[Dr Orloff]

What shoud Pentax do? Decide what kind of a market player it is going to be and be known for it. It's rather confusing at the moment.

[Uluru]

What Should Pentax Do, or WSPD could be a good design for a T shirt. Maybe an official PF shirt could be that one? And come to an interview with it?
I was thinking to get myself WWPD: What Would Picard Do.

[starbase218]

What Should Pentax Do, or WSPD could be a good design for a T shirt. Maybe an official PF shirt could be that one? And come to an interview with it?
I was thinking to get myself WWPD: What Would Picard Do.

I know: make Patrick Stewart the CEO!

[kadajawi]

I think you must read different financial and sales information to the rest of us, Kadajawi!




Sony Credit Cut To Junk Status As Smartphones 'Cannibalize' Its TV And PC Businesses - Forbes

Sony is a huge company, dealing in thousands of different areas. I wouldn't be surprised if they made fighter jets too (Samsung does). Sony's marketshare in the camera business seems to go up... and I don't see that changing. It's a well known and trusted brand, coming up with new, exciting and innovative products, and they get video. I would not be surprised at all if in a couple of years I'll be shooting Sony instead, if Pentax continues to sleep. I'm certainly rather cautious now with buying new lenses for Pentax, because I at least want to see improvements from camera to camera at Pentax... instead I see the K-3 being inferior to the K-5.

[konraDarnok]

... instead I see the K-3 being inferior to the K-5.

Eh? The K-3 is easily the best dSLR Pentax has ever made, maybe even the best APS-c dSLR on the market now. I've owned them all, except the K20 and K5II, and it's no contest. The K-3 gets just about everything right. My only real complaint is ditching the meter switch for a button. I hate that.

I'm not sure what people expect. . .and it's not just here in Pentaxland. Everyone seems to be complaining there's not a "next big thing." Well, there's a phenomenon called "plateau before obsolescence." There's no doubt in my mind that the dSLRs being made today, by any manufacturer, are as good as its going to get before they move on to cheaper and more solid state solutions.

[thibs]

Sony is a huge company, dealing in thousands of different areas. I wouldn't be surprised if they made fighter jets too (Samsung does). Sony's marketshare in the camera business seems to go up... and I don't see that changing. It's a well known and trusted brand, coming up with new, exciting and innovative products, and they get video. I would not be surprised at all if in a couple of years I'll be shooting Sony instead, if Pentax continues to sleep. I'm certainly rather cautious now with buying new lenses for Pentax, because I at least want to see improvements from camera to camera at Pentax... instead I see the K-3 being inferior to the K-5.

Trusted brand? Well, certainly a whole lot less than 15 years ago. Sony may go back up but never (IMO) to what they were. They made far too many mistakes.

[clackers]

Sony is a huge company, dealing in thousands of different areas. I wouldn't be surprised if they made fighter jets too (Samsung does). Sony's marketshare in the camera business seems to go up...

Did you not read?

Only the film and music arms are paying their way.

That is, cameras are not!

Or should the analyst spell it out for you?

"Moody’s also said it is particularly concerned about Sony’s weak earnings in its Devices and Imaging Products & Solutions segments given the decline in consumer appetite for digital cameras."

[Uluru]

... I would not be surprised at all if in a couple of years I'll be shooting Sony instead, if Pentax continues to sleep. I'm certainly rather cautious now with buying new lenses for Pentax, because I at least want to see improvements from camera to camera at Pentax... instead I see the K-3 being inferior to the K-5.

Well, there is a solution. To me at least, the system's worth are in the lenses. If you have some nice Pentax lenses (and those are not kit zooms, but rather Limiteds or similar), it is worth getting a camera for them.

However, would I buy those good Pentax lenses now, as I did several years ago?

Nope. Because then, Pentax inspired more confidence and they were marching strongly, building strong APS-C lineup quickly and showing off new designs constantly. They were very active. Now with Ricoh, lenses are put in the background, totally. They are muffling around, God knows what Ricoh is doing now. That scares me a lot and that means not a single dollar should be spent on Pentax gear excessively, especially current lenses. Only on a camera that can use those lenses I have, and that camera may as well be K5II, which is sturdy, has no known issues, it is good enough for years to come.

Get two of those cameras, use your good lenses, and the life goes on.

PS. To be frank, not a single company right now inspires me to invest into their lenses. Olympus is planning some interesting lenses, and they will be worthwhile looking at in due time. I am not a big fan of Fuji's lenses; to me Olympus makes better quality products than Fujifilm. Sony is scattered all around. Canon and Nikon are DSLR behemoths, and I prefer Pentax to them despite Ricoh's inaudible approach — but I admit, I prefer Pentax because I already have their excellent lenses — delivered and made by Pentax before Ricoh.

So far, to me Olympus and Panasonic are kings of the good quality mirrorless camera plus good quality optics combo. I don't count Q in that category, because half of its lens lineup are fixed aperture toy and lens cap designated lenses.

[Ben78]

I've yet to find a 5D Classic cheaper than $500 but yes, .

I've seen them sell in Australia for under $300usd on ebay. If Pentax doesn't do as we hope I'll probably go down the 5D route and have a dabble.

[Asahiflex]

I've seen them sell in Australia for under $300usd on ebay. If Pentax doesn't do as we hope I'll probably go down the 5D route and have a dabble.

Actually I think the Sony A850/A900 would be much better choices for M42 glass (no mirror clearance problems), but I also think these are hard to find.

[Uluru]

I've seen them sell in Australia for under $300usd on ebay. If Pentax doesn't do as we hope I'll probably go down the 5D route and have a dabble.

To me that is a sign of a total desperation and confusion: those users wiling to spend $300 on a decade old FF camera (5D), and not willing to spend $1800 on a much better and new FF camera (6D) from the same manufacturer, will not spend ANY kind of money on an FF camera from Pentax.
Only way one will spend on Pentax FF will be if it costs less than $300, or if it beats a $1800 camera in all departments by a huge margin, and comes for slightly less bucks.
In other words, each and every such user demands Pentax to deliver something impossible and contrary to common sense, which will not be appreciated and will be complained about anyway.

[Asahiflex]

To me that is a sign of a total desperation and confusion: those users wiling to spend $300 on a decade old FF camera (5D), and not willing to spend $1800 on a much better and new FF camera (6D) from the same manufacturer, will not spend ANY kind of money on an FF camera from Pentax.

What you say only makes sense if you're switching systems. I didn't: I kept my K-5 with precious AF lenses and only used the cheap 5D for manual focus M42 lenses. With a Pentax FF I can ditch both without having to sell my lenses.

[thibs]

Well, there is a solution. To me at least, the system's worth are in the lenses. If you have some nice Pentax lenses (and those are not kit zooms, but rather Limiteds or similar), it is worth getting a camera for them.

There are others, lot more affordable lenses e.g. K35/3.5, K30/2.8 to name a few...

[mecrox]

I wonder if anyone really expects a single thing suggested on this thread to happen? Maybe the most probable outcome in the immediate future is a new lens and a few other things at Photokina, which would be nice to have after all. I don't personally expect more of an answer from Ricoh to the question "Why Pentax?", whether by interview or announcement. Again it would be good to have, especially in parts of the world outside Japan where I think Pentax and Ricoh are seen as something of an enigma. But it doesn't seem likely since Pentax have been this way for years now.

Ricoh's camera division is a small company. Even if they grew at 7.5 per cent or more a year for a decade, they would still have barely half the share of the market that Nikon has today. So I think it's realistic to expect them to stay a small company for the foreseeable future. Talk of duking it out on equal terms with the big beasts is from the era when 100-120 million cameras a year were being sold. Now the figure is more like 40 million cameras a year and the weather is terrible. Growing sales is much harder when you have to pinch them from your rivals rather than take the benefit from a vibrant market. It's a different world.

For me, the next big hurdle is moving cameras into the way folks now live, work and play by connecting them up and adding to their utility through their software. It's not a matter of aping the smartphone but taking the best from it and adding it to what a camera can do much better than any phone. Smartphones cannot do everything. I'll likely place my bets with a company which looks as if it can do that one well and avoid the ones which are struggling with it. I'm not worried about "glass". Most of the main companies have oodles of top-quality lenses and the second-hand market is awash with millions and millions of examples of it too. Even if half the camera-makers left the market, which I very much hope they don't, "good glass" will be still be out there by the lorry load for many years to come.

[mee]

You mean Ricoh won't add Peanut Butter to the QA testing of the weather seals? Well shucks..