[c.a.m]

I don't usually bother with these brand-bashing articles, but this quote is just dumb.

The fStopper's author has since responded to one of the article's comments: (Mike Smith) "Thanks for spotting that typo. It should have read: Arguably they stole a march on Fuji's strategy..."

The main text has been revised to correct the "typo."

- Craig

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Last edited by c.a.m; 04-26-2020 at 06:28 AM. Reason: Main text now revised

[RGlasel]

Being the 7th or 8th brand to bring out a mirrorless mount is a disaster bordering on the Poseidon Adventure in magnitude.

Thank you, this undeniable fact of life will make all the pie-in-the-sky ruminating look like a pointless waste of time and energy in hindsight. There was a time when collective opinions with a public profile actually steered individual behaviours and guided micro-economic decision making. That time is over.

[clackers]

Appalling article, the kind of 'Pentax is Doomed' clickbait that's been going on for years by lazy writers who don't understand what a niche brand is, and how it can survive a market decline better than the major players.

Pentax sales went up last year, Sony, Canon and Nikon have had their sales destroyed again, despite going headlong into mirrorless. Sony's camera division has been broken off, able to be sold or shutdown. Mirrorless has proven *not* to be a replacement for a cameraphone.

I did like this comment: "My K1 and KP still works great.... So how is Pentax dying or failing? Maybe it's because they're not making cameras for bloggers and youtubers who change cameras like they change opinions? I came from Fuji to Pentax and it's been the best investment I've ever made."

[Kai Theus]

I just got to chime in with my two cents on this one. I for one greatly appreciate an optical view finder: the vertigo associated with the lag of an EVF just does not sit well with me. Now, I have not recently tried a high end mirrorless camera, so it may be way better now than when I was shopping for a new camera (that was my K5II), but a fast refresh rate sucks a lot of battery power. Anyway back to the main point (or two), a mirrorless camera actually does two shutter activations when taking a picture. This means that if my K5II, rated for 100 000 actuations, were a mirrorless camera, it would be good/rated for only 50 000 pictures (don't think I will get there), but for the professionals (or those that take a lot of pictures), a mirrorless design cuts the shutter life in half. Secondly I really appreciate Pentax's on going support of the K mount, and I think a lot of Pentax users really appreciate that loyalty as well, which makes for a lot of loyalty towards the Pentax brand in return.

[MarkJerling]

Uhm, Hyundai is already doing that.

Not to be a stickler for accuracy, but Hyundai Heavy Industries is actually a completely separate entity.
Hyundai Heavy Industries - Wikipedia

They even build ships: ?????

[Madaboutpix]

(...) a mirrorless camera actually does two shutter activations when taking a picture. This means that if my K5II, rated for 100 000 actuations, were a mirrorless camera, it would be good/rated for only 50 000 pictures (don't think I will get there), but for the professionals (or those that take a lot of pictures), a mirrorless design cuts the shutter life in half.

This is interesting. How so, Kai? Could you elaborate a bit on that? Would really like to know. And does a DSLR perform two actuations, too, when you shoot it in LV? Is there a difference between my K-3 and a KP in electronic shutter mode?

[Kai Theus]

Yeah, it was a mean thing to say: cutting the shutter life in half, but when they say the shutter is rated for 100 000 shutter activations, you do only get 50 000 pictures. The shutter is normally open and the sensor feeds the picture to the evf. When you want to take a picture (let's say not with the electronic shutter), the shutter has to close in 'preparation' to take the picture, the lens stops down, shutter opens and records the information and then closes (just like a DSLR). After that the lens opens up again, the shutter opens and and the data is fed to the evf again. A DSLR operating in live view does the same thing. Now a days a lot of mirror less cameras have electronic shutters which does not wear on the mechanical shutter.

[Madaboutpix]

Thanks for the elaboration, Kai. Appreciated.

[Denver]

I have been a Pentax user for over 40 years. I do worry about the lack of innovation show by Ricoh towards the camera line over the last few years. These are tough times in the camera market. I think the brand is ripe for acquisition by a Chinese company as a way to break into the quality camera Market. Neewer and Zomei both have show that they can compete in the camera accessories market . It would be easier for them or one of the innovative optical companies to buy the Pentax brand or the Sony brand. I mention Sony as there is pressure to spin off that division to improve their bottom line. So this is something to think about. I don't think either of those brands being bought out would be bad as the Chinese companies have shown a strong streak of innovation in a wide area of camera equipment.

[clackers]

I have been a Pentax user for over 40 years. I do worry about the lack of innovation show by Ricoh towards the camera line over the last few years. These are tough times in the camera market. I think the brand is ripe for acquisition by a Chinese company as a way to break into the quality camera Market. Neewer and Zomei both have show that they can compete in the camera accessories market . It would be easier for them or one of the innovative optical companies to buy the Pentax brand or the Sony brand. I mention Sony as there is pressure to spin off that division to improve their bottom line. So this is something to think about. I don't think either of those brands being bought out would be bad as the Chinese companies have shown a strong streak of innovation in a wide area of camera equipment.

The Chinese, like investors anywhere, throw their capital at growth opportunities, the camera industry isn't that, it's down like a factor of four over the last eight years or whatever, and Canon think it will *halve* again over the next few years.

DJI bought Hasselblad a couple of years ago, but I think any corporation now trying to take over a camera company will be refused the bank loan. It will be in some respects like investing in VHS video recorders.

[Rondec]

The Chinese, like investors anywhere, throw their capital at growth opportunities, the camera industry isn't that, it's down like a factor of four over the last eight years or whatever, and Canon think it will *halve* again over the next few years.

DJI bought Hasselblad a couple of years ago, but I think any corporation now trying to take over a camera company will be refused the bank loan. It will be in some respects like investing in VHS video recorders.

My money is still on Betamax to come through in the end...

[Serkevan]

The Chinese, like investors anywhere, throw their capital at growth opportunities, the camera industry isn't that, it's down like a factor of four over the last eight years or whatever, and Canon think it will *halve* again over the next few years.

DJI bought Hasselblad a couple of years ago, but I think any corporation now trying to take over a camera company will be refused the bank loan. It will be in some respects like investing in VHS video recorders.

I think that they bought Hasselblad exclusively for marketing purposes; after all the cameras are a big selling point of drones and the core of other "novel" recording devices... something like an extra aggressive "optics by Leica" campaign for smartphones I guess?

[SSGGeezer]

Not to be a stickler for accuracy, but Hyundai Heavy Industries is actually a completely separate entity.
Hyundai Heavy Industries - Wikipedia

They even build ships: ?????

I could have told you that Mark! All under the umbrella of Hyundai's corporate parent which is known as a Cheabol in Korea. Think Zaibatsu in japan for an equivalent.

[MarkJerling]

I could have told you that Mark! All under the umbrella of Hyundai's corporate parent which is known as a Cheabol in Korea. Think Zaibatsu in japan for an equivalent.

Next thing, you'll be referring to Nikon as Mitsubishi!

[Tony Belding]

I just got to chime in with my two cents on this one. I for one greatly appreciate an optical view finder: the vertigo associated with the lag of an EVF just does not sit well with me.

Vertigo? I’ve never experienced even a hint of that with any of the several EVF-based cameras that I have owned (Olympus, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Sony). The only real negative I can say is that outdoors in the bright Texas sun they sometimes are a bit dim — though still always usable — in comparison with a bright, beautiful pentaprism. This is why I have a wide-brimmed hat. A photographer’s hat.


But here is the critical thing for me… I like manual focus. I don’t really trust the autofocus of any camera (with the possible exception of my Pentax Q7!), and I’m not sure I ever will. Maybe someday they’ll invent a telepathic camera that can read my mind and know what I want to focus on? Anyhow, I learned photography on a film SLR (Sears KS-2, AKA Ricoh XR7), and it was manual focus with a great split-prism and micro-prism focusing screen, and it was aperture priority. I liked that. That’s the shooting experience I still prefer. It’s not always fast and convenient, but when I have time I can be certain of getting exactly the shot I want.

DSLRs are pretty bad when it comes to manual focus. (Even with autofocus you have to go through an involved and tedious calibration process to get it really accurate, but that’s another rant.) The prism focusing screens I loved so much are mostly a thing of the past. When the K1 came out, it was my last great hope for a DSLR that I could fall in love with. But Katz Eye had just gone out of business, and then we learned that the K1’s focusing screen was not swappable, and I just threw my hands in the air and gave up.

A few days ago I got a Voigtländer Nokton 40mm f/1.2 for my Sony. It has manual focus, manual aperture ring, build quality like a Takumar, but also electronic communication with the camera body. So, the camera knows the lens identity, focal length, focal distance, aperture setting. It can automatically use sensor stabilization. When I turn the aperture ring, I see it change in the viewfinder, just like my old Sears KS-2 that had a little witness hole for that purpose. When I turn the focus ring, the EVF magnifies automatically. I have focus peaking in the EVF. It's a better shooting experience than my old film SLR, and Pentax haven’t produced anything that can match it.

Oh, and of course I can also see a useful approximation of the image exposure and adjust as needed. Plus I can get zebra stripes, or a histogram, or a level line, or a grid.


Whenever I use the little Q7, I'm reminded of all the things I really liked, and sometimes miss, about Pentax: the ergonomics and controls, the user interface, the DNG files, the color rendering, the in-body raw development, the intervalometer… and this forum too, which is a fantastic resource that I don’t think any other brand has anything comparable to. I liked all of those things, but I like my EVF more. A lot more. I’m not going back to a pentaprism.

---------- Post added 04-28-20 at 10:28 AM ----------

When Ricoh bought Pentax, the decision was, Ricoh took all mirrorless development. Pentax became strictly DSLRs.
Pentax is by corporate policy a DSLR company.

Actually, my understanding was that Pentax is by corporate policy an ILC (Interchangeable Lens Camera) company. Remember the K-01? Remember the Q system?


No more compacts, point-and-shoots, bridge cameras, action cameras, etc. The GR series will keep its Ricoh badge. But if Ricoh ever do a(nother) mirrorless system camera, it should be sold as a Pentax.

---------- Post added 04-28-20 at 10:40 AM ----------

The Fuji designers could have designed in a larger battery, but at the expense of extra mass, a significant relative increase in volume, and a slightly higher production cost. Of course, that approach would have bloated the camera.

Everyone complained about poor battery life of the Sony A7 series, until Sony switched to a battery that's about twice the size. Then the complaints ended.

Fujifilm: “Are… are we out of touch? No. No, it’s the customers who are wrong. Just like they are wrong to want full frame.”