> The K5 was plagued by enough problems that the K5-2 is more than likely > the camera that the K5 would have been had Hoya not cheaped out every > step of the way. > I have a sneaking suspicion that for 125 million, Ricoh didn't get much > more than the Pentax name and a few headaches, and it is going to take > them a while to get things on track. > Hoya put the camera division on life support, and pretty much let it > wither on the vine (and there wasn't much to wither by the time the > buyout happened anyway), and then crapped all over new models in terms > of quality control from the ground up on new models to make the division > appear profitable for the purpose of enticing a new buyer. > At this point, I'm not so sure a FF is ever going to happen with Pentax, > I suspect the 645D is where Pentax users who want a larger format are > going to have to go. We'll continue to see improvements in the APS-C > format, the 24mp Sony sensor will likely find a home in a new model > either later this year or early next year as an introduction, with the > camera actually coming out next summer to fall. > After a decade of making APS-C SLRs, it's pretty unlikely that there is > much interest in supporting the larger image circle of lenses that were > make in the 1990s, and even less interest in making a whole new lens > line for what would be a fourth format, especially with the number of > gaping holes in the present lens line ups in the three formats they are > making now, and really, they only have three legacy lenses in the line > up now that are full coverage lenses by design, everything else is > smaller format. > Sorry for the run on sentence. > > William Robb
My feeling was that Pentax had received some pretty good press from the K-7 on up, and especially with the K5. Enough so that even people who knew nothing about DSLR's were considering Pentax as a possible alternative to Nikon or Canon, when making a first DSLR purchase. My feeling is that they've now squandered that momentum, and will be viewed, even if the the K5-II's are excellent products, as offering nothing really compelling. There's not a resolution upgrade in any format, and if the best they can claim is 'improved AF or image processing engine' that's not much. If I was a potential DSLR purchaser with the idea that I was 'investing' in a system and thinking about future upgrades and expansion, with Pentax I'd be asking myself "where do I go from here?". And then I'd look at Nikon, Canon, or Sony and think, "Oh that's where". Tom C. -- 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.
