On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 06:42:27PM -0500, JC OConnell scripsit: > Pentax has offer camera systems that keep up with > the photo marketplace, not just their own current lens lineups...
Oh, God bugger a moose. Not only does Pentax not have to do that; Pentax can't do that. They are small; they do not make their own sensors. They do not have deep pockets. They are quite capable of noticing that full frame digital, while cool and interesting and all, isn't where the money is, too. If Pentax wants to move off their current value proposition, which is one of really excellent value for money, they have about five options: - go niche in a sensor-partner independent way, concentrating on ergonomics and lenses for that niche. (Small, light, weather sealed cameras; this looks like what they are already doing. Note that this reinforces the value-for-money proposition.) - go niche with a particular sensor partner; if the sensor partner has deep enough pockets, they can pull a Lecia and introduce a new camera with a lens lineup. If not, they certainly can't do it themselves. Otherwise, trade the sensor partner lens design expertise (which is the one thing Pentax really has to sell from a camera perspective) for electronic design expertise. This scenario leads to a Samsung K-mount full frame and Pentax staying in APS-C. It also involves Samsung being willing to spend stacks of cash on niche cameras. (If it's not a cell phone camera, it's a niche camera.) - make a play for upmarket position with medium format; let Sony, Nikon, and Canon fight it out for the full frame market, while gnawing on it from the top (Digital 645 for the same betwixt-5-and-10 kUSD price point as the top-of-the-line pro DSLRs) and bottom (APS-C DSLRs.) Probably don't have the capital to try this on their own, though I should love to see them try. - leverage the sensor partner; Samsung is one of the very few surviving chip makers still doing memory, and memory is the nasty front edge of chip fab technology. (Memory is generation 0; current CPU processors is generation 1, GPUs/budget CPU/embedded/etc. is generation 2.) If you can get a couple chip fab generations ahead of your competition, you can do all sorts of interesting things with your sensor that lets you say "cheaper! better!" in an effective marketing way, should you stumble upon some effective marketing types at a career fair somewhere. - go home and make endoscopes; selling things to people who are readily swayed by marketing babble is difficult and bad for the soul. No one knows what they're going to do; the various execs at Hoya probably don't, given the interesting state of the global economy. In the meantime, is it possible to have fun, take good pictures, and learn something with an APS-C camera? Why, yes, yes it is. Is doing so observed to cause the organ of generation to fall right clean off, shrink, or otherwise collapse in shame, despite brothers-in-law, bosses, or poker buddies with full frame cameras? If such a sad thing is observed to occur, well, the fault is not likely in the camera. ...uh, hi! Had a K20D for not quite a year; my third camera and first DSLR. (The predecessors were an Konica/Minolta A200 and a Panasonic LX2.) I like it very much, and am still only an egg when it comes to photography. Anyone got any advice on the minimum shutter speed for getting small songbird wings to freeze? I'm kinda hoping it's below 1/1000 of a second somewhere. Thanks! -- Graydon -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
