[dws1117]

All 3? You mean Pentax, Olympus and Minolta?


j/k

OK I get the humor this time...So I'm slow.

[Mike Cash]

Please don't gang tackle me. A friend and I were discussing the current camera business. He has been around photography since high school (almost 20 years ago) and I am a relative noob. He suggested that one of the things hurting Pentax is the K-mount. He thinks that it is outdated...

Color me stupid.

When I saw your question in the subject line I initially thought it was asking if changing from M42 to K-mount had hurt Pentax. I would be perfectly happen if they would go back to the M42 mount. I've never understood having electrical communication between the camera body and the lens.

But now that I understand your question as it was intended.....No, I don't think the K-mount is hurting Pentax.

[tigrebleu]

... is because the old mount wouldn't allow to add an autofocus screw-drive pin.

That could be the reason why Canon and Nikon changed their mount in the 80's-90's. But maybe not, I'm not familiar enough with the history of these two corps.

Otherwise, the only other reason I can think of is to force old lens owners to move to the new lenses and add a profit to the monthly reports of the company, lol.

The fact that the new Canon EF(-S)-mount bodies are not compatible with the old FD-mount lenses means old lenses owners have to buy the new Canon EF(-S) 70-300mm lens in order to replace their old FD 300mm prime. A new lens sold is additional profit, even if little. An old lens kept on a new camera is no pofit.

Of course, you can always use an adapter, but, unlike the M42 to K-mount adapter for instance, the Canon FD to EF-mount adapters are often very different from just a mechanical adapter. Some include one or more glass elements that make focusing to the infinity impossible and which add a 1.2x crop factor to the focal length (besides the 1.6x crop factor already there for Canon APS-C sensors), with the resulting light loss and IQ loss.

There are some adapters without lens, which only add a few milimiters to the focal length of a lens, allow focus at infinity and don't alter the IQ of the lens. But they can be difficult to find (unless you search on eBay).

Now for the average film SLR user, searching for such an item on eBay is often too "complicated" and if such an adapter isn't available at the local photo store, they just won't bother about it. They'll move to a new lens if they feel using the old one is too complicated. Most people want "easy" to use cameras these days: they're not the advanced amateur anymore — they're people moving from the point & shoot because the DSLRs are being more and more affordable.

Pentax does advertise that all the lenses the company ever made can be used on its DSLRs (some you have to use an adapter, some not). But I can't remember Canon or Nikon advertising you can use old lenses on their bodies

Maybe Pentax has a larger base of old lenses users (I for myself moved from a K1000 to a K10D — never had an autofocus camera before) and as such, understand they should avertise a bit more their great compatibility with old lenses.

And yet, I know most Nikon DSLRs can use AI-S lenses without much penalities (quite like the Pentax A-lenses).

Maybe Canon and Nikon had to change the mount to allow the implementation of autofocus. Maybe they changed it to force legacy glass owners to buy new products. Maybe they just changed it because they thought it was better (more solid, more convenient, etc.).

Whatever the reason, I don't see any reason to change the actual Pentax K-mount, since it's a very good one. If I had to change it, I would just allow the mount to be fully compatible with all lenses using an aperture ring, so that I can use my Pentax A-50mm F/2 either on the "A" position or on the F-stops positions.

Old doesn't mean outdated, and I believe that also applies to the K-mount as well.

My two cents.