On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:44 -0500, "paul stenquist" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Nov 28, 2010, at 1:45 PM, Adam Maas wrote: > > > The M series were something of an uptick in Pentax's fortunes as > > things had been headed downhill after the success of the early > > Spotmatics. The later Spotties never sold as well as the early ones > > and the K series didn't really sell any better which is why they were > > replaced so quickly. But even the M's didn't stall Pentax's decline, > > instead they cemented Pentax's reputation as a low-end camera company. > > > > Remember in the mid-60's Pentax dominated the 35mm SLR world alongside > > Nikon. By 1972-73 they were a much smaller player as Canon and Minolta > > in particular had introduced successful modern designs. Pentax never > > came close to regaining the marketshare or status they had in the > > mid/late 60's. > > > > Exactly. And the K1000 preceded the M Series by at least a few months. I > was just starting to do some race track shooting in the early seventies > and Pentax was still fairly well respected then. But when the K series > was released and was apparently nothing more than a Spotmatic F with a > bayonet mount, they're fortunes hit the skids. However, the 6x7 soon > became very desirable among the pros, even the race track shooters I hung > with. It established Pentax as a top end player in MF, but an amateur and > student brand in 35mm. In some ways, that positioning persists today.
The K1000 may have been a Spotmatic F with a bayonet mount but I always felt that the others in the K series were maligned unfairly. My favourite of the K and M series has always been the KX - it's match-needle metering system was very intuitive - much more so than that of the later MX. The MX is wonderful but I find it just too small. Cheers Brian ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Brian Walters Western Sydney Australia http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/ -- -- http://www.fastmail.fm - One of many happy users: http://www.fastmail.fm/docs/quotes.html -- 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.
