Originally posted by MikeDSr Once you buy into a system you have a tendency to stick with that system. That is your supporting the brand. Over the years your investment in equipment grows. If you only shoot weddings you know what you need. If you only shoot portraits or landscapes or advertising copy the same is true. If you have everything you need, great. I want more choices. Within a 200 mile radius I can buy a Leica system hands on but there is not a Pentax retailer to be found and I live in an area with 1.2 million cell phone photographers.
According to the responses to my initial post it appears folks being satisfied means I should be satisfied. I did my homework before committing to my K1. I am sure I made the right choice. But I'm unconvinced Ricoh has any plans to further penetrate the US market with the brand. I understand the market's shrinking and DSLR sales are tanking. But you don't stop marketing.
In my little part of the world there are no bricks and mortar stores, the online stores have little support for Pentax and all seems doomed. However despite the appearance, the local distributor has a great website, local promotions on the website regularly give 10-15% off the price and given taxes etc, they are price competitive with overseas grey market prices. I believe that Ricoh/Pentax are providing excellent tools for photographers. The current lens line up of star lenses provides plenty of quality to the pentax shooter, in my opinion. You agreed to that quality by purchasing your K1 too. I have always been happy to invest in Pentax glass being able to afford them over the years. The future shows many lenses on the roadmap, some suit my needs , others like the recently announced 70-210 f4 do not, however the fact that it was roadmapped and delivered gives us hope for the future products. I used , and Pentax produced , the LX over 20 years because they didn't see a need for major improvements. When improvements were needed in the K1, they offered to retrofit the camera up to K1 II standard at a reasonable cost, surely another sign they do things a little differently. Regarding the US market, the ability to rent Pentax equipment, have big online retailers selling Pentax products available, seems amazing to me. Marketing is more to do with the local distributors, we have had in Pentax terms, a great deal of press with the 100 year celebrations going on around the world.
Sigma and third party support is for me not a consideration, I see them as offering an alternative to the major brands offerings and as the brands reduce their own product ranges , the ability for niche lens makers like Sigma will also reduce. If most people are able to use non sigma branded lenses with their pentax cameras, naturally the sigma company would find it uneconomic to produce lenses in Pentax mount.
I see you point on marketing, however with limited funds to spend, product development seems to be a smarter use of the money available than marketing. Nikon have invested heavily in the mirrorless product lines, Canon have announced that they will not be making any new designs for their full frame cameras as they have every lens a Canon shooter would ever need already available and all of their dollars are heading to the R lenses and marketing in the future. Sony is doing it's own thing , many others are waving the white flag.
I understand that you would prefer to have marketing dollars spent on Pentax and would like to return to the 60's where the brand had a cutting edge cachet, when The Beatles were flashing spotmatics all over the place and you could be with the in crowd with the same equipment as them. Great memories for me to have, however long gone. Embrace what we have, buy new pentax lenses, show other photographers the images you make and when they ask about what equipment you made it with, proudly tell them Pentax , the best form of marketing that we can have for the brand, word of mouth.