Originally posted by -JW- I don't really get all the responses, Pentax is doomed, they are falling behind the competition, the competition is steaming ahead of them?
I was quite negative in the first place as well, but then I gave it some thought and actually looked at what the competition is offering.
- They are falling behind the competition? What competition?
- On APS-C it is still one of the best camera's out there.
- Nikon didn't update their D7000 did they? Neither did they replace their dinosaur D300, which is over three years old.
- Canon didn't update their three year old 7D and it has barely dropped in price over the last 2 years. The 60D by Canon doesn't even compare to the K5 and is probably outperformed by the new K-30.
- The K5 by Pentax is only 2 years old, so it is much younger than the competition AND it has been updated AND it is priced lower.
Originally posted by -JW- The competition will update their APS-C camera's as well in some time. You really think canon and Nikon are going to cancel their entire APS-C line and replace it with full frame from now on? Come on, entry level DSLRs still make up for most of their revenue in DSLRs from what I know.
Nikon will certainly update the D8000 with the 24mp sensor from the D3200, and Canon will beef up the 60D a good bit in the 70D to be "just pro enough" like the D7000, but nobody is making giant pro APS-C DSLRs anymore (7D, D300), not with their new "small" FFs out and their actual FF pro lines above that.
The K-5II really needed to be faster (PrimeM at least) and/or 24mp (just as good marks by DxO) to be seen as a worthwhile upgrade, especially above Pentax's own K30. Pentax didn't even give websites like DPreview preview copies, or worse, the sites didn't care enough to preview and write about them, they just posted the press release.
The only reason I can think of that they didn't go with 24mp is that Pentax has imminent plans for that number. But right now, APS-C that's "still competitive" with cameras from 2-3 years ago isn't going to cut it.