[Password1234]

Ok, now matching 35 2.4

[PJ1]

No doubt there are some people whose purchase decision is swayed by the availability of particular colours. Henry Ford had the right idea.

[photogem]

I wonder why olive seems to keep popping up throughout camera history as an occasional colour choice by manufacturers - it seems like an odd colour to choose.

Hunters and those who love military stuff.
I have 2 x K-x in olive here (they were defunct, got them very cheap orig. for their solenoid but then it turned out in both cases just the thumbwheel and battery contacts.

[pblogic]

I like the olive a lot. However, boy do I yearn for the day that there is more exciting news. It would be really nice to see news on a K1 III or some new full frame lenses!

[Fogel70]

Thanks for that - I have to say that what those enhance most (to me) is the plasticky look of the camera, but I hope they also enhance sales - I can see the olive particularly having a market

Yeah, the colors and the matte finish makes it look like they are made of ABS plastic. Which is often used for cheap molded plastic parts.
But it may be 3D-rendered images, so then they probably look differently in real life.

[Ronald Oakes]

Hmmmmmm....The colours of bodies are the main things in photography...

Yes ! It's only about looking good that matters.

---------- Post added 01-27-23 at 05:04 ----------

I have, red, yellow and (dark) blue cameras. So how is my health and mental state?

Confused....lol.
Sorry , but couldn't resist.

[Smolk]

I'm less sure about the colours but looks do matter. I always liked the KP. The K-3 iii is OK, it's exceptional in the attention to detail in the way it is sculptured and organised, so I like it.

I want an air-source heat pump and they are virtually all butt ugly. (There is one exception, but it is for a hybrid installation.)
I once did a mental exercise in which I had a million bucks to spend on a car to see which ones I liked. The answer was pretty surprising, hardly any. Some failed on the emblem only... I like some old ones, but not those made to evoke memories of old cars, like the Midlife Chrysler.

In cameras, money-no-limit would probably mean the Hasselblad X1D or X2D, but I might simply stay with Pentax and buy all the lenses I'd like until fatigue of choosing which ones to take on a hike would force me to thin out my collection.
(And I might still prefer my TLRs nonetheless.)

[borisII]

If to be honest, I like stone version.

[JPT]

It’s very quick to have new colors released, so I’m wondering if they are going to do this every couple of months with the KF. They might actually plan to have as many colors as the K-30 had in the end, but they’ll just release them in a staggered fashion to maintain interest. That is the kind of customization that seems to be easier for them to do with their new manufacturing model.

The K-30 has a bit of a special status in Pentax as one of the mass market cameras that really sold well. I think that’s why they are coming back to that for the coloring of this camera and even more obviously in the design of another limited model to be released later in the year.

[robgski]

The K-30 has a bit of a special status in Pentax as one of the mass market cameras that really sold well. I think that’s why they are coming back to that for the coloring of this camera and even more obviously in the design of another limited model to be released later in the year.

I have a blue K30 that succumbed to ABF, and I hope to repair it in 2023.
Some people want to have the feeling of personalization or uniquity in their possessions. Remember the VW Harlekin edition, or the Smart car which had colored door and hood panels which could be swapped out for different colors?
I don't know that much about Japanese consumer culture, but it seems to me that a percentage of that market wants options. Perhaps they seem a camera not just as a tool, but a fashion statement?

[shiner]

The Olive one reminds me of my old K-S2

[JPT]

Remember the VW Harlekin edition, or the Smart car which had colored door and hood panels which could be swapped out for different colors?

Recently I've been looking at the countless models of G-Shock and can't make up my mind which one I want. But thinking about G-shock, I think there are parallels with Pentax. Their basic model has barely changed in 40 years and it's still popular, because there's not much more you could want a watch to do. They come out with new colors every month to keep people's interest and they are still very successful. I don't think cameras are exactly the same kind of product, but also not a million miles away.

Cameras, like watches, have reached the point where pretty much all cameras are "good" - not just "good enough", but genuinely better than most users would ever need. And another parallel with watches is that some people have stopped buying them because they think smartphones make them redundant. I feel that Pentax is onto something important because what will be important for camera buyers in future is the pleasure of ownership - craftsmanship and originiality. As an aside, I know that at least one of the Pentax designers is into G-Shock, sporting a beige one at an event.

If I'm right about there being more KF color options coming on a regular basis, it makes more sense of the rather conservative number of 700 blue and white models. They probably set that low because they knew they would be making a few hundred Olive and Stone models. We have a few hundred "Sakura" models in spring and a few hundred "Ocean Sand" models in summer. Remember how season-obsessed Pentax is!

By the way, Japanese people tend to like a wider variety of colors for things they carry with them. Men especially don't have as many hang-ups about certain colors being "girly" or stuff like that. But funnily enough, they are very conservative when it comes to car colors. The vast number of cars you see are white, silver or black. When I asked my in-laws about this, they told me that they had really wanted to get a yellow car once, but they realized that if they ever had to attend a funeral, it would be totally inappropriate in Japanese culture to show up ins a brightly colored car. That was kind of interesting, I thought. However, I've noticed that although Japanese people like colored items, they tend not to like the most vivid, brightest shades, so I'm not surprised that olive green is a popular color.

---------- Post added 01-28-23 at 07:46 AM ----------

The Olive one reminds me of my old K-S2

I love the look of that F35-70 on the green model! Have the lens, but I've always thought with the grey plastic barrel it looks a bit odd on modern black/silver cameras.

[RGlasel]

I drive an orange car

Is it this one or this one ? (If you grew up in North America in the sixties and seventies, you might understand why I associate orange cars with AMC products). American Motors made some quirky, interesting cars that seemed to always be painted either orange or forest green.

[reh321]

The K-30 has a bit of a special status in Pentax as one of the mass market cameras that really sold well. I think that’s why they are coming back to that for the coloring of this camera and even more obviously in the design of another limited model to be released later in the year.

The K-30 was also a lower-tier camera. Now that they seem to have finally fixed the solenoid issue, are there rumors of another lower-tier camera to come? My {blue} K-30 would like a ‘companion’.

[RGlasel]

They might actually plan to have as many colors as the K-30 had in the end, but they’ll just release them in a staggered fashion to maintain interest. That is the kind of customization that seems to be easier for them to do with their new manufacturing model.

You are probably right; another bonus for this customization is that unsold inventory of unattractive models can be re-coloured for a moderate cost, instead of being written off or heavily discounted.