Originally posted by Kunzite Laurentiu Cristofor made a comment about the K-mount (eventually) becoming obsolete
Thanks for pointing out that I did not claim that the K-mount was obsolete.
The obsolete mount I was referring to was the M42 mount.
Originally posted by Kunzite About the "obsolete" K-mount, well... it's as "obsolete" as the F-mount. Should Nikon change it, as well?
Strangely, the only mount that was not "obsolete", a "true digital" mount (unlike those dinosaurs from the film era), is... dead. Yes, I'm talking about 4/3 - all the marketing BS couldn't save it.
The F mount only kept its name unchanged, but the initial mount did become obsolete. Furthermore, the current F mount may become obsolete as well, although the larger market share it enjoys may delay that longer.
As for the FT mount, also, in one way, it is not obsolete - it's just been re-envisioned as the MFT mount. AFAICT, the MFT mount is pretty much identical to the FT mount except for the different registration distance (they added some extra contacts). One could argue that FT and MFT are more similar than the current F mount or K mount and their first iterations. Reminds me of that Austin Powers line:
Quote: In many ways, Bob's Big Boy never left, sir. He's always offered the same high-quality meals at competitive prices.
A mount can become obsolete either because its tech fell behind the times or because the company supporting it fell behind the competition.
M42 was technologically obsolete at the time Asahi decided to abandon it in 1975.
The Canon FD mount would have become obsolete too. It was smart move for Canon to drop it and cut their losses. Canon used to promote it as being better than a bayonet system, but how many breech lock mount cameras are there around today? Also, note that Canon kept producing FD mount cameras until 1990, 3 years after their introduction of the EF mount in 1987.
And Olympus seems to have gained more market share since they moved from FT to MFT.
Neither the move away from FD mount, nor the one away from FT mount can be qualified as fiascoes - on the contrary - they both seem smart moves for the respective companies. Furthermore, they are examples of changes made by companies that had either a large market share or a smaller one, respectively.
The K mount is not technologically obsolete, but the Pentax brand does run the risk of becoming obsolete. These days there is also a change going on in the industry as far as enthusiast markets go - trends show that SLRs are going to get replaced by MILCs by many people - it will take several more years for this to happen, no doubt, but the trend is pretty clear. When a wave of change comes like this, small companies either ride it and try to improve their position or they try to resist it and they go under. It's going to be interesting to see what Pentax will do over the next years. But I just don't see much coming out of sticking to the K mount unless they also manage to provide something else that is special. Affordable FF would be one thing, but I don't see how they could pull it off. We'll see.