Originally posted by jatrax [...] So there is a market, but is it big enough to be profitable? And can Pentax bring out a k-02 in time to keep the momentum going? And can they make money at it?
Yes, that's the question Pentax needs to answer. And I think it might be useful for Pentax to query the subset of K-01 owners for which the camera was a first Pentax. Of course, many of the users on the forums here who don't have a K-01 have another Pentax APS-C digital, or even (egads) a Pentax film camera. To *that* population, a viewfinder is what you use to take pictures. That's not the case for me - I'm a P&S upgrader. Personally, I think the K-01 could have been successful if introduced around the $500 mark (for the 40mm pancake bundle). At $416 with the pancake, I felt I was getting quite a deal, and at $360 right now it's crazy. Can Pentax make money on a K-02 around $500? If they can, I think/hope they should produce one.
Also, for me thickness isn't a very big issue. Rather I looked to "bagability", and for that, the K-01 compares pretty evenly with other mirrorless I was considering, because once you put a lens on your camera, width and height affect "bagability" more than thickness - and on that score, compare, for example
the K-01 and OM-D EM-5... the K-01 actually wins! And also once there is a lens on your camera, a little thickness is actually helpful for the grip, IMHO. (In fact, those who complain about the K-01's ergonomics sometimes do so because its grip isn't thick enough, in their opinion!)
The cameras that the K-01 beat out in my case were Olympus OM-D EM-5, E-PL5 and XZ-2. (Maybe I should have considered Sony a bit more...) The OM-D was the only one of those to match the K-01 in IQ, and is it ever a beautiful object, but it was just waaayyy too expensive. The E-PL5 was bundled with a crappy lens, was still more expensive than the K-01 and didn't feel (as) good in my hand. And the XZ-2, well, I just decided I liked the idea of experimenting with legacy glass.
My wife bought a Canon G15 at the same time as I got the K-01, and so far, I've only asked her to use it when I wanted to take pictures of my K-01 to post in other threads in this forum.