[Urkeldaedalus]

Intentionally vague of course, but worth reading. Looking between the lines, it sounds more like new lenses will come out this year rather than new bodies or camera systems (mirror less). What do you guys think?

Imaging Resource Interview: John Carlson, Pentax Imaging

[infoomatic]

sounds great ... I really wish that new lenses come out ... I hope some fast ones (<f/2.0) and a "supertele"

[mattdm]

I don't mean to flog this horse too much, but the answers to this interview strongly support the thesis that the Pentax company in the US is strictly a marketing and distribution organization. They have a closer view to Pentax Japan than the general public — but it's not actually much closer. They can give feedback which may affect engineering and development decisions, but no direct involvement.

I don't mean this negatively at all. In fact, I think it's important to understand so that expectations of what Pentax USA does (or can do) are set at a reasonable level.

[Class A]

Great questions -- lame answers.

JC just doesn't have a lot to say. I wouldn't even be surprised if some of the stuff is made up, for example about K-r users not buying lenses beyond the kit lenses.

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Last edited by Class A; 01-11-2011 at 05:40 PM.

[1shot]

No firm plans for mirrorless! Wait and see!


S#!*.

[mattdm]

Great questions -- lame answers.

JC just doesn't have a lot to say. I wouldn't even be surprised if some of the stuff is made up, for example about K-r users not byinglenses beyond the kit lenses.

Continuing from my post above: I suspect that he's actually on pretty solid ground, there.

[kenyee]

I wouldn't even be surprised if some of the stuff is made up, for example about K-r users not byinglenses beyond the kit lenses.

I think that's probably more true than not. Same folks who are shooting weddings w/ the 18-55 kit lens
And it applies to all systems, not just Pentax land...

[macTak]

I don't mean to flog this horse too much, but the answers to this interview strongly support the thesis that the Pentax company in the US is strictly a marketing and distribution organization. They have a closer view to Pentax Japan than the general public — but it's not actually much closer. They can give feedback which may affect engineering and development decisions, but no direct involvement.

I don't mean this negatively at all. In fact, I think it's important to understand so that expectations of what Pentax USA does (or can do) are set at a reasonable level.

Well said. Many of his answers simply seemed to be "We don't know what Pentax Japan in actually planning."

[fearview]

all sold for 645D stock in US?

good news.

anyway me difficult to understand this >> DE: As resolution increases, improvements in lens quality obviously have to follow. Will we see some more new lenses from Pentax, as well as revisions of older designs, as higher resolution sensors come out?


is that true?
..

[Urkeldaedalus]

I don't mean to flog this horse too much, but the answers to this interview strongly support the thesis that the Pentax company in the US is strictly a marketing and distribution organization. They have a closer view to Pentax Japan than the general public — but it's not actually much closer. They can give feedback which may affect engineering and development decisions, but no direct involvement.

I don't mean this negatively at all. In fact, I think it's important to understand so that expectations of what Pentax USA does (or can do) are set at a reasonable level.

I think this is an astute observation. I got the same impression when he laughed and made the comment about the road map being murky. It was sort of like he was saying "Well we do know things are coming, and we know a little more than the average person on the street, but as to what exactly they will be releasing from Japan..."

On the other hand, I thought his observations about the company's financial performance and projections, as well as the comment about the "conservative" nature of Pentax were valuable to know. 2011 will be an interesting year I think, as it's hard to predict how Pentax will keep this success going.

[falconeye]

I agree with previous comments that JC reads into the same glass ball we do.

Esp. when he mentions the lens road map ...


But then I must seriously ask: Didn't Ned meet interesting guys to talk to when he was in Tokyo, or didn't he talk to John afterwards? Strange really.

[glanglois]

I know this is being a bit snarky, but I'll propose that Ned (in roadmap terms) hears little and is allowed to tell less. Unless he's intended to create product marketing plans sans product knowledge.

I thought the more important data was revenue and unit growth. Even compacts were up and exceeded some expectations.

I carefully note that he did not discuss whether Pentax USA exceeded internal expectations.

I also note (without comment) that David Lee of Nikon is quoted (on the same site) as saying " ...one of the things that we pride ourself on is that we're constantly talking to not only our dealer base, but to consumers to try to understand what they're looking for, what they're driving towards. "

[normhead]

Just the good part.

When we looked at our results for the calendar year, it blew away both the forecasts and the actuals based on NPD data, where compacts were up -- I would say -- around 20% in units and dollars; and for SLRs, we were up 30-40%. So, 2010 was definitely good for us.

That can't hurt. And the part where they aren't meeting demand on 645's or K-5s. That isn't going to help guys like me who are waiting for the price to drop. His comments make you wonder, how long does it actually take to make a camera?

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

Its more of a dialogue than an interview, and not much information.