Originally posted by Kunzite I doubt that. Pentax was profitable and the K10D, quite a success - bankruptcy is on the other direction
SDM was introduced in the same period, certainly designed by the old Pentax.
Looking at what happened in the recent years, I believe the deal with Hoya was/is a good thing; they aren't "despicable" and Pentax isn't nowhere near being "run into the ground". People should be able to jump ship without using such strong and untrue words about the system they're leaving...
The K10 was released pretty much at the same time Hoya announced their takeover, and while I'm not privy to the finances, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a cash injection from Hoya to allow Pentax to keep operating.
Whether Pentax would have had the financial resources to release the K10 or any subsequent cameras without Hoya's cash injection is debatable.
Japane optics maker Hoya to buy Pentax | BookRags.com Quote: While Hoya has posted three straight years of increasing net income, Pentax has seen its profits mostly flat and falling. Hoya has also seen rising sales, compared with relatively stagnant sales at Pentax.
The reason people don't like Hoya is because they decided that if they were going to own Pentax, then Pentax had to be a money maker.
Hence the whinging from a while back regarding lens price increases from the people who felt Pentax should still be the cheap and dirty player in the game.
Now that Pentax is growing, they are also going to be prone to all of the growing pains that the bigger players have to deal with, and so will we.
Every camera company so far has had some sort of annoying QC issue.
As far as them "coming clean"
Originally posted by Mike Riley: Frankly everyone who sent their camera back should have gotten a description of what the process was going to be (clean, replace sensor or replace camera) along with a realistic estimate on when they would have a camera again.
They would have to make this a policy for every single warranty repair they do from now going forward.
Personally, I don't think this is especially realistic, and would just be yet another drain on their resources.
Unfortunately, the warranty process only compels them to fix defective cameras, it doesn't compel them to write each person affected an individual letter of apology signed in blood by the CEO of the company, which I get the feeling is what some people think they deserve.
Last edited by jolepp; 03-06-2011 at 12:45 PM.
Reason: poster request