Originally posted by GrinMode That's either because:
1. too few units were sold. number of complainants too few to matter
2. Prior to K-x, Pentax was still relatively unknown/unpopular. Majority of the few Pentaxians were busy shooting, not testing
3. Pentax quality went downhill from there
Sorry to say, but each of these points are fabricated and way off the mark.
What number of K200Ds sold do you have to claim this?
Pentax have been very well known, even if for being different and niche, since the late 70s. Perhaps they've not been well known to many people until the consumerist digital era, when all of a sudden photography no longer became a vocation costing users for every shutter release, and Pentax continued to appeal to the more discerning enthusiast seeking value for money.
Where do we see evidence of Pentax's quality of any facet of their gear declining? What comparisons are being made to come out with this fanciful claim? Can you reasonably make comparisons between a K1000 and a K-x, or between a Takumar and an FA-J lens? dSLR failures would be commonly reported in places like this - it's the information era. Increased reporting on the internet easily becomes a statistic everyone believes in, and consistently inaccurate.
In their class, I wonder if you can find better built dSLRs than the Pentax range.
The major class that's missing is the FF, and yet a lot of users really want to compare Pentax's flagships with Canon and Nikon FF dSLRs. And with Sony getting in the act too it becomes even more complex.