Originally posted by Art Vandelay II Good point, suicidal was a bit much; I should have just said it would be pointless.
If they come out with a bridge camera to compete against the other 30 or so bridge cameras already in the market I think you can forget about calling it a niche product. It looks like Pentax is shaping up to be a niche company without any niche products. Brilliant!
I do disagree about different markets though. I totally agree with Panasonic in thinking this new style of camera will not only cut into entry level SLR sales but also bridge and superzoom sales. Smaller than an SLR, with far better IQ than any bridge camera...now that is a niche.
I think the 'nicheyness' is all in the execution. I still don't see a bridge camera as direct competition for something that could cost four times as much: the little sensors are what give you such a teeny does-all lens in a little body. I think there's always been a market waiting for something like the bigger-sensor compacts, that may have *settled* for bridge cameras for smallness' sake, but they aren't really the ones the bridge cameras, in general, are made in such quantities for.
Entry-level DSLR prices have been, perhaps, kind of artificially low as a certain market segment kind of opened up. In tighter times, will this stay quite the same? Who knows. Certainly, a lot of the bridge camera market may have been made up of people like me who, really, just couldn't afford a DSLR of any kind and had to settle. (that's why I have an FZ-7, actually, the idea being to learn this newfangled digital stuff and reduce the Ilford bill.
) Which isn't the same market as those looking for the luxury of a compact digital system with real nice IQ.
Would I like such a thing? Probably would very much, indeed, but it'd be a very expensive luxury. And there's the K-m size and little old primes if I come around to really need something little.
Anyway, the possible redundancy of a rumored Pentax bridge camera is one thing that feeds into my little pet theory that maybe some company lines are being rearranged. (I'm just bored and wishing I could be out shooting the past couple of days. It's diverting to puzzle.
) Or, well, maybe Pentax has had this thing in in the works all along, waiting for a last piece or some such. If there's anything to the idea at all.