[krebsy75]

Canon AF and L glass selection is still outstanding. Same with service and support and rental options.

You've never used the AF on a K-3 have you? ? Given that Pentax has left Canon in the dust in terms of IQ, DR, and now resolution, I suspect the only area left that Canon really excels at is Marketing. There are already lots of reason so choose Pentax over Canon. I don't think Pentax is yet on a mission to take away every Canon customers, and I'm guessing the guys using the big expensive fast focusing lenses will the last Pentax is interested in. Canon makes the best stuff that most people can't afford. But that's hardly a good place to take your marketing strategy.

[krebsy75]

Canon AF and L glass selection is still outstanding. Same with service and support and rental options.

You've never used the AF on a K-3 have you? ? Given that Pentax has left Canon in the dust in terms of IQ, DR, and now resolution, I suspect the only area left that Canon really excels at is Marketing. There are already lots of reason so choose Pentax over Canon. I don't think Pentax is yet on a mission to take away every Canon customers, and I'm guessing the guys using the big expensive fast focusing lenses will the last Pentax is interested in. Canon makes the best stuff that most people can't afford. But that's hardly a good place to take your marketing strategy.

[krebsy75]

Canon AF and L glass selection is still outstanding. Same with service and support and rental options.

You've never used the AF on a K-3 have you? ? Given that Pentax has left Canon in the dust in terms of IQ, DR, and now resolution, I suspect the only area left that Canon really excels at is Marketing. There are already lots of reason so choose Pentax over Canon. I don't think Pentax is yet on a mission to take away every Canon customers, and I'm guessing the guys using the big expensive fast focusing lenses will the last Pentax is interested in. Canon makes the best stuff that most people can't afford. But that's hardly a good place to take your marketing strategy.

[krebsy75]

Sorry about the dupes. Tapatalk is having a fit.

[krebsy75]

I personally would like to see Pentax refine their APS-C offerings and technologies than dabble in FF right now. Shifting focus away from APS-C may result in Fuji, Olympus, Sony, etc. taking the 3rd place lead.

If they can annihilate the competition within APS-C they'll have a model in place for a successful FF initiative. Right now it appears APS-C is still up for grabs.

[monochrome]

I just love it when a 5 Post User comes on here and makes sweeping statements about Pentax failures without apparently having touched the products. [EDIT: - not intended to insult the poster - however, the AF argument has been pretty much settled, especially on the K3]

Pentax made few if any real investments in the company, the processes, of manufacturing, distributing and marketing photographic tools from roughly 2006 through roughly 2012, and they were behind the automation curve in 2006. To expect Ricoh to instantly design, manufacture, market and distribute cutting-edge cameras and a full line of lenses (while throwing away the warehouse stock of existing batch-run product) is simply benighted. It's the kind of thing people with 5 posts come on here and write then go away for six months or a year or forever.

Pentax doesn't need more than a point of Canon share and a point of Nikon share in dSLR's, plus Q for growth and 645 for professional halo to have a real, going concern. That will be enough cash flow to build out small support and repair functions, co-marketing deals and sensible sales forces in the West. It will be enough cash flow to make competitive cameras with all the Pentax DNA that are different. I don't believe Pentax wants to compete in the global professional market just yet - they don't have the money or cash flow to support the infrastructure. So they don't need the analog for L glass and they can fix SDM in some other way.

They aren't taking a break here the way Pentax did - they're already working on the next release - the next step - the next improvement. I'd bet the next body hammers the flash / shutter issues. So forget about the Canon/Nikon argument - Pentax is not going there. You guys have to stop thinking single-point-in-time and like this is the old Pentax. That's gone. The K3 is just a step, and they've already taken it - it's behind them! These guys are classic grinders, day after day after day, a point here, a point there, for days and weeks and months and quarters and years and decades - for twenty years.

We already have Canon and Nikon - they're great cameras and good companies. We don't need another, and we don't need wacky Sony hipster technology either. But we do need a third traditional, full-line camera company. Believe it or not, Canon and Nikon need Pentax as well. Two companies owning an entire market attracts regulatory scrutiny by EU and USA anti-trust departments. A viable third company keeps them away. Maybe there's a reason Nikon seems to have left the APSc field open for Pentax.

I honestly don't know how much clearer the interviewee can be. They're going to release a FF camera. It will come later then some want and sooner than most think. It will be Pentax DNA, it will be ready for prime time and it will be a great camera.

Sign's down. Pentax is a fastball down the middle. Sony is a curve ball (actually, to flog the metaphor, a knuckleball).

I love a mano-a-mano challenge.

[krebsy75]

Monochrome: I believe a successful FF venture will require market share from Canikon. You don't believe this? Where will revenue come from to support R&D for a new product line? The Q, in comparison, is a dabble effort. Last numbers I saw showed the Q with few sales outside of Japan.

Of course, most of us have domestic (USA for me) blinders on.

[ElJamoquio]

Amazing how many people who post vociferously about FF on this forum, don't care at all about APS-c.

Wow, those people sound pretty stupid! Who are they?

[ElJamoquio]

I personally would like to see Pentax refine their APS-C offerings and technologies than dabble in FF right now. Shifting focus away from APS-C may result in Fuji, Olympus, Sony, etc. taking the 3rd place lead.

Hmm? 3rd place in what? ILC?

I don't think Pentax is 3rd in, say, cameras over $500. *Maybe* they're third in 'DSLR' (if you segregate DSLT into another category).

[ElJamoquio]

I forgot about the service issue. How could I forget that my K-5IIs took two months to fix???

My K-5 went in twice, my D600 went in once. It's not like Pentax is the only company that sometimes has problems.

[krebsy75]

Hmm? 3rd place in what? ILC?

I don't think Pentax is 3rd in, say, cameras over $500. *Maybe* they're third in 'DSLR' (if you segregate DSLT into another category).

I think pentax would be ecstatic with ownership of third place in some camera category. Of course, profitability is the first priority.

[krebsy75]

My K-5 went in twice, my D600 went in once. It's not like Pentax is the only company that sometimes has problems.

Things break and I understand that. What disappointed me was zero communication. If not for my persistence the situation would have gone two months without a single form of correspondence. As a result of my experience I can tell you supporting the needs of those who need Pentax service is a mess right now.

Two months is a long time to go without a camera that's still in production.

[pesao]

I just love it when a 5 Post User comes on here and makes sweeping statements about Pentax failures without apparently having touched the products. ... It's the kind of thing people with 5 posts come on here and write then go away for six months or a year or forever.

I love a mano-a-mano challenge.

Honestly, you set up a post full of prejudice, based on the number of post an user have... maybe in the while you were on the forum I was otuside, far away from the PC or MAC, enjoing my ph. and using Pentax gear... from 10 years.

Web cheating is not a reference in real world, man.

I don't care aboute excuses... from crying customers or from well payed marketing directors... they respectively are just words-frustrated and word-seller phenomenoss.

The PRO (supposed to be) product level of Pentax, like STAR line, has a substandard AF sistem, and, if Pentax is or is not a great or big company, i pay for it, and if it's not working as it's supposed to be in the market, I can switch to a competitor, if I need or I just desire. But if my Penta PRO STAR EXPENSIVE TOP OF THE LINE zoom has a bad project issue, like the SDM failure and SDM substandard AF speed, it's not just a "peculiar disvantage of the brand" but it's such a customer lost of money, if I payed a PRO level price, and I have a very high probability to suffer the issue, I need money to fix even if it's a clear project vulnerability, and I have to wait for months. It's not a PRO level of service and gear quality, even if the optical quality is good... but a slow or a broken AF gives an optical quality worse than a smartphone camera, simply because it miss the shot I wanted to get.

Simply, take it easy, don't try to hope Pentax will be back a real copetitors for colossess like N and Canon... on that, I completely agree with you, even if I just have 5... ops... 6 post... I should be a genius!

[pesao]

Things break and I understand that. What disappointed me was zero communication. If not for my persistence my situation would have gone two months without a single form of correspondence. As a result of my experience I can tell you supporting the needs of those who need Pentax service is a mess right now.

Two months is a long time to go without a camera that's still in production.

Nikon made a mess with the d600 sensor dust issue...

but just in a year, or less, they put on the market a d610, without the problem...

...who bought the d600 at the beginning, assumed the risk of every new product...

but who has Nikon gear had not to wait for 5 years to get a issue free gear...

...in the while I'm still waiting for DC AF motor on the STAR lenses...

that's the problem with a "little" company... and that's whay I feel right when sayng that spendig money on things like petax Q or pentax K-01 is a mess for the DSLR users of Pentax...

[Rondec]

Honestly, you set up a post full of prejudice, based on the number of post an user have... maybe in the while you were on the forum I was otuside, far away from the PC or MAC, enjoing my ph. and using Pentax gear... from 10 years.

Web cheating is not a reference in real world, man.

I don't care aboute excuses... from crying customers or from well payed marketing directors... they respectively are just words-frustrated and word-seller phenomenoss.

The PRO (supposed to be) product level of Pentax, like STAR line, has a substandard AF sistem, and, if Pentax is or is not a great or big company, i pay for it, and if it's not working as it's supposed to be in the market, I can switch to a competitor, if I need or I just desire. But if my Penta PRO STAR EXPENSIVE TOP OF THE LINE zoom has a bad project issue, like the SDM failure and SDM substandard AF speed, it's not just a "peculiar disvantage of the brand" but it's such a customer lost of money, if I payed a PRO level price, and I have a very high probability to suffer the issue, I need money to fix even if it's a clear project vulnerability, and I have to wait for months. It's not a PRO level of service and gear quality, even if the optical quality is good... but a slow or a broken AF gives an optical quality worse than a smartphone camera, simply because it miss the shot I wanted to get.

Simply, take it easy, don't try to hope Pentax will be back a real copetitors for colossess like N and Canon... on that, I completely agree with you, even if I just have 5... ops... 6 post... I should be a genius!

Slow autofocus isn't really because of SDM. If it were, then converting these lenses to screw driven (which can be done), would fix any focus speed issues, but it doesn't, at least not much. Pentax designed these lenses so that they could be manually focused and gave them longer focus throws than is typical with fast focusing auto focus lenses. The DA *200 actually focuses pretty fast, because its focus throw is quite a bit shorter. I wouldn't care if they redesigned the lenses with a shorter focus throw, but it definitely would take a complete redesign.