Originally posted by ChristianRock Well, that's not how the entry level crowd thinks, thoughc
Here's a story... I know it's just an anecdotal case, but I think it's descriptive of how most people think... Just today I bought a Pentax K-r body cheap off of Craigslist from a very nice lady. Her reason to sell it? She bought a Nikon because it had more megapixels. She just shoots with a kit lens, so changes are, her pictures at 12Mp and 24Mp will look the same (especially since Pentax and Nikon have basically the same optical design for their 18-55 lenses).
Case number 2 is my boss, who went from a 6Mp Canon to the D3200 (24Mp). He is quite disappointed that his 6Mp pictures look sharper than his 24Mp pictures (when viewed on his computer). Again, someone who shoots with one camera and one lens in Program mode, and no study of technique.
That is the entry level market. You gotta give them megapickles.
Fair point and makes the case for a high mp count for the low end. Quick question though - how successful was the kx? I remember seeing a few around at the time of its release (it had won a bunch of awards if I recall and correctly) and that had a relatively low count vs competition I believe (didn't the T2i exist at the time with the headline grabbing 18mp?, though im guessing that was very successful). Point is I think good reviews etc make a big difference too - it is so easy now to just google 'x vs y' and get an instant rating - maybe I'm naive but Id hope these fist time buyers considered that too.
Though I guess the problem comes when the reviews are left by people equally uninformed. Point is, even if this has lots of megapixels etc, if it gets some poor ratings it won't sell - that's why I do not get the goofy design, I can see it turning off more people than it attracts because the whole reason imo many people buy DSLRs is because they value the seriousness of the look of the camera, they think if it looks like a pro tool it will act like one - some different colours dont really undermine that too drastically, but surely LEDs would make it seem gimmicky and cheap?
Having said that, I heard the k500 didn't do too well so guess they may be experimenting etc - which they can afford to do in a way.