Originally posted by surfar I wonder how the K1 came about?
i remember the first interview PF did with Pentax executives at (I think) CP+. While trying to be polite, the executive seemed not to be certain of what Pentax Forums was all about.
When informed that PF had a nearly complete database of all Pentax lenses ever produced, he was clearly flabbergasted.
While the familiarity has likely imptoved somewhat over the years, I doubt PF's influence on Pentax development plans on a scale of 1 to 100 rates higher than 1 or 2.
For these reasons:
Firstly, Pentax's customer engagement model seems rooted in old-school, highly formal models. Where they do seek direct customer input, it is through surveys like the European lens survey. They were still compiling/analyzing results *months* after the survey was over! Ricoh America's experiment with a direct PF presence lasted just a few weeks. When John Carlson (executive with Pentax in USA in pre and Hoya years) began posting on PF, it turned into a virtual slugfest, with both sides landing some awesome blows, within just a few days.
Pentax corporate culture simply has no clue how to engage with their customers in unstructured, informal venues, and more importantly, how to gleen useful intel from same. I think they may be trying, but they have a long ways to go.
Secondly, the English language, North America based PF represents a very small slice of their market. All else being equal, PF will not be the first place Pentax looks for advice, and well may be near the last place.
I think Pentax *should* take the pulse of PF into account in their development strategy, but cultural and structural barriers severely limit this.
As to the K-1, the special K-1 site seems to imply the engineering team had pushed it for a long time and their persistence and ideas for innovation finally paid off. I suspect the timing was also coincident with FF sensor pricing finally dropping enough to make the decision makers happy - or at least agreeable.