[mee]

Good point but...…… what do you call the "knowledgeable users" AKA professional guessers that throw the exact same banter in the 180 degree direction? is that not the definition of insanity as well?

I used to post here a lot. Now I mostly lurk here and there (hoping for actual news). After awhile you may come to the same conclusion I have, that throwing opinions left and right is largely a fruitless endeavor. A single post on small tidbits of potential news is followed by 50 pages of the same, tired arguments and counter arguments from the same people in each thread. Even when there is some kind of group consensus of what use is it? Ricoh is going to do whatever they want to do. And 50mm this is not objectively better than 50mm that.. it is just a waste of time debating subjective claims as if they are objective truths.

I will say this though. Ricoh, like any other company, doesn't necessarily have "superior knowledge of the situation" any more than Kodak did. Companies are run by people and people are fallible. Market research can be wrong just like political polls have been known to be incredibly wrong. Besides, these things are far more involved than just knowing the situation. Sometimes one may know the situation but not be able to react to the situation based on a number of aspects -- money, expertise, time.

[normhead]

I used to post here a lot. Now I mostly lurk here and there (hoping for actual news). After awhile you may come to the same conclusion I have, that throwing opinions left and right is largely a fruitless endeavor. A single post on small tidbits of potential news is followed by 50 pages of the same, tired arguments and counter arguments from the same people in each thread. Even when there is some kind of group consensus of what use is it? Ricoh is going to do whatever they want to do. And 50mm this is not objectively better than 50mm that.. it is just a waste of time debating subjective claims as if they are objective truths.

I will say this though. Ricoh, like any other company, doesn't necessarily have "superior knowledge of the situation" any more than Kodak did. Companies are run by people and people are fallible. Market research can be wrong just like political polls have been known to be incredibly wrong. Besides, these things are far more involved than just knowing the situation. Sometimes one may know the situation but not be able to react to the situation based on a number of aspects -- money, expertise, time.

The one thing we do know is that Pentax has been around for 100 years, and despite people claiming they were dead for 15-20 years now, are still around. These posters don't have track records like that. In fact most of them have never called anything correctly. Not only that Pentax has survived and thrived through the fall off of the ILC market and the advent of cell phone photography without a blink. Look at their competitors from 1970 and see how many of them are no longer even in existence. The issue here is credibility. Negative people simply refuse to acknowledge what Pentax has accomplished.

But bottom line, they ones who say "Pentax should do this. Pentax should do that" have no record to point to detailing why we should listen to them. It's all hot air. Pentax has a paper trail going back 100 years.

I fail to see how a company that seems to pry $500-$1000 of my limited pension income every year is in any kind of serious trouble, and has to do anything but keep on keeping on. I'm interested in what they are working on, and it's been hinted many times they are holding back product to release in the Centennial year. It gets tiring reading posts from those who bought into Pentax when they should have bought something else, complaining that Pentax isn't doing things they've never done. Your bad purchasing decisions do not give you the right to complain. Those are on you.

For example, anyone with a Pentax camera right now had the ability to go to a mirrorless system. They chose not to.They chose what Pentax had to offer. No one here can help them because they made that choice. You can complain about Pentax not having mirrorless options all you want, but it was your choice not mine. There are lots of other companies that make mirrorless. Go buy one. Pentax doesn't have to be everything to every one. Pentax's lone responsibility is to Pentax users who prefer Pentax for what it is. It has absolutely no responsibility to those who bought into the brand hoping for something different.

[Larrymc]

Good point but...…… what do you call the "knowledgeable users" AKA professional guessers that throw the exact same banter in the 180 degree direction? is that not the definition of insanity as well?

There are several degrees of difference from "What Pentax should do" to what someone thinks Pentax will do next. The former is pontification and the latter is a WAG.


P.S. WAG is and old military term meaning Wild Arsed Guess as opposed to a SWAG Which is a Scientific Wild Arsed Guess.

[alcstudios]

There are several degrees of difference from "What Pentax should do" to what someone thinks Pentax will do next. The former is pontification and the latter is a WAG.


P.S. WAG is and old military term meaning Wild Arsed Guess as opposed to a SWAG Which is a Scientific Wild Arsed Guess.

WAG has extended beyond the military, I use it for every decision I make.

[zapp]

Exactly what the more knowledgeable on the site have been saying for years.

What does Pentax have that we don't?
A sound statistical analysis of what sells and what doesn't.
Knowledge of the approximate development costs for new product, which they can weigh against the sales possibilities of said new product. They could put out a $1500 flash that was the greatest thing since sliced bread, with a built in radio trigger that can fire multiple flashes with 3 flashes in the box, and it would kill them. Because all of us who don't want that would now be able to buy a camera that meets more of their needs for cheaper. Yet we get all these things where people want something Pentax doesn't make, and project that into more sales and more market share. And honestly, many of these things would kill the company.

Without those two things, everyone on this site explaining what Pentax has to do is just fantasising.

The simple fact that many seem to constantly over look, is Pentax does what's good for Pentax. Their endless rants about what's wrong with Pentax, mostly because Pentax doesn't do something they think they should, don't in any way suggest Pentax should change what they do. (Although they often mean the user should have changed brands 6 months ago and is procrastinating by ranting at Pentax on the forum.) What they do need is the understanding that it isn't Pentax's job to make them happy. It's Pentax's job to make cameras and stay in business. And if the best way for them to do that is to cater to the Japanese enthusiast market and ignore the rest of the world, then that's what they are going to do. And as long as that produces a product I can use productively at a price I can pay, then that's fine with me.

There is nothing more frustrating than someone posting what Pentax has to do based on their own personal needs. Do folks really think that they represent enough of the camera buying public to keep Pentax afloat?. Apparently it's Japan that keeps Pentax afloat.

Many discover they bought the wrong thing, that they didn't do their research, they didn't anticipate their current needs or the direction of their growth. Much of this complaining seems like an attempt to blame their mistake on Pentax.

"Pentax doesn't make this or do that." Pffft. Pentax didn't do this or make that when you bought the camera. Nothing changed but you. What is more counter productive than buying product, and then expecting the company to change to meet your every new need and desire in the future. You buy what you need when you need it. If later you need something else, you buy that.

How do they listen unless some tells them. I don´t expect Pentax to answer, but I think they listen.
Pentax Europe, North America, etc also want to make profit not only Japan.

How Pentax collect and values Information is on them. And only Pentax has the overview on sales numbers. Here I am completely with you.

[MMVIII]

I think Biz-engineer's analysis is solid but I wonder about the USB-3. Wouldn't it be better to use USB-C which is becoming almost standard on new computers and phones and is a big improvement over earlier USB standards.

USB 3 is a standard that defines transfer mode and speed, USB-C defines the type of connector. The newest verdion of USB 3 is 3.1 Gen 2 which can reach up to 10 Gbit/s with a USB-C-connectors, but USB-C can also just use Gen 1, as the USB-A used with 5 Gbit/s.

Edit: never mind, further reading of the thread of course showed that this has been pointed out already.

[BigMackCam]

Thread closed. Infractions to follow.

Folks, I've had to make numerous post edits and deletions, but have re-opened the thread.

Please, let's keep this friendly, respectful, non-confrontational and in the community spirit of these forums.

Thanks

---

Last edited by BigMackCam; 01-21-2019 at 12:08 PM.

[HippyHippo]

Could you please create that thread and point us to it from here?

I'm intrigued.

I've been appreciating the efforts by Cactus for a long time now but since the RQ250 project was cancelled I wonder whether they'll be able to keep the momentum. The V6II + RF60X + Pentax-radio system surrogate + cross-brand options are great, but in its current form the system is confined to AA-powered speedlight-based lighting (with exceptions to which better solutions exist) which has its limitations. Surely not everyone will feel limited with that gear, but people who can imagine growing out of purely speedlight-based lighting will probably be more drawn to Godox these days.

P.S.: Many thanks for the update and the overall positive message. I look forward to seeing Pentax what they do best and continue to so for a long, long time to come!

SorryClass A, I never got around to the separate post, but I currently use an old FGZ540 flash and cactus v6 triggers. I was asking about whether the cactus v6II with p-TTL capability worked well with Pentax (yes, apparently it does work well).
I also asked whether the firmware was improved in the newer FGZ540II flash, particularly with the K1. Apparently, yes, I should see an improvement in exposure accuracy too.
Given your post above I’m not sure it warrants a separate post as I suspect you know this stuff already!

[kooks]

"Pentax doesn't make this or do that." Pffft. Pentax didn't do this or make that when you bought the camera. Nothing changed but you. What is more counter productive than buying product, and then expecting the company to change to meet your every new need and desire in the future. You buy what you need when you need it. If later you need something else, you buy that.

Perhaps that is the most honest truth about Pentax.. I came to the conclution that Pentax do what they do and that's it.. expecting something else might just be an utopia of how many users wish something else.. but it is not in the Pentax dna to do it that way.. and if for some folks that is good, well.it's awesome... for those who don't think so, well.. there are great products out there from Sony, Fuji, Canon, Nikon, etc, etc.. Is the "Pentax way" the best business model for a camera company? IMO and as a client i would say that no, but that's the way they do it and that's it.. I feel that Pentax is a brand without gray tones, you are part of the ones that yo love the products and performance as it is now, or part of the ones that don't, the ones in the middle are the ones that just wish something else, and with Pentax that something else might not come at all, or might come late so.. so, there is not really a point to wish and hope for changes knowing how things are.

[Class A]

SorryClass A, I never got around to the separate post, but I currently use an old FGZ540 flash and cactus v6 triggers. I was asking about whether the cactus v6II with p-TTL capability worked well with Pentax (yes, apparently it does work well).

Ah, OK, thanks.

I can confirm that for using one's Pentax speedlights as off-camera flashes, the Cactus V6II units are the best game in town.
The Cactus RF60X is also a great speedlight and supports P-TTL and HSS with Pentax (in conjunction with a V6II).

If one has aspirations beyond using speedlights, other systems become more attractive, given the current lack of any P-TTL/HSS capable light more powerful than a speedlight for the Cactus system.

Given your post above I’m not sure it warrants a separate post as I suspect you know this stuff already!

Yes, thanks, definitely wouldn't be needed for me.