[redpit]

What plans are that? To make Pentax doomed?

If many of those "doomers" in here had given their money to Pentax to buy equipment like I have done, we would be talking in a very different basis now about Pentax position in the market...

Too much talking and whining and not much spending is the real problem (and not Pentax equipment that doesn't cover their needs. Its just that they want a D500 with $1000 as someone said in order to "love" Pentax).

So my problem now is different. When Pentax will release something that will make me offer her my money again! (and I'm talking about long lenses here). So simple

I know I have to wait when their plans meet my needs! (I just feel bad that I have given so much money to Sigma that I would love to have gone to Pentax...)

[totsmuyco]

Doom sayers, nay sayers. Ricoh came out with the k-1, then the k-70 and now the KP. All we hear from these people are how bad these gears are. I bet majority of these people don't even own one. My advice to these people is, if you don't like Pentax just leave.

[bxf]

We adore each other

More seriously: I happen to know Bruno Labarbere... It's also pretty easy to determine who from Ricoh Imaging France talked to him about the Pentax KP (but I will refrain from giving the guy's name or position )

I'll bet it was Claude Le Coiffeur.

[mecrox]

Doom sayers, nay sayers. Ricoh came out with the k-1, then the k-70 and now the KP. All we hear from these people are how bad these gears are. I bet majority of these people don't even own one. My advice to these people is, if you don't like Pentax just leave.

You do realize that your calls are also part of the ritual? Viz:

Rumours of a new camera provoke 3000-post threads, often involving cheese and Hitler

A new camera is finally announced

The end of Pentax is confidently predicted. Strange portents are detected in the night sky.

Doomsayers are ritually admonished. They will be driven out of the promised land.

Brave souls buy the new camera. Some even dare to say they like it.

Life resumes as normal ... but lo, what is that? Rumours of a new camera have been heard in the land ...

[mee]

If many of those "doomers" in here had given their money to Pentax to buy equipment like I have done, we would be talking in a very different basis now about Pentax position in the market...

Too much talking and whining and not much spending is the real problem (and not Pentax equipment that doesn't cover their needs. Its just that they want a D500 with $1000 as someone said in order to "love" Pentax).

So my problem now is different. When Pentax will release something that will make me offer her my money again! (and I'm talking about long lenses here). So simple

I know I have to wait when their plans meet my needs! (I just feel bad that I have given so much money to Sigma that I would love to have gone to Pentax...)

So you expect people to buy products that don't meet their desires, just to boost the company? Do you have stock in Ricoh?

Doom sayers, nay sayers. Ricoh came out with the k-1, then the k-70 and now the KP. All we hear from these people are how bad these gears are. I bet majority of these people don't even own one. My advice to these people is, if you don't like Pentax just leave.

If everyone did as you suggested, there wouldn't be a Pentax. We'd all have left.

A little more understanding would be appreciative instead of tossing people out on their ear at the first sign of criticality towards the brand.

The way the KP was launched was a bit of a disaster from a PR standpoint. It was unlike any other launch so far by Ricoh, so the response was a valid one.

And I hope you understand Ricoh has attempted to attract a broad range of customers. As a result, you're going to read comments that oppose each other as these customers are all looking for something different (Q, entry crop, retro crop, high end crop, full frame, medium format).

It isn't as simple as saying "(You haven't had a problem with Pentax for X number of years,) now you have a complaint, get out." Because, if you do that, there is no more Pentax.

[Kunzite]

If everyone did as you suggested, there wouldn't be a Pentax. We'd all have left.

As in: nobody likes Pentax but we're forced to stay?
The problem with critics is that they often only want to "punish" Pentax for not making the "right" product, not doing precisely the "right" thing, etc. And it's full of experts on the Internet, all too ready to explain the "right" way of doing things

Said experts would criticize when Pentax decided to enter the digital medium format market, because FF was the "right" thing. Or when they did the FF, because it should've been MILC or APS-C only. Or when they did the Q, then when they canceled the Q. Or when they made the K-01, now asking for a next version.
Obviously, the KP cannot escape this treatment.

[jonny1986]

nice camera but in my opinion pentax is too conservative and cornering himself with his choice.


lens selection...people want fast primes, no sign of it. consumer zoom and slow pancake. the world has changed. take a fuji mirrorless system. it's small full of 1,4 glass full of fast lesions, pancake, sealed not. they released more lenses than pentax in the last 10 years in a bunch of years. k1 needs also glasses.

af: still old school...still not on par with even olympus and i suspect sony. this i s not addressed.

video: still so poor implementation. why? still no 60p, no is in video, no different frame and codec. every brand is improving in video pentax is going backward. i know pentax user are photo centric, me too mostly, but if you only think of present user pentax will never grow more than 2 3 % of market.

ricoh gr: where is the new 24 million camera who can sell like hotcakes?

[Kunzite]

fuji [...\ they released more lenses than pentax in the last 10 years in a bunch of years

Really?
Pentax Lenses: Digital Photography Review
Fujifilm Lenses: Digital Photography Review

[reh321]

Beautiful camera, even if it does look a little like the Nikon Df...

i would say that, like the K-1, it derives its inspiration from the stillborn MZ-1.

I know this is coming back to the ergonomics thing, but I realized this morning what I should have said last night. If you put the largest grip on the KP, it looks almost exactly like a miniature K-1, and different from a Canikon; that is exactly how it should be {in fact, I was surprised they didn't do that with the K-70}. They are trying to build the Pentax Brand as distinct and "premium" {like Jaguar or BMW}. That is a very good thing. If people want to run with the crowd they will, but a smaller company that does that will almost always get trampled sooner or later. Ricoh is trying, and should get credit, not bricks, for so doing. Unfortunately the money to buy one isn't in our budget right now.

[monochrome]

I know this is coming back to the ergonomics thing, but I realized this morning what I should have said last night. If you put the largest grip on the KP, it looks almost exactly like a miniature K-1, and different from a Canikon; that is exactly how it should be {if fact, I was surprised they didn't do that with the K-70}. They are trying to build the Pentax Brand as distinct and "premium" {like Jaguar or BMW}. That is a very good thing. If people want to run with the crowd they will, but a smaller company that does that will almost always get trampled sooner or later. Ricoh is trying, and should get credit, not bricks, for so doing. Unfortunately the money to buy one isn't in our budget right now.

Agree. There is room between Nikon and Leica.

[btnapa]

If many of those "doomers" in here had given their money to Pentax to buy equipment like I have done, we would be talking in a very different basis now about Pentax position in the market...

I have given my money to Pentax. Since I switched from Canon, I have bought a total of four bodies and six lenses from Pentax. I am not a doomer but there is no excuse for not having a few decent wide angle FF lenses. I am thrilled with my K1. I would have happily paid another $1,000 for it. I am more than willing to pay that $1K and more towards some decent Pentax wide primes. I do not want to go to Sigma or Tamron for those lenses. But wait non of those guys offer anything in the range for my K1. So I am left in a limbo by my beloved Pentax. What to do?. I am a loyal fan and have been more than patient. I do not want to migrate to another brand again. But how long do I have to wait to see one or two decent wide FF primes?

Meanwhile they (Pentax) are busy releasing more bodies with almost no improvement over the previous ones, and releasing second set of DA limited lenses and so on. What about all the loyalists who have real needs that Pentax has ignored while they are busy dumping all their R&D money into a Theta and incrementally marginal bodies.

Oh yes, and the big one, video. Let's not even talk about that. Pentax is so far behind, it is not even funny. A Sony point and shoot produces almost pro grade 4K and non of Pentaxes can even produce decent 1080P! What are they thinking? What is the excuse? Fuji has caught up with the game. For pete's sake even Olympus has caught up with the bunch. Sony and Panasonic are so far ahead, Pentax has no prayer of catching up with those guys.

Here is a reality check for all the Pentax loyalists. My son's friend came to town to help him produce a video for his business. I asked the young 20 something guy what he was using. Turned out he was using a Canon 6D to do this video. He then asked me what I was shooing, I proudly told him Pentax. His response, "I have never heard of Pentax." There is the dilemma for Pentax, next generation of potential buyers that have never heard of the brand.

[reh321]

lens selection...people want fast primes, no sign of it. consumer zoom and slow pancake. the world has changed. take a fuji mirrorless system. it's small full of 1,4 glass full of fast lesions, pancake

Value of f/1.4 glass depends partially on how you plan to use it. Most of the time, the complaints I hear about Pentax glass is lack of constant wide-aperture zooms for covering sports and other events. Those things are large, heavy and awkward. I believe that Pentax has decided to go in a different direction - high ISO with "normal" lenses to cover sports/events. Maybe Pentax will eventually come back to expensive lenses also, but I believe this is the horse they're betting on for now. As I have documented elsewhere, I've seen high-ISO images posted by professionals using Canikon hardware. so this could be an entirely reasonable direction.

af: still old school...still not on par with even olympus and i suspect sony. this is not addressed.

What makes you say "not addressed"??? Pentax claims new algorithms. Unless you are a camera designer, neither of us knows how much of AF is hardware and how much is software. We won't know anything about AF until some actual users actually use it.

BTW - as a retired(*) software designer, I can tell you that implementing new software while the company is also implementing new hardware is very difficult. Doing one and then the other would be a more conservative approach.

(*) I had planned to work until I was 70 {I'm 69 right now}. However, a few years ago we moved because of a better job for my wife, fully aware that finding new work is hard when you're older, and the combination of age and a non-fully-recovered economy was apparently lethal to my career.

[UserAccessDenied]

Agree. There is room between Nikon and Leica.

If Ricoh tries to fill that gap, many of us will no longer be able to afford them!
I bought into Pentax over CANIKON because of the entry level K-30 with weather sealing, durability and ergonomics. And at half the price of the "other guy's" plastic junk!

I think the K-1 successor will eventually tell us where the Pentax road will lead us...

[btnapa]

It isn't as simple as saying "(You haven't had a problem with Pentax for X number of years,) now you have a complaint, get out." Because, if you do that, there is no more Pentax.

Amen to that. Let's all stick our head under snow with our tails hanging out for the world to see and pretend no one can see us!!

[Mistral75]

I'll bet it was Claude Le Coiffeur.