Originally posted by mecrox I wonder if this analogy really stands up, the idea that it's all about getting customers onto an escalator and then keep them moving up. I would have thought the reality is that only a small percentage of customers will move up the escalator at all, let alone all the way up. Many folks will never look further than a particular price point come features set. Under-pricing some parts of the range to lure customers into other parts which are overpriced may work with some industries, but I wonder if photography is one of them.
I'm not sure I really buy another common assumption, namely that if or perhaps when Pentax produce an FF they will only produce one which is quite different from what everyone else does. The problem with this notion is that everyone else is doing the sensible thing: they are sitting in the middle of the market where the sales are and the economies of scale too. Saying that you'll stay well away from the bulk of demand and only do niches isn't much of a strategy for long-term survival and not credible at all if, as has been claimed, Ricoh have big plans for their photography division and Canon in their sights. It only makes sense if the pitch is that you're a specialist company in the first place and Pentax have never been anything of the kind. Well, we'll see soon enough, I guess.
Well, I think it isn't just the cameras, but also that nearly all of Nikon's high-end lenses are full frame compatible. Sure, you can use them on a crop frame camera, but there will always be a nagging idea in the back of your mind that they were really made for that full frame sensor...
In general, APS-C cameras tend to be have lower specifications than full frame cameras as well. Maybe this is protecting the higher end, maybe it is just a matter of keeping the price down on the lower end. Either way, if you need those higher specs, you have to move up to full frame.
Truthfully, it is those higher end specs -- better tracking, better auto focus that attract me to full frame, not more narrow depth of field, which seems adequately narrow already with APS-C.