Originally posted by Mark Castleman I have been following this thread and find quite a bit of similarity with discussions about music formats and computers.
Originally posted by Peter Zack So you are correct, the masses don't care about any of this
I agree with both comments but I doubt their relevance to the discussion we're having here.
To use the theme, it's like an iPad discussion when the thread is about MacBooks (MacOSX) to be 32Bit or 64Bit.
I agree and even forecast that the "masses" will drop P&S when cell phones are good enough (and e.g., an iPhone 4 may actually be). The jump from a cell phone to a dSLR will be too long. This is why the SLD segment is the only hope for mass producers like Panasonic, Samsung or Sony.
And it is why I don't really care if Pentax decides to participate on this particular battleground. Yes, the colorful K-x have been a nice success for Pentax. But it's extremely difficult to redo and dangerous to bet on it.
Some may argue (I've heard it) that photography as a hobby will die. I.e., that the enthusiast segment will die. I don't care either because then Pentax will die too.
But I don't think so. Photography is an art form and people want ways to express their creativity. Photography is one way to do so. Speaking for myself, I would de a mediocre painter and awful musician. For many, photography as a hobby is here to stay. Maybe collapsing to a core of enthusiasts and loosing a bunch of "Me Too" photographers who use big cameras because it makes them look bigger. But this would hit Canon more than Pentax.
So eventually, the decisive question will turn out to be how to keep happy the core of enthusiasts and to grow a profitable (lens) business out of it. And to have the occasional windfall profit in the lower market segments.
If Pentax does what the two above posts do (focus on the current low end mainstream) then Pentax
must be killed.
To make you
feel the heat ...
I firmly see $200 SLD cameras with automatic functions for panorama creation, aligning multiexposure features (HDR, emptying places from crowds, low noise, handheld soft water), portrait beautifying functions, macro focus stacking, fast contrast AF even for macro shots, supreme video features (actually merging the segment with camcorders), in camera photo and video editing, fast readout with software-stabilized video and still, and much more to list here. Like a high pixel density center region for good digital zoom with small prime lenses. The size of the development department will matter much more in the future than it does now. The digital revolution does only start now. So far, camera companies did nothing but replace the film by a sensor which they bought in.
The article I wrote was to address the question what Pentax can and must do to survive abroad the above battleground.