Was at a photo/copier distributor event earlier today, featuring Konica-Minolta and Risograph machines. All "official" photographers were using Canikons of course, there could've been a Pentax if I brought mine - but since I'm a writer today and not a photographer, I left it at home.
However, the Konica-Minolta official from Japan (the guy with the highest corporate position in the event) was using a Ricoh GR.
Originally posted by TheOtherRob Any more options, and the customer is likely to just walk out the shop to "think about it"... and then spend their money elsewhere. A duopoly like Canikon is juuuuuuuust peachy for bigger retailers.
True. They're actually somewhat just telling the same with with Canikon models; it makes the buyers think they're actually "making a choice between cameras" when they're only choosing the BRAND.
Pentax comes along and gives them a REAL challenge of intellect as it presents buyers options the other two (or three, with Sony) don't have at the same price level. That's why I always believed first-timers who choose Pentax are almost always the ones who take camera purchases more seriously; hence more "enthusiast" even at entry-level.
To make matters specific think of this scene (like in the event you recounted in the retailer store) if Pentax were included as a third option:
sales rep: "Canon 650D has an 18MP sensor and 19 focus points... Nikon D5100 has tilting screen and many scene selections... while the Pentax K-30 has a pentaprism viewfinder and goes up to ISO25600.."
the last part of that sentence will sound like alien space mumbo-jumbo to many a first-time DSLR buyers I guess.