Originally posted by mecrox One could argue that if things continue with cameras moving up the market and the whole thing becoming more and more exclusive, then some companies won't be in the camera business at all but in the luxury brands game. I guess Leica and perhaps Hasselblad and Phase One are already there. Very different rules for that game. No more boxes piled high in chain stores, etc. Who wants to buy a beautifully-made 2000-note lens in the same place which sells toasters and boomboxes? I'd be surprised if some of the camera companies aren't at least looking at this scenario too.
I think that will be a difficult time for the existing manufacturers. It's quite hard to break through into the luxury market.
Maybe this doesn't fully translate, but look at cars. You have the hyper brands like Bentley and Rolls Royce and Ferrari and Lambo. And the more consumer-luxury brands like Mercedes and Audi and BMW, maybe Lexus. When someone tries to break into these segments it's, hit or miss, at best. Hyundai is trying with Genesis, but nobody really thinks those are on par with the Germans. Even if objectively they're close you don't brag to your coworkers that you have a Genesis. Cadillac was once every bit as prestigious as a Mercedes, then spent years building crappy barges with velvet and chrome and no amount of technical achievement and pricing schemes has really put them on a subjective level with the other established luxury brands. They can't shake the idea that your grandmother drives a Caddy. I know, I cross-shopped a CTS with my Audi. I couldn't do it.
That's what I fear in cameras. Leica isn't a miracle brand. Some of their cameras are thinly disguised Panasonics. They're technically only fractionally better than cameras costing far less. But they're Leica. They still get people to buy $6000 rebadged Panasonics. Pentax will probably never get people to buy $6000 K-3IIIs, even if they paint a red dot on them and put them in exclusive storefronts in London and New York.
Is Pentax Cadillac? Once great, had a down period, now makes objectively very good products but they can't fully shake the idea that their time was long ago?