Quote: Pah, were you there when the ME and MX were introduced?
I bought my first Pentax camera -actually back then it was called I believe Asahi Pentax - in 1977 or 1978 in Iwakuni, Japan. It was a K1000. I think the ME came out before that so no, I was not around when all that fuss happened. Anyway, I don't remember it. I shot Pentax cameras until 1984 or so and then switched to a Mamiya 645 system. Still shoot it. I went digital 2 ? years ago with a Pentax K200d and then a K20d and now the KX.
The only other 35mm camera I ever owned was a Minolta for about a year. Don't even remember the model. I've always been a Pentax fan. I just bought another Pentax film camera a few weeks ago to use some of my older lens that I dug out of a trunk in the attic.
So no, I'm not a newbie at this. I like Pentax. I don't like what Hoya has done to the company though. I think it's a mistake to take it in the direction they are now, and if they don't start adding some cameras to the line up, they are going to lose people who are a little more serious about their photography, and who have a little more discretionary income to play with. Right now, based on what we see here today, I just don't see that happening. Hoya seems to be more interested in getting their cameras into Walmart than they are into camera shops or the hands of people who want something a little more sophisticated than a camera that looks like a toy.
It may be time to just go pick up a canikon and a 500mm prime for birds and stick to the 645 for my other work and let Pentax/Hoya go where ever the think it is they want to go and be done with it. I think, sadly, Pentax is dead. I don't care how many rainbow cameras they sell, they are going to have a tough time being taken seriously by the rest of the photography world.