Originally posted by lol101 From what I remember, the MZ-S culminated at 2,5fps while the EOS 3 with it's 45 AF points was doing 7 fps (with booster, 4,3 fps without). On the other side, the Nikon F100 was speeding at a respectable 4,5 fps (while the F5 was doing 8fps).
The fastest Pentax AF body was the Z1-P (that I still own) at 4fps circa 1995.
Pentax never had the equivalent of a 1 serie or F5, not even an equivalent of the EOS3 / F100 in the film days. They never developped an AF system able to follow a moving target at more than 4fps.
In fact, I think they never really cared, and I am not sure they will ever. Their strength lies elsewhere (ie ergonomics and IQ I think).
Hence my (still valid I think) point that Pentax has no experience in developping the kind of AF some people want (ala D300: 6-8 fps 51 points) whereas Canon and Nikon do.
But when it comes to do a nice camera with outstanding IQ... they have all it takes.
I agree with this, but the problem (if you could call it that) is that people want everything, and they want it now. The word "compromise" seems to have slipped from the consumer's vocabulary the last fifteen years or so, and I think that sad. Pentax is trying to sell their strengths, and are asking people to put up with their weaknesses at the same time, while the outfits across the street are selling their cameras to the tune of "It does it all, and then some".
Now, like I said, this might not be a bad thing. This ship is going to take some turning around, to be sure, but good things could come out of it. What Pentax needs to do right now is stop listening to the market. When they were on top of their game (and I'm going to say, with reasonable examples available, that was between 1961 and 1980) they could have gone a number of directions with the brand recognition they had build for themselves, but they instead tried to please everyone doing everything, and subsequently lost their identity. It doesn't help that the people at the top had also forgotten, or so it seemed.
Pentax seems best remembered for their products from this era, so why not go back to the drawing board with these designs as a basis? Build solid, high quality, no-plastics glass and cameras, charge people appropriately, and market them as "The grandchildren of the indestructible K1000", or similar. And advertise the crap out of it.