Originally posted by IchabodCrane Notice that the two least camera-centric companies making cameras (Samsung, Sony) are the two that are further along with some of the ideas floated here in the past couple of pages.
You mean the lest optics-centric companies. Both have been making cameras for a long, long time.
There is no doubt the Japanese companies in particular (Sony is the most American of them) are caught in a "not invented here" rut of their own making, and Ricoh/Pentax with strong ties to only the domestic market is probably in a rut of a rut.
Even with video. The DSLR and the smartphone (both) started to destroy dedicated videocam sales. Add in GoPro and you have the perfect storm. But do Pentax, Fuji, and even Nikon beef up their systems to be major players? Not really. Fuji is video awful and I have been told firsthand that that impedes sales. They are soooo reluctant to tread on the videocam turf even if it is there for the taking. The Ricoh GR with an astounding WA lens should have been amped for video. I believe one reason why mirrorless sales have not been as much of a force as it was predicted was the very mediocre video offerings. Smartphones ate the mirrorless video lunch. The engineer and marketing firms in these companies are stuck in their Bento boxes.
The KS-1 adds a dedicated,l prominent video switch this time but no articulated screen. Frustrating to watch half-measures. Since the K-30 on the Pentax video and Live View has been really good (and LV focus speed has been excellent). But it is difficult to hold and track with a fixed screen. They are so close to true all-purpose products with superior retro functionality via k-mount. Pentax cameras have IBIS video stabilization for Pete's sake!
Video and wireless are holding things back IMO. And all of it needs to tie in strongly to mobile OS's much, much, much better.