James,
You've now heard from the two remaining doom-mongers who frequent this
list. A third has gone off in a rage, but we are fortunate that we can
still enjoy Rob's photographic erudition, and Tom's incomparable puns.
Pentax is a company with several irons in the optical fire, which has
enabled it to survive at a time when other camera manufacturers have had
to call it a day. At the same time, it is not a huge conglomerate like
Canon, with unlimited financial resources, and it suffered a major blow
when it was forced to abandon its first digital SLR, the MZ-D, because the
Philips sensor proved to be a failure.
However, Pentax fought back with a camera, the *ist D, which (with its
derivatives) compares extremely well with the competition, and has
developed a new range of lenses designed for the commonly used APS-C sized
sensor. Several of these have won high praise, especially the 16-45mm
zoom.
Contrary to what others have written, Pentax has a clear strategy which
has been articulated by its management, and which is supported by a lens
road-map which it published a year ago. As a result, we know that this
year Pentax will produce a sixth new "DA" (digital) lens, along with a
digital 645 for the Medium Format market and a higher spec K-mount DSLR
body. The latter is the subject of great speculation concerning its
pixel-count and other features.
Recently Pentax announced an agreement with Samsung, which is the world's
fastest-growing large electronics company, that will enable them both to
sell many more K-mount cameras and lenses in the future. In the opinion
of more optimistic souls than Tom & Rob, this virtually guarantees the
future of the K mount. Samsung is comparable in size to Canon and Sony,
and is growing much faster than either. Unlike the other two, which have
become staid and complacent, Samsung is hungry, and has already, within
three months of joining up with Pentax, produced a re-badged Pentax under
its own name.
The whole camera industry is in a state of flux as cameras become just
another form of computer input. The mystique has gone, and it is almost
inevitable (IMHO) that within the next five years all the old camera
makers will either disappear or become divisions of major electronics
companies. And of the major players in that industry, based on past
performance, Samsung seems likely to emerge as the dominant one.
Nobody can predict the future. But it is pretty certain that K-mount
cameras and lenses will continue in production, and that the range of
K-mount camera bodies will increase substantially.
The future is bright for the K-mount.
John
On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 03:09:11 -0000, Rob Studdert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
On 20 Jan 2006 at 16:06, James Fellows wrote:
Hi,
I have been off the list for a couple of years. I am hoping to jump
into
the DSLR world soon. Using a Pentax DSLR seems to be the way to go
based on
the lenses and flashes I own. But now I hear Pentax is in rough shape
financially and I wonder if I should not invest in Pentax if they will
be
out of the DSLR market soon. What does everybody else hear.
Like otters have said there is nothing wrong with buying a Pentax DSLR
right
now especially if you intend to employ older lenses however their future
as a
DSLR camera company is far from certain. They are profitable at the
moment
however they have just entered into a financial arrangement with a
company that
could potentially swallow them up and no matter how positive you are you
will
never see financial figures like those being produced by Canon at the
moment.
So if you are looking at buying a very usable DSLR now then Pentax is a
relatively inexpensive option. If you are young and looking to pour
money into
a kit that you definitely wish to be able to update and build on into the
future then you may have to consider pushing your purchase in another
direction.
http://www.canon.com/ir/annual/2004/p01.html
http://www.pentax.co.jp/english/news/information/200505241.html
Rob Studdert
HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA
Tel +61-2-9554-4110
UTC(GMT) +10 Hours
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/
Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
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