Originally posted by causey If they can come up with a four model line, then I guess we owe Ricoh big thanks for breathing new life into Pentax. (When I wrote the previous post I was thinking in line with the old notion of Pentax's capacity as a dslr maker.)
Many people still view it like it is either Hoya or the struggling pre hoya brand. Still struggling but the new owners seem committed and willing to invest in the brand (apparently they have been hiring back a lot of the engineers and R&D staff Hoya let go)
There is no reason they can't manage a 4 model line (at one point in the digital age it was a 3 model line) In film days there were frequently 3-4 bodies on the market
4 bodies seems to be the critical mass needed to cover the market. share is currently about half what it was when it was a 3 body lineup so that cutback (among other things) really hurt the brand share wise
I think the next 2 models are the K300 and K3 which likely will announce at or just prior to Photokina and the FF (which will likely announce/preview at photokina but release a little later - meanwhile since k5 is expected to last until the end of the year the 4 body selection can be realized without the FF getting to market before christmas probably looking like this body only
K300 - 549
K30-749
K5 - 999
K3 - 1299-1399
and later LXD or whatever the FF is - 1999