Re: The *ist: good name or bad?
Bizarrely in the home market they tend towards naming cars - Soarer, Celica, Landcruiser, Crown etc. Maybe the perception is that we gaijin are more soulless and require the hoover designations. Also avoids names that don't travel well - anyone in UK remember the Datsun Cedric? 240Z - a popular car stateside was Fairlady Z in the home market - not a very macho name for a sports car. Toodle pip Peter (one time Skyline / 240 KGT - which name do you prefer? - owner)
Re: The *ist: good name or bad?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Bizarrely in the home market they tend towards naming cars - Soarer, Celica, Landcruiser, Crown etc. Maybe the perception is that we gaijin are more soulless and require the hoover designations. Also avoids names that don't travel well - anyone in UK remember the Datsun Cedric? 240Z - a popular car stateside was Fairlady Z in the home market - not a very macho name for a sports car. I was told once that at one time there were actually *laws* in Japan that prohibited them giving their cars ( motorcycles) aggressive names. Obviously, they could only apply this to the home market and call the Honda Benly something like the Firebreather 99 for overseas sales if they wanted. Could be an urban legend, but it would explain a lot! -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
*est is better (Re: The *ist: good name or bad?)
On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Mike Johnston wrote: the *ist ( what idiot within the bowels of Pentax came up with that horrible name?) Oh, I don't know, I kind of like it. It's distinctive. I think *est is more appropriate, makes the job easier for marketting people: the Smallest the Lightest the Best *est And the wildcard * would actually mean something to a computer geek :-) -- --Lawrence Kwan--SMS Info Service/Ringtone Convertor--PGP:finger/www-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.vex.net/~lawrence/ -Key ID:0x6D23F3C4--
Re: The *ist: good name or bad?
I still think they could come up with something much better than *ist. By the way, giving this camera a cutesy name rather than a letter/number ID is a sure sign that this is an entry to mid level unit. I can't think of any manufacturer that hasn't given an upper level camera a letter/number name. DG At 10:53 AM 2/19/03 -0600, you wrote: the *ist ( what idiot within the bowels of Pentax came up with that horrible name?) Oh, I don't know, I kind of like it. It's distinctive. It's a lot better than yet one more anonymous alphanumeric mishmash, like DF-20K or 5XL-P. Personally, I've been in the photo industry for years and I've written camera reviews for a living, yet I still get all the anonymous names of cheap SLRs mixed up--especially when the same camera has different names is the U.S. and the rest of the world. At least with the *ist all of us know exactly what we're talking about. And I wonder if we'd be talking about it quite so much if it had a more anonymous name. Another thing I hate is when a camera with a plain and distinctive name does so well that the company begins applying some variation of the name to a whole bunch of other cameras. The name Stylus, for instance, long ago lost all meaning, at least in my mind. --Mike
Re: The *ist: good name or bad?
Mike wrote: Oh, I don't know, I kind of like it. It's distinctive. It's a lot better than yet one more anonymous alphanumeric mishmash, like DF-20K or 5XL-P. I agree. The japanese are usually expert in those anonymous letter + number names. I really hate those Canon F-1, AE-1, AT-1 and A-1 names. Why not remove the number 1 when there never was a No.2? Also, MZ-5, 7, 60, 30 etc. Awful stuff. Toyota even manages to name cars IS2000 or GS300; it sounds like hoovers. I wonder if the spotmatic had been sound a classic if it was named MD-23? Pål
RE: The *ist: good name or bad?
Uytkownik Rob Brigham [EMAIL PROTECTED] napisa: Why don\'t we have model numbers AND names like in so many other products? Look at planes like the F14 Tomcat, F15 Eagle or F4 Pahntom for example. I don't really like the idea of giving the cameras stupid names like Kiss, Sweet, Teddybear, Pussycat, Barbie etc:)) However, I have nothing against giving them the names of, say, ancient goddesses:) Regards Artur --r-e-k-l-a-m-a- Tanie bilety lotnicze! http://samoloty.onet.pl
Re: The *ist: good name or bad?
You mean like Mercedes Benz model designations? When Japanese cars are sold in the home market they have names like, Bluebird, Leopard, Presidential. The aphanumerics are for western markets. BR [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree. The japanese are usually expert in those anonymous letter + number names. I really hate those Canon F-1, AE-1, AT-1 and A-1 names. Why not remove the number 1 when there never was a No.2? Also, MZ-5, 7, 60, 30 etc. Awful stuff.
Re: The *ist: good name or bad?
On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Mike Johnston wrote: At the very least, the letters should stand for something (EOS = Electro-Optical System, RTS = Real Time System) and the numbers ought to Ist = Its Super Tiny? ;) -- http://www.infotainment.org - more fun than a poke in your eye. http://www.eighteenpercent.com- photography and portfolio.
Re: The *ist: good name or bad?
Your right, Mike, it is growing on me, in reverse! I dislike it even more this afternoon than I did this morning! DG 02:29 PM 2/19/03 -0600, you wrote: I agree. The japanese are usually expert in those anonymous letter + number names. I really hate those Canon F-1, AE-1, AT-1 and A-1 names. Why not remove the number 1 when there never was a No.2? Also, MZ-5, 7, 60, 30 etc. Awful stuff. Toyota even manages to name cars IS2000 or GS300; it sounds like hoovers. I wonder if the spotmatic had been sound a classic if it was named MD-23? Pål, The really annoying thing about the anonymous alphanumeric names is that they don't use them to adequately distinguish the models. I mean, the whole point of calling something the 13 is that you call the next one the 14. However, as often as not, camera manufacturers manage to make things confusing rather than clear. Different cameras are called by the same name (Canon F-1, Canon new F-1), or the same camera is called by different names (Maxxum, Dynax), or the same camera changes significantly throughout its production lifespan with no way to tell (K1000), or manufacturers leave it up to consumers to distinguish between successive models (35mm Summicron-M--four versions before the official name changed), or different manufacturers use nearly the same name for competing products (Nikon D1, Canon 1D). At the very least, the letters should stand for something (EOS = Electro-Optical System, RTS = Real Time System) and the numbers ought to distinguish between models in a lineup and subsequent models over time. But frankly, I like it when they throw all that crap out the window and go ahead and give something a name. *ist is strange, but maybe it'll grow on us. --Mike
