[Venturi]

What will it be? Pentax needs a product that will get people, other than the ones in this forum, talking about it again. WIll it be a new P&S, DSLR, a new feature/technology or something even better?

I, for one, have liked what I have seen so far from Pentax. The totally out of the box thinking of the K2000, in black and white, and the two new P&S models jhust released.

<tongue_in_cheek>
Advertise on American Idol with a marquee celeb.
</tongue_in_cheek>

Silly? Maybe. Expensive? Probably. Visible? Heck yeah.

But think about it. Pentax has a good line of DSLRs & lenses and P&S cameras for their target market. They have all but explicitly stated they are not gunning for the professional/commercial photographer market. All they really need to kick start (again) the bottom line is visibility and shelf space.

Having "the best" widget of a given genre has never won the day when it comes to moving product off the shelves. Marketing always trumps quality. Just look at the Ford Pinto, Chevy Chevette and the Honda CVCC. Now I am not comparing Pentax cameras to those automotive lemons - I merely bring them up because all three were piece of crap cars and all three flew off the dealers' car lots in the 70s. Another example would be Craig Audio - utter crap but they had the marketing and the shelf space and all the "cool kids" had a CRAIG in their Pinto Street Rod.

Pentax needs consumers, period. And consumers don't care about fast primes, 24million legacy lenses or whether the shake reduction is in the body or in the lens. They don't read trade magazines Consumers do like the underdog though, as long as he's cool and readily available.

The only WOW that Pentax needs is for the general public to once again say "Wow, he's got a Pentax."

Advertise it (and back it up with inventory) and they will come.

[Wheatfield]

What I'd like to see, and what I think would impress a lot of people, is a compact DSLR that doesn't try to be everything for everybody.
Small, an excellent build quality to match that of the Limited lenses, with a basic feature set designed for the enthusiast, not for the tyro.
I'd also like to see the lens line fleshed out, but frankly, this isn't a WOW thing, this is just something they should be doing if they want to be called a camera company.
One of the things I've noted when I have beverages and camera talk with the Nikon and Canon boys that I spend time with is how impressed they are with the Limited lenses, and how unfair they think it is that they can't get anything like them from Canikon.
A body matching the philosophy of the Limiteds (compact and high end build and performance) would be a product that would get attention.
What won't wow anyone is a fleet of low end cameras, and unfortunately, the present trend seems to be lowering the bar, and then lowering the cameras to meet the new expectations.
I really think Pentax needs to go the other way.

[soccerjoe5]

Wheatfield > I like that idea. Maybe a K-m Limited or something! Compact and solid! (maybe slip in a bigger VF). That'd be awesome.

[navcom]

....I really think Pentax needs to go the other way.

Great point. If the lens product base increases, the camera bodies will follow. Heck, the K20D in my mind is pretty much at the professional level. If they expanded their LTD products and zoom offerings, a LTD camera body would surely follow. And then folks would have one less reason to go with a comparible Canikon system.

[ryan s]

I'd like Pentax to do some marketing.

I was talking to a friend last night (she likes taking pictures, has a bridge cam, but doesn't know what the F means or ISO etc) and she said Best Buy has a Nikon-something SLR package for some price. She won't order over the internet for the same reasons my parents used to give back in the mid-90s when the net became mainstream...losing CC info, lost packages, etc.

She even wanted a Sony Alpha series because it has a tilt screen like her Sony bridge. Despite expensive lenses, terrible handling, and basically incompatibility with anything else out there...that ONE feature sold her. Had I not told her, she would have bought one at BB.

And...I'm still looking at that 6 page Christmas Nikon ad most people got (it's still sitting on the desk).

I try to steer people towards Pentax, but they say they just want a Canon or Nikon. Even after laying out the features, benefits, image quality, ergonomics, etc, people still won't go with a brand name they've never heard of. I say that meaning my generation, born in the 80s.

So, dear Pentax, go and make thyself known as a household name once again. Before creating the K1DmkVIIv3.5.32.690, create brand recognition and loyalty.

[Buddha Jones]

I'd like Pentax to do some marketing.

AMEN!!


So, dear Pentax, go and make thyself known as a household name once again. Before creating the K1DmkVIIv3.5.32.690, create brand recognition and loyalty.[/QUOTE]

I would love to know how many new members we get a day/week versus how many converts we lost in that time frame.

[Vylen]

Hm yea, i never really did consider Pentax till i did my research on camera's available on the market.

Like, Sony has amazing marketting on their consumer goods. Over at David Jones, Sony has an entire section dedicated to them, glass enclosures showing off their cybershots and alphas and even some of their accessories!

Nikon and Canon have their names - people just come to them cause well, too many people have them so word travels..

Pentax would lead the way if people saw them. I think the limited White K2000 might actually grab people - people enjoy gimmicks and limited stuff (so i guess they ARE trying to do some marketting)

[elkarrde]

indeed, pentax name in less known than competition.
over here, we all got olympus 6-page, full-color, bright, colorfull ads, they were inserted in all major newspapers. not a word from pentax, although, all major tech-supermarkets in all bigger cities are equipped with full range of pentax p&s, cameras, lenses and accessories.

tilt screen would be really nice, i even thought about getting oly E-330 because that one feature only, as a second camera, for low-to-the-ground and high-over-the-audience shots. i would love that from pentax.

[brucestrange]

I'm in the EVF camp. I think that would be the biggest wow, and the wow I'd like the most. I love my K20D, but I'd like a little street shooter to go along with it. The mock-up of the new Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera looks like it's going to make quite a splash with it's retro stylings. I don't care as much about stylings, unless it raises Pentax's profile and resources, but I do like the compact size of the Micro Four Thirds. I'm simply not excited about the Four Thirds sensor size, with it's bigger depth of field, and increased noise. Plus the lenses for the Four Thirds system are expensive and few. I can't see that changing with the Micro Four Thirds. I know Samsung has already hinted at an EVF, but I just want to make sure there is compatibility with the K mount, either through an adapter or the actual camera body. Samsung indicated it would introduce a new mount. I don't know if they'd be so interested in an adapter. I feel like Samsung is ready to ditch Pentax and do it's own thing. Maybe that's just me. Now I'm started to stray off topic. While I'm there, my dream is that Samsung, being a bigger company than even Sony, will buy Pentax and make cameras with the K mount. But who knows.

[Vylen]

While I'm there, my dream is that Samsung, being a bigger company than even Sony, will buy Pentax and make cameras with the K mount. But who knows.

Nope, Hoya owns Pentax... or rather Pentax is Hoya... ever since 2007 and I don't think Hoya will sell off the Pentax name (since they were nice enough to keep it).

[annod]

I wonder if there are more Pentaxians who like to use/buy old manual lens than Nikon/Canon users.

I am a new Pentax user. Having SR compatibility with old manual lens was a big draw for me (and the 3D image quality that people talk about. I still have to verify that for myself).

But old manual lens purchases isn't gonna make Pentax any money. (I have 3 lenses, only 1 is old though.)

I wonder what makes more money for the companies, lenses or bodies?

[Rush2112]

*cough* touch screen *cough*

I can't keep enough dust or fingerprints off any of mine

Carl

[heatherslightbox]

Something else that would really interest me would be a new more ergonomic grip for the K20 that could be easily swapped out with the original one. I know that they were doing something like that at Photokina. If I could send my K20 to Pentax USA and have them swap out the grip for a nominal fee, that would be great. See the following link to see what I mean...
K20D redesign?: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

If I could do that, then I wouldn't even worry with getting a new body for a good long while.

Heather

[NicholasN]

If Pentax release what you all want, a FF camera with EVF blah blah blah and leave you with a sh*tty range of lenses, your gonna be stuck in a corner with a great body and crap lenses.

Canon and Nikon own the market because everyone knows they have every lens for everybody. Regardless of price and quality, they got it.

If Pentax does that (and does some damn advertising to let people know it actually bloody exists) they'll be heading in the right direction.

[nostatic]

If Pentax release what you all want, a FF camera with EVF blah blah blah and leave you with a sh*tty range of lenses, your gonna be stuck in a corner with a great body and crap lenses.

What's missing? That any significant number of people would actually buy?