Originally posted by Edgar_in_Indy The long string of hypothetical questions left my head spinning, so that I was not completely sure what he was even saying. It was a painful post to read, and re-read, and re-read.
But it seems like he was saying that in a way, it's good for Pentax if Sigma no longer sells competing lenses. I don't agree that would be good for Pentax, or for Pentax users. I personally would not have bought any Pentax cameras if there wasn't decent 3rd-party lens support. To stay healthy, Pentax needs to keep competing and innovating, to offer something that is more attractive than what the competition is offering.
I'm sorry for having caused this effect, but maybe some short addition can help to solve that somehow.
I just wanted to point out that there might be a difference between what might be good from a consumer POV and what for a company's. I absolutely agree that the more choice in lenses the merrier it is for us, for the consumers.
But I also wanted to know if this also applies for a manufacturer like Ricoh, who sells cameras and, not least, lenses to people, who have all in all a limited budget and if they buy third party lenses they don't spend this for this brand. If the more choice the better would apply there would already be a unified mount for 35mm for Canisopentax...one would think. That a broader choice might influence camera sales is another story...
And agreed, Pentax needs to innovate, hava a unique selling point, SR in body, WR-sealing, diffraction correction and also appropriate lenses, who are optimized exactly for that, hardware- and softwarewise. Instead of "giving Sigma xxxk$" I would rather see them cater exactly this. If others additionally bring compatible products - even better.
.....
addition: and if posters seem worried that the end of a lens from Sigma in K-mount (because it was not economic) and other small and unimportant tidbits could be a sign for the decline of the Pentax system, then I don't see this a helpful way of dealing with this, in filling the forum with really speculative FUD-threads, which in the end might give first time visitors a certain impression and work as a selfulfilling prophecy in the end...