Originally posted by RobA_Oz Oops! You're almost right. K2 production ended the same year the LX commenced production. However it was the M series cameras that were sold in that year, the KM and KX having ended production in 1977. Still great days for Pentax, with four or five models on the shelves at one time. Thirty years and more later, they're heading back that way, it seems.
Let's hope so! They really had a lot of presence back then. I was just a teenager when the MX+ME were introduced, but already ready to purchase my second SLR - I had just sold my Topcon Unirex, which was a great camera but a dead end as a system (difficult to get lenses at all). I had friends with the OM-1, it was high on my list, but the MX was a jewel and I was lost to Pentax :-)
If they get a public awareness of the K-500 and K-50 like they did with with the MX and ME back then, they may very well grow again. I remember they didn't just get praise, some complained that the cameras were far too small, and some just laughed at the automatic ME, especially in the M-40 kit version. But they were very, very visible in shops and in magazines.