Originally posted by Merv-O Leica's "cult' following as you state arose out of an expensive old school technology. Leica builds hand-made rangefinder focusing systems in an age of EVFs and prism DSLRs. They use top end materials that sometimes are less durable than new computer chip based products. Pentax is hardly a discount line of cameras ($2,000 for an FF; 800-900 for a KP; entry model at 600-700 K-70, etc.)...Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc. all sell cheap lines of cameras (bridge models, point n shoots, etc.)
Note: Leica has a much larger distribution network (company stores around the world--after market sellers like Voigtlander and Zeiss, and hasn't been treated as a poor step-child to be sold every decade or two: Leica has been at the same place for 120 years, Pentax has been at ASAHI, Honeywell, Hoya & now RICOH--hardly a stable environment. Also, cameras have never been any of these companies primary businesses so Pentax is a curiosity. Ricoh doesn't try and kiosk or market well....that doesn't make the cameras low-end, it makes their advertising budget low-end.
The only problem with what you are saying here is that it is not exactly correct, and that you are cherry picking timeframes to make points. Asahi Optical started making cameras to have something to put their lenses on. They called the expanded company Asahi Pentax. Honeywell was a distributor in the USA, nothing more. They were not corporate owners. In most of the world, Pentax was distributed by their own distribution chain. In Canada, for example, we had Pentax Canada Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pentax Japan.
You are looking at Pentax since Ricoh started making equipment with the Pentax brand and are pretending that history started there with your pricing arguement. Go back to the 1980s and start there instead. Pentax was very much the brand for the person who wanted inexpensive equipment.
And yes, Leica has spent all of their time since the Korean War when photojournalists discovered Nikon while taking time off in Japan enticing well off amateurs into buying their equipment. Leica is very much a cult brand, or was until they diluted themselves with Japanese and now Chinese brands. My Huawei cell phone has the Leica name on it as part of the branding for the cameras that are in it.
The equipment is very good, but this doesn’t change what they are.
---------- Post added 02-24-19 at 11:24 AM ----------
Originally posted by monochrome It seems like they took the SMC royalty income for granted while they did other things. They certainly didn’t support dealers the way the other majors did.
This goes to the lack of cash flow they dealt themselves. Where I am, Pentax support was very good up until the Ricoh buyout of the camera division. In 2005 they managed to find me an F*200/4 Macro, and IIRC, in 2006 they managed to snag me a new A15/3.5. The Rep told me it was such a special order lens that it was built for me, as there was no inventory of them at Pentax Japan. I don’t know if this is true or not, but given how low volume that lens would have been in 2006 it is certainly believable.
With Ricoh at the helm, we have certainly seen an increase in quality, gone are the K5 days of camera literally falling apart in camera bags, but I think also an increase in pricing. Ricoh appears to be moving the brand upmarket.