Originally posted by angus The 645D is a godsend for all those people who had a Pentax 645 system and no digital - there are few alternatives and the glass for the 645 system is very renowned - if you will it came almost too late. A ff-DSLR from Pentax would certainly be much too late for all those who definitely needed FF. These are gone and have invested in CaNikon-gear - possibly Sony
I don't see why it would be much too late. New users come to the fold every day, many ex-Pentax users would buy a Pentax FF because they didn't want to leave the brand in the first place or because they can now use the lenses they didn't part with (e.g. FAs or Pentax's pancake primes - you see this all the time, people switch to the 5DII or D700 but keep a K20d or Kx specifically to use with their favourite Pentax lenses), and there is a continuous flux of Pentax users in various stages of their photographic development that when they reach the stage of needing/wanting a FF and have a Pentax option - most would take it.
Originally posted by angus but their attempts are not yet economically viable and Sony does have much fuller pockets than Pentax/Hoya or Pentax/Ricoh might have.
Well Ricoh (Pentax is really just a brand now) is a much larger company than Pentax was so I'm not sure how how accurate that is/will be. Ricoh had a net income of 187m thru Q2 compared to Sony's 2B loss so again although Sony is x4 bigger than Ricoh it may or may not have the resolve Ricoh
should have to make it's new acquisition successful.
Originally posted by angus It is a pretty big investment to develop a FF-camera practically from scratch as you cannot compare an MZ-5 or an LX to a digital version of the same camera - just think of the size of body you would need to incorporate the anti-shake with this considerably bigger sensor. Whether these costs could be recovered from the camera sales alone would be one question,
But it's hardly starting from scratch - it's starting pretty much as Sony did - well better actually - (and it seems their sales are very slack but they still make money) - with Pentax's history and new R&D at their disposal . The K5 is still a good base to expand upon.
Originally posted by angus whether all those people who say they would buy the cam also would buy lenses is also questionable as most argue that they already have the glass.
yes but it's not a finite limit per se. - there is a constant stream of new users, and of course buyers of glass, and if more users stay with the brand then that means less 2nd hand glass circulating and more new lens sales.
Originally posted by angus I'd love Pentax to come out with a 400/4 EDIF or a 500/4.5 EDIF, but I also don't see that on the horizon as the same rules apply - you'd have to sell enough to earn money on top of the investment and this is possible with a 645D - the pricetag suggests that - but not in the competitive market of FF-DSLRs.
In general I'd agree with that first sentence, however I'm sure a new 500/5.6 and a re-release of the phenomenal 250-600 would be successful and retain even more Pentax users who may not want a FF but do want longer glass.
Originally posted by angus I am not so optimistic as I can see all around me that people go for smaller and all-in products and not for cumbersome equipment. By the way - most DSLR-owners probably still use their camera most during their holidays (just as an aside I shoot an average of 2,000 pics/month and alas, I am not on holiday all the time....
)
I'm sure most DSLR users do take their camera on holiday .. but I'm not sure how many FF DSLR users take their camera with them (though it is probably still a high number - I know I would) !