Originally posted by Adnan EROL Adnan, your survey shows that 53 percent of the MEMBERS OF THIS FORUM want a full-frame Pentax. While this is an interesting statistic, I'm not sure that it means that 53 percent of ALL Pentax owners want full-frame.
As much as we may not like to admit it, any survey of a forum, such as this, is almost by definition, skewed. It is skewed by the fact that these forums tend to be frequented by very serious amateurs and photographers who are semi-fanatical to the Pentax brand. We are not typical of the general camera-buying public.
I have owned Pentax cameras almost exclusively since 1967. During that time, I have been well aware that Pentax cameras were not as feature-rich as the best that Nikon could offer. If fact, that is why I bought my Spotmatic, instead of saving a little longer for a Nikon F. I decided that I didn't need the features of the Nikon F and didn't want to pay for features I wouldn't or couldn't use. I feel the same way today.
I couldn't care less about increasing the frames-per-second capacity of my K10D. I think that the more typical Pentax owner is like me; I seldom use machine-gun photography and, when I do, 3 fps is enough.
I think that Pentax has chosen their target market carefully, and produced cameras that appeal to that market. If they tried to compete, feature for feature, with Nikon and Canon, then Pentax cameras would cost as much as Nikon and Canon.
Besides, I think that everyone who is begging Pentax for a FF camera is drastically underestimating the development and support costs of such a camera, while at the same time, drastically overestimating the potential market, not to mention the fact that they would be shooting at a moving target. After all, Nikon, Canon and Sony are not going to stand still while Pentax attempts to penetrate a market that those three have mostly had to themselves.
I think that the biggest problem Pentax would have with a FF camera is not the camera itself. Not even the lenses. I don't care what anyone says, a FF camera is a pro camera. I know that there are non-professionals who own them, just as there were amatuers who owned Nikon F's. But, without a significant buy-in from the pro market, any FF camera is, IMHO, doomed. That buy-in means that there must be brick and morter stores (lots of them; not just a couple in New York) where a pro can walk in and walk out with any lens in the Pentax line, either purchased or rented. A pro must be able to get his/her camera repaired in 48 hours, at most, and have a loaner while it is being done. That kind of dealer support network doesn't exist for Pentax and would cost a fortune and take a long time to build. Heck, how many camera stores in your town even stock the K200D?
But, I could be wrong....