On Sep 16, 2012, at 5:07 PM, Toralf Lund wrote: >> What you're suggesting for Pentax would be a recipe for oblivion. It's >> a rare product that can sell and compete by boasting about what it >> DOESN'T have/do. > It would be dumb to market it that way, of course, but there is after all a > certain appeal in being able to classify a product as simple and/or easy to > use (as a result of not having many functions), and there are examples in the > camera business on how a focus on different qualities than a long list of > features or "cutting-edge" technology can be successful at least in a > relative sense. Just look at the interest generated by the recent Fujifilm > cameras. Or the Leica Ms for that manner. We're of course talking about a > quite different market, there, but it seems to me that to a certain extent, > they sell because of the features they don't have. Like auto-focus, for > instance. The marketing doesn't actually boast about not offering it, though. > >> OK, I can do w/o just about all picture modes, in >> camera RAW processing and in-camera HDR. But some people just love >> that. > I'd love to see someone should trying to make a camera without that > functionality, though. Maybe it wouldn't be sensible as the only option, but > if you based such a model on a different one with all those features, the > development cost should also be close to 0. As such, it might not be such a > bad idea from a business perspective, even if the marked might be limited.
IIRC, back in the Spotmatic days, Pentax had two camera models identical in virtually all specs. Except one had a max shutter speed of 1/1000, the other had a limit screw which restricted the shutter speed max to 1/500. Don't want fast shutter? Pay less. I think this would also work today. Don't want video on your DSLR? Pentax should give you a discount of $200 compared to a "full-featured" model, then charge you a $225 firmware upgrade fee if you change your mind later. stan -- 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.
