Originally posted by abacus07 I've never said that they would leave Kmount in the next year. they'll continue to churn out new bodies and the current lenses as long as the existing customers were buying them. There are almost no development costs and it's a cash cow. but I am completely convinced that if Pentax continues to only offer cameras with the current large body (LCD to lens length) they will die a slow death. It's not about where the market is today but where the market will be 5 years from now.
Then what are you saying? "they'll continue to churn out new bodies and the current lenses" - that doesn't sound like abandoning the K-mount; but then in order to do that there
are significant development costs (and significant benefits). Are you talking about very small revisions to current cameras, MkII versions of current lenses with almost no change? That would be stupid, they would kill their only (for now) cash cow.
Let's wait and see where the market will be in 5 years from now, before deciding Ricoh should just abandon the newly acquired K-mount.
Originally posted by garyk I agree. Pentax is to small to continue to support the DSLR market. It will die. Along with the Kmount. Hoya was more of a holding company until they stripped what they wanted then passed on to the current owners. Who will strip the remaining technology and incorporate it in there products. This has played out countless times in the corp. world. Nothing new.
The only thing is whether they will continue to call it Pentax. I think 50-50 on this. The sale was a rather small one. And did not make the news really. So I think it is a toss up. But the end results are the same.
Oh, really? They will die because they're selling K-mount products while making a profit? You're funny...
Incorporate in their products... which ones? Few compacts and the modular thingie?
They already said they'll keep the Pentax brand, btw. Stop playing Chicken Little.
RioRico & maxfield_photo:
Well said.