing the D > - TIFF-format RAW files ... just like Nikon & Canon, amongst others ... > Probably others I can't think of right now. If you look at other > geek-friendly open projects (e.g. MythTV), hardware that works well with > it has a built-in advantage: That still only shows that geek-friendly hardware sells to geeks. It doesn't show that this makes up a significant portion od total sales. > For example: > http://www.pchdtv.com/ > http://www.everythingusb.com/plextor_convertx_linux_sdk.html > > -Cory > > -- > > ************************************************************************* > * Cory Papenfuss * > * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * > * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * > *************************************************************************
