[Docrwm]

Yep. Agree 100% - again.

Oh, and as for the "back door"?

I did it again. I couldn't resist another 16-50 for that price - especially since we now know the SDM issues were "engineered" out.

Now the husband has one for his K30.

I think I am personally keeping Pentax afloat sometimes!

Yepper.

Ah, but when was your 16-50 manufactured? 2012 or later? How do you know?

Sorry, couldn't resist. I'm glad you love the brand. I'm a big fan too but am starting to be frustrated because of the advancements in my son's soccer abilities and my K-5 missing the focus way too much. I want to actually ENJOY using my expensive camera. When I go out to shoot astrophotography its a pleasure, even without the O-GPS1. When I do macro, its fun and I enjoy the K-5 a lot. When I slap the 18-250 on there and am a tourist, it's great. When I use the 35/2.4 and sit at the bottom of a lighthouse at night and do bulb shots, wonderful fun. When I go out on the field and try to use my K-5 to capture images of something that is actually really, really, important to me - frustration. I shot sports in high school and college, I know its not as easy - really. But the % of keepers is so low, despite the framing and lighting being good, that it's really beginning to bug me.

[LaurenOE]

Ah, but when was your 16-50 manufactured? 2012 or later? How do you know?

Sorry, couldn't resist. I'm glad you love the brand. I'm a big fan too but am starting to be frustrated because of the advancements in my son's soccer abilities and my K-5 missing the focus way too much. I want to actually ENJOY using my expensive camera. When I go out to shoot astrophotography its a pleasure, even without the O-GPS1. When I do macro, its fun and I enjoy the K-5 a lot. When I slap the 18-250 on there and am a tourist, it's great. When I use the 35/2.4 and sit at the bottom of a lighthouse at night and do bulb shots, wonderful fun. When I go out on the field and try to use my K-5 to capture images of something that is actually really, really, important to me - frustration. I shot sports in high school and college, I know its not as easy - really. But the % of keepers is so low, despite the framing and lighting being good, that it's really beginning to bug me.

Not to thread-jack, but for sports? Once you go Gimbal, you never go back.
It helps tremendously for tracking and framing.

Katana Gimbal Head Review

From an entire football field away - with the Bigma





The Gimbal works even better with my Tamron 70-200/f2.8

[Docrwm]

Not to thread-jack, but for sports? Once you go Gimbal, you never go back.
It helps tremendously for tracking and framing.

Katana Gimbal Head Review

From an entire football field away - with the Bigma





The Gimbal works even better with my Tamron 70-200/f2.8

Nice

It wasn't framing or lighting, it was simply focus. The K-5 just could not lock on with a 70-200/2.8 across the pitch with any meaningful accuracy because the d*mn AF points are too large. AF speed is one issue and they've been working on that, great. But its actually locking onto what you think it has locked onto when you press the shutter that is the problem. I can hit what I aim at with my rifle and scope far more accurately than I can with my K-5 at the same distances........

[GreenMachine]

Being a Fanboy is ridiculous. You either use the gear or you don't. People either need to suck it up and make the best of what they have and stay invested in that brand or move on. It's simple. Crying in forums about no FF and no flash for dummies is senseless.

[monochrome]

@LaurenOE // @Docrwm (and other passionate, long-term Pentax users on this and other threads:

Throughout my life I have had, every once in a while, intuitions. I can't explain them and any rational person (I include my self in that group) would and should discount them as a valid input for making a business decision. But when I have an intuition I am rarely wriong.

I first understood and used this strange phenomenon in High School and College athletics. Two or three times each game I would simply know where to be to make a play happen, though almost always going there was contrary to all coaching and play plans. I got yelled at a lot - but I made tackles and interceptions (football) and stole passes and scored goals (lacrosse) often enough that coaches learned to tolerate my infrequent weirdness.

I have had intuitions about companies, markets and people. I make mistakes when I seek insights. I am right when I accept unexpected insight and have the confidence to act on it.

I have an intuition. Ricoh gets it.

I think Ned retired voluntarily because he is the right age and he senses change is on the wind. I think John Carlson won't retire voluntarily. John is the wrong age and he doesn't seem to have the sense.

I think Noboru Akahane will not tolerate the same old same old at PRIAC and will move rapidly to bring capital, energy and change to the US market.

I think James Malcolm will not suffer flacid marketing efforts (his Sony background) bad business organization (his Ricoh background) and incomplete product knowledge (he's scary smart) for long - perhpas not more than weeks.

I beleive both men are intimately familiar with Minimum Assured Pricing - and the USA pricing tug-of-war overseen by Ned and JC.

I believe every Denver employee will be personally interviewd and evaluated by James Malcolm. I believe every metric of PRIAC will be measured and scored. Change will happen faster than we think possible.

I believe every outside contractor will have their Service-Level-Agreement reviewed and scored. Some will be terminated immediately and replaced by in-house staff. Some will be terminated later, and be replaced by in-house staff. A few might actually survive, but only if they can perform better than in-house, trained, loyal, effective full-time team employees.

I have an intuition that the big story of next year and the year after and the one after that won't be a neat Sony pocket cam or Oly throw-back cam. It will be a surprisingly competitive, muscular and aggressive Pentax that brings more than a cutting-edge camera like the K10D K7 K5 every few years. It will be a story about a company that knocks the competiton back again and again and again and just plain slaps and stings and bullies its way back into a respectable position.

It will be a story about a company that has a definite, different identity for discerning, iconoclastic users - one that surprises us when people come up to us and say, "Wow! A Pentax!! Can I hold that?" One where the "Are we really that rare?" thread either disappears or goes to 10,000 posts because we aren't any more.

I think Pentax sneers at Canon. I think Pentax wants to be Nikon.

I know. I know. You can't make a business decision on an intuition.

Except you can.

I have an intuition that if Pentax was a stock you would want to buy at the turn up from the bottom - IOW right about now.

[cali92rs]

I have an intuition. Ricoh gets it.

Ricoh hasn't even created a K-mount module for their GXR

[GreenMachine]

great post monochrome, well written.

[timcatn]

Ricoh hasn't even created a K-mount module for their GXR

No. That would cut into sales of the K-01. My guess is that it will come in about a year.

[wigelII]

I honestly think that Carlson is the wrong guy to talk to. Lets face it Pentax USA has had a terrible public relations problem for the past several years and John's response to the questions from DPREVIEW just show how bad things still are for Pentax USA. Best to follow Adam's lead and talk to people who are really in the know, folks who are more closely associated with Ricoh than the old guard at Pentax. At least that's my two 2 cents worth.

There was however one thing that I got out of the interview and that was that Ricoh's influence has not as yet begun to show up in the product line. All of the products released to date were on the drawing board before the takeover. I'm looking forward to seeing the synergy between the Ricoh products and the Pentax products. The GXR is a very high quality system that is little known in this part of the world.

Unfortunately, it looks like the wait will be long.

I have read
"We are exploring the market" A year after takeover they are still exploring the market? The next steps are developing their offers, investing in strategic assets, getting ready for execution. That will take some more months.

I have also read
"developing a new product from scratch takes 18 months". If you add these 18 months to the months they need because they are still only in the "exploring the market" phase, it will take at least 2 years before releasing any exciting products (such as a FF).

Let's hope that this is not true.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

I think Pentax sneers at Canon. I think Pentax wants to be Nikon.

Unfortunately, Nikon wants to be Canon.

I think Ricoh gets it too - I am just not sure what it really is. It would be nice if they would decide to let us know what they get or at least let us know when they'll let us know. Letting us know anything, really, would be nice.

[Docrwm]

Unfortunately, Nikon wants to be Canon.

I think Ricoh gets it too - I am just not sure what it really is. It would be nice if they would decide to let us know what they get or at least let us know when they'll let us know. Letting us know anything, really, would be nice.

So far, I feel like a mushroom........

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

Not to thread-jack, but for sports? Once you go Gimbal, you never go back.
It helps tremendously for tracking and framing.

Nice shots, but shooting a goalkeeper when their team is on the offense isn't the challenge that sports shooters usually face.

[cali92rs]

No. That would cut into sales of the K-01. My guess is that it will come in about a year.

Uh huh...why slow down the juggernaut that is the K-01?

The truth of the matter is that Ricoh has had the GXR for a while, and they have not done enough with it. Folks with the GXR have been begging for the K-Mount module since its inception, but Ricoh has not obliged, instead releasing a hum-drum run of the mill kit zoom.
Ricoh has been in the photo game for a long time and they havent made a dent in Canon or Nikon sales...the same can be said for Pentax. So when you unite 2 underperforming entities, all of a sudden you get a world beater??

[Docrwm]

Uh huh...why slow down the juggernaut that is the K-01?......

ROFLMAO! +1, thanks for the laugh today.

[Canada_Rockies]

Keep posting Monochrome! I'm on your side.

[RANT]
I would like an AF module that is perfect and knows what I want.
I would like an AF module that even knows where in the image I want to focus - hmmmm didn't Canon try that?
I would like my dynamic range to be twice as good as the human eye at age 18.
I would like ....

But I still use my Pentax K10D and my wife uses her MZ-S and we use only Pentax glass, and we work around the disadvantages. That's life.

BTW I'm old enough to remember when 35mm was never going to be good enough to replace 120 in any professional's gear bag, for anything. I LIKE APS-C. it's lighter, easier to carry, and I can print 24x36 inches. Billboards are no hassle for any camera because you only see them from 60 yards (50 meters) and you're going 60 mph (100 Km/h). What's tricky to print is the 20x30 that hangs on the wall, and any APS-C camera of 10 megapixels or more can handle that very well.
[/RANT]