Originally posted by mecrox Really, these interviews are like seeing shapes in clouds in the sky. You can see whatever you want but there is no reality to any of it.
Hoya have said that they are interested in profitability over market share. If that is Hoya's aim, releasing a "cheap" full-frame 35mm camera at under the competition's prices contradicts it totally.
Second, at the moment a full-frame Pentax DSLR camera would probably appeal to a few thousand and perhaps only a few hundred people in the entire world. You can't run a business on that. The overwhelming majority of users are at the other end of the spectrum, the EVF and micro four-thirds end, the end that is stocked and advertised worldwide by the big retail chains. My guess is that it's Pentax's strategy here that will dictate their immediate future.
Last, Pentax is only a small player in this market. It's hardly realistic to think they are about to run four separate product lines - medium format, full-frame 35mm, APS-C 35mm and compact-m4/3. Not even the world's biggest player does that, especially as the overall world market for conventional cameras of any kind is in fact quite small and rather stagnant. You won't get folks to invest in new kinds of camera for new reasons (video, internet, etc) by producing full-framers for a tiny minority.
Let me ask you this. You are a new to DSLR purchaser and you have about $1,500 to spend on a camera and you have the choice of purchasing a high end APS C camera or a FF camera of the same size and specs. Now, considering the FF camera has better overall IQ which are high ISO results, better DR, better control of DOF, a larger VF for ease of manual focus and auto focus confirmation, are you saying you would choose the APS C camera? Because this is what it is going to amount to, Pentax offering a high end APS C camera and Canon, Nikon and Sony offering a FF camera, in this particular price bracket, for the same money if they do not go the FF route. I would say that people will most likely opt for the FF camera as there are no real penalties but all the advantages. Pentax will lose these people for ever more to the likes of Nikon, Canon and Sony.
You must remember that once FF sensors are cheap enough, this opens up a whole new market area. That market are those people who do not require a rugged over sized FF camera like what Canon, Nikon and Sony now produce
specifically for the pro market. Canon, Nikon and Sony produce these large cameras simply because they need to be large as they need to stand up to the rigours of professional use. They are therefore big, robust and
costly. They are also big because they are usually attached to huge lenses and need to have protection against being thrown around in the daily rigours of sports and news photogs. They have large memory and big batteries and big grips and duial card slots(in some cases) etc. These FF cameras are for pros, and serious amateurs with too much money. They weren't made for amateurs with the hope that pros may use them, just the opposite, they were made for pros and if some overpaid amatuers also wants to pony up for one, they will gladly sell him one.
Now, once the prices of FF sensors are such that Pentax can offer a FF camera at the price point of a current high end APS C DSLR, then they can be made less robust, more like a high end APS C DSLR, like a K-7. They are smaller, cheaper, but can have the same specs as the K-7 but with a FF sensor.
Hoya says that it is interested in profits over market share. Well, I can tell you, that Pentax's profits will dwindle very quickly if it loses these advanced amateurs to Canon, Nikon and Sony because they can purchase a FF DSLR at a price point of a current APS C sensored camera with all the added advantages of FF. Once they have moved to the other manufacturers, there is no coming back. They have invested in lenses and flashes and will therefore be lost forever.
At the moment, advanced amateurs seem to be looking at the $1,500 price point for their cameras. Yes, when FF sensors come down in price this will also mean that APS C sensors will also come down in price but, advanced amatuers will still have a $1,500 budget and will want to get the most camera for their money and this will be a FF camera. As I say, why get an APS C camera if you can get a FF camera for the same price.
It will happen, it is just a matter of when that price point is reached and once it is reached Pentax needs to be on the boat or they will be left standing at the dock.