Originally posted by RiceHigh Not really. The K10D was announced Sept. last year and only that shipment was delayed and delayed until fall Nov / early Dec in last year. So, it is one year old now.
Besides, software and firmware upgrade cannot help to enrich much further the feature set and performance of the cameras, they need to upgrade the hardware also.
All Olys have LiveView, The 40D has it too, D300 and A700 has a new sensor and the trend is for a 3" large LCD mon with VGA resolution. So, what's the differentiator for the K10D to keep it competitive? There is None actually, not even to mention the thing that has been already lagged behind like the only 16-segment matrix metering with the least accuracy and intelligence. As for the K100D Super, it is nothing really "super" to compete for the entry level market - Pentax need to have at least a 10MP new low level model in order to compete.
Body is more important than lenses in order to compete for new or even old customers. Usually people will either choose on a large brand name system or to choose the body they like first and then built the system slowly and gradually.
At what price?
Canon's Rebel XTi and the K10D are priced at approximately the same point, the XTi is vastly inferior. Come on, no spot metering on a $800 body? You have to be kidding me, my $400 point-and-shoot Panasonic DMC-LX1 has that. I don't see the XTi getting refreshed. Even the K100D can eat the XTi for lunch, even though it's priced closer to the XT. Megapixels aren't everything, the Rebels are missing critical features to allow them to make use of those pixels. Oh yeah, especially because the Rebels apparently force JPEG in certain shooting modes from what I've heard. That's a "megapixel waster" right there.
LiveView - Would be nice, but I can easily live without it.
New sensor - I wouldn't be surprised if Pentax adopts the new sensor used by Sony/Nikon within a few months. This is pretty typical - Sony moves to a new sensor and starts selling the bare sensor to other manufacturers, and Pentax adapts it to their cameras a few months later. My sensor is beyond the limits of my glass anyway. It's a minor incremental improvement (A few extra megapixels without any sensor area increase). I won't be drooling for a new sensor until there's a groundbreaking improvement. (Like if Kodak's new sensor lives up to the hype when they release it.)
Nikon - I didn't see anything about the D300 that made it worth being twice the price of my K10D. Minor incremental improvements in areas where the K10D already performs fine, and with the K10D I actually own my photos. Nikon has been pulling NEF encryption shenanigans in order to set themselves up for some DMCA abuse so they can force people to use their shitty RAW converter software and not the processing software of their choice. (There is NO other reason for encrypting the NEF whitebalance and Nikons "we're doing this for your own good" response to the NEF encryption fiasco) Nikon is never receiving any of my business until they resolve that mess and apologize to their users.
Olympus - Four-Thirds is probably Pentax's biggest threat, as it enables manufacturers to band together and pool resources to generate a system of compatible accessories and optics. (Pentax's biggest problem, as most will agree right now, is glass.) If not for the reduced sensor size of Four-Thirds I would probably own an Olympus or a Panasonic L1 (Employees of my company get major discounts from Panasonic, so the L1 came VERY close to getting purchased. I just didn't see enough image stabilized glass for the L1.) I'm a bit wary of Oly since they're obsessed with their own memory card format. I'm enjoying having EVERYTHING in my apartment that uses removable storage using SD (or in the case of my phone, MicroSD which can be put into an SD adapter)
Sony - While proprietary interfaces (mounts, etc) are to be expected in the camera industry, in true Sony style, they've taken the few standard interfaces in the camera industry (such as the hotshoe mount) and replaced them with proprietary variants. I don't buy Sony in general for this reason.