Makes perfect sense John. Pentax is primarially in the business to sell things, i.e. turn a profit.
We may personally feel slighted when a desired feature is removed. OTOH, Pentax must continue to make money (sales) to stay in business. JCO should buy a DSLR and try it, aperture simulator or not. The truth is he's not able to use ANY of his K-mount lenses with a DSLR because he doesn't have one (or at least that's what I've gathered). Tom C. ----Original Message Follows---- From: "John Celio" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> Subject: The Economics of Lenses (was Re: Stakeout) Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 01:10:55 -0700 > Why do you say this? What makes you think they > Cannot or will not ever add the feature or SOME OTHER > Camera company will that uses the K mount? > jco You're not paying attention to what others have said. It's not a matter of not supporting old lenses, it's a matter of selling new lenses so Pentax (and other camera companies) can stay in business! You see, a camera body doesn't make a company very much money. Camera stores make little to no profit on a camera (SLR or otherwise) and have to sell accessories to earn any real profit. This I know from my own experience in camera retail. It's the same with camera manufacturers. They MUST sell new lenses and other accessories in order to stay in business. This is a fact of life, and can be seen in the trend most camera companies are following these days, which is to put more emphasis on dSLR cameras. The profit margin on the smaller pocket cameras is so slim these days, a lot of camera manufacturers are actually LOSING money on them. This problem can be at least partially blamed on internet pricing wars and bargain hunter websites, which have driven down prices so low as to make selling such things almost not worth the effort. So here's the issue: a lot of us long-time Pentax users have old lenses that don't have the kind of functionality some would like with the current dSLR line. Pentax has offered a solution (green button / AE-lock button), but some people are still whining. Pentax is faced with a choice. "Do we throw in this one feature that a small but vocal minority won't shut up about, or do we continue to offer the same solution and try to encourage them to buy newer lenses? The former option will make a few people happy but might raise the price of our cameras enough that the average consumer won't buy them, compared to other brands' similar models. It will also drive down sales of new lenses, since there are so many old lenses people can get for cheap. The latter option will make that small minority upset, but will allow us to continue generating profits and therefore stay in business and continue to advance our camera line for everyone else." What do you think they would choose? Accept it, jco: sometimes sacrifices have to be made to survive. If you can't deal with the loss of the aperture simulator, then you're probably never going to be happy with a dSLR. Whining about it here or anywhere else on the internet is not going to bring it back. On the other hand, if you started a letter-writing campaign to Pentax on this issue, they might do something about it. Like, block your countless emails. Just kidding. Please note: "average consumer" is a key part of the above issue. We Pentax nuts are a small minority of people buying new cameras. Pentax MUST get new customers to stay alive, and the average consumer is important in this objective. John Celio P.S.: if it helps, I too would like to see the aperture simulator come back, but I am 100% confident that'll never happen. Not even from a non-Pentax K-mount dSLR manufacturer. -- http://www.neovenator.com AIM: Neopifex "Hey, I'm an artist. I can do whatever I want and pretend I'm making a statement." -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
