Originally posted by rawr Sad happening.
The A7 PONY's I think were the tipping point for many. You could mount your Pentax glass on NEX easily enough before, of course, but the A7 family adds Pentax lens friendly options with FF sensor performance.
Without a FF of it's own arriving soon, Pentax is going to struggle to hold onto - or gain - enthusiast shooters like the ones described.
Yes, its the tipping point and it happened faster than I thought.
One key reason being that the 2nd hand price of a PONY has hit around $900 (often with around $150 of freebies thrown in too)
Pentax losing a significant amount of its user base and it is a vicious cycle as the low user base won't attract more new users.
At best, it will be a realignment of user base as only those interested in a very good aps-c DSLR gravitate to Pentax and perhaps all others move away.
But, Pentax will bleed customers for the moment
Originally posted by mecrox Yes, Ebay. Plenty of segundo-mano NIKONY offers at the mo here as well for very tempting prices. No need to pay top dollar at all for body or lenses. NIKONY is a breed similar to the PONY but somewhat expanded round the middle from eating far too much hay. Pentax need more hay, though, before starvation sets in and the donkey farm hoves into view.
Those are pushed down in price too.
The only thing stopping more folks going this route is the need to buy into a full set of lenses and many still want to try and stay on Pentax in some way.
Unfortunately, Pentax does not seem to want to address these customers
Originally posted by Chris Mak I'm not sure the situation is dire for the Pentax photographers who want to go FF, it's perhaps dire from the point of view that we should all hang onto Pentax though..
Pentax decides wether we can shoot a Pentax FF camera or not, wé don't. So when an opportunity like the Sony A7(r) comes along, enabling you to keep your Pentax mount lenses and still have a tremendous FF experience, it's hardly of interest to Pentax that those wanting to shoot FF go for the Sony. It's not a group of photographers that they are presently interested in. They are presently aiming for Apsc shooters and MF shooters. They won't lose any of those to Sony I believe.
I got a Sony A7r only a week ago, and although I had rather gone for a Pentax FF with OVF and native K-mount support, I know that such a camera is not anywhere to be seen yet. In the short time that I have had the A7r, I've completely fallen for this little powerhouse, that operates tremendously well with a quartet of Zeiss ZK lenses that I invested in waiting for the Pentax FF. Metering with the aperture set on the lens and the EVF compensating for loss of light at small apertures, leads to a terrific jump in spot on exposures. 100% magnification attributed to a customizable button leads to all shots 100% in focus. It's light, small but not too and very well built which makes it a perfect travel camera. The IQ that it produces with the Zeiss lenses is way beyond expectation. In other words: getting one after much hesitating is simply a revelation, so much so, that I now prefer it to a possible Pentax FF (which would be different if I wanted a FF camera for sports or action photography, or for use with AF lenses).
So from my point of view the situation is very rosy for those that want to shoot FF: they even have three options to go for now: 12, 24 and 36 mp! The situation is very rosy for Pentax also, they have a dedicated Apsc crowd and they are now tapping into a potentially large (new) MF crowd with their unbelievably competitive 645Z. They simply chose to skip the FF crowd, pragmatically no doubt, and for releasing the A7 series, I applaud Sony.
Chris
You are right in a way.
Sometimes, I think "Why should I bother"
I should be happy.
My lenses now work on a FF and I have no worries that my extensive range of Pentax lenses will not become obsolete.
But I like Pentax, its philosophy of making photographer orientated cameras/lenses, the smallish size of the system and the great lenses.
I sure hope they not just WIN in the apsc segment but in the FF one as well
Certainly, losing customers now as what is happening is not the way forward imo.
I too got a A7 for my Pentax lenses (which is why I term it PONY; even the SONY logo is covered up with a nice Aki Asahi leather cover; and of course, no Sony strap
)
I'd still buy a Pentax FF if it comes out this year as I have enough good AF lenses to warrant it.
So I hope Pentax makes one and takes my money.