[Jonathan Mac]

Product strategy - how about creating the best APS-C cameras on the market, now that Canon & Nikon have deserted the high-grade APS-C field, and a range of superb lenses designed for the format that they will be used on in order to provide quality and appropriate size?

[RobA_Oz]

Product strategy - how about creating the best APS-C cameras on the market, now that Canon & Nikon have deserted the high-grade APS-C field, and a range of superb lenses designed for the format that they will be used on in order to provide quality and appropriate size?

That's an interesting observation, although I would have been tempted to call it a market strategy, rather than a product strategy. In truth, it probably straddles both.

Reichmann is the sort of person Ricoh should be talking with, because he influences a lot of photographers' thinking. Not everyone is a fan, of course, but there's no doubting he's influential in the market segments we're talking about.

[ElJamoquio]

Product strategy - how about creating the best APS-C cameras on the market

They've had the best APS-C cameras on the market for years, already.

[Uluru]

I think many will finally understand the strategy once they see the new 645D, the FF, the K-3, and the new mirrorless cameras. Before that happens, many have a difficulty imagining Pentax because the gaps in the product line are wide. It does not look a coherent, strategic lineup or, the linear thinking many are expecting and, in fact, consider normal and conformable.
Pentax lineup apparently does not make sense; people's thinking is tied to linearity of camera and sensor sizes. Thus while others have apparent continuity of linearity (say Nikon: 1", APS-C, FF), Pentax has 1/1.7", APS-C, MF. With clear gaps.
To people that is odd, confusing.

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Last edited by Uluru; 02-27-2014 at 01:27 AM.

[mikeSF]

i enjoyed the article and he was pretty tough on most every brand, so his comments about Pentax did not deviate from the tone of the article, IMO. Not sure why he cares so much about the Q.
He did note the quality of Pentax glass; mentioning only one other, Leica, for their "finest" lenses.

[Rondec]

I think he makes some good points. I do think there are shifts getting ready to happen that will frustrate traditional SLR shooters. I think, at least at the low end, that EVFs will start to replace OVFs. The question as to "strategy" for these players is more difficult. Pentax is an APS-C camera maker with a nice line up for APS-C. They happen to make a 645D camera as well and have a decent line up of lenses (some of them older) for it. Even if Pentax releases a full frame camera, that doesn't really feel like a long term strategy, but just an enlargement of their market. To be successful, I believe that they just need to have slightly nicer cameras than Nikon for the same price and get them into stores where consumers can handle them. The K3 is a nice example of such a strategy, as compared to either the D7100 or the 70D.

[Na Horuk]

Interesting article, and some great points made in this thread, about the Q line and how the K-3 does offer some innovation.

[Uluru]

I think he makes some good points. ...

Like many people in the world of digital imaging, Mr Reichmann is confusing
1) tools
2) process of imaging and
3) the photograph

and does not seem to find any sense on the store shelves. Because many, including him, have forgotten that a photograph is only a printed image and the experience of recollection of the memories that it evokes is the only real photographic experience, which cannot be bought on the shelf.

So that what he is talking about is only a digital gearhead geekery and frustration because he's lost. And 99% of the ramble in this forum is, anyway, the same aimless wandering in the thick and dark forest of the digital purgatory.

[RobA_Oz]

Like many people in the world of digital imaging, Mr Reichmann is confusing
1) tools
2) process of imaging and
3) the photograph.

I don't think you can reasonably draw that conclusion from this article or his other published work. The point of the article was not about how people used their cameras, but about the manufacturers of the cameras and their relationships with the market.

[Dr Orloff]

Product strategy - how about creating the best APS-C cameras on the market, now that Canon & Nikon have deserted the high-grade APS-C field, and a range of superb lenses designed for the format that they will be used on in order to provide quality and appropriate size?

That is the only obvious strategy (at the moment) in what Ricoh are doing. I see a couple of potential issues with that strategy. The convergence in price between high end APSC and entry (still pretty high end) full frame. The other fast emerging players. If I were eyeing the competition I would be more concerned about Fuji - superb lenses and compact bodies is not a Pentax monopoly, the fall and rise of Olympus possibly. I hope we will see a clear idea soon of what lies in store.

[Uluru]

I don't think you can reasonably draw that conclusion from this article or his other published work. The point of the article was not about how people used their cameras, but about the manufacturers of the cameras and their relationships with the market.

It is easy for him to write about manufacturers. Because 99% of his readers and readers elsewhere can only understand that. Because they all live within that same thick forest.
So his aim is pointless from the beginning, and if he does not come to any conclusion, that is because it wasn't any even to start with.

[Rondec]

Like many people in the world of digital imaging, Mr Reichmann is confusing
1) tools
2) process of imaging and
3) the photograph

and does not seem to find any sense on the store shelves. Because many, including him, have forgotten that a photograph is only a printed image and the experience of recollection of the memories that it evokes is the only real photographic experience.

So that what he is talking about is only a digital gearhead geekery and frustration because he's lost. And 99% of the ramble in this forum is, anyway, the same aimless wandering in the thick and dark forest of the digital purgatory.

I suppose. I think he is talking about things from a business standpoint. Sony, for instance, really has confused going from alpha to SLT to NEX and now to FE mount. Sure, you can mount any lens on the A7r with an adapter, but surely Sony has to hope that folks will actually buy Sony lenses to shoot on their camera bodies.

As to the whole photography = memory thing, I wish that was true. I think few people print photos, few scrapbook them -- most are posted to some internet black hole, never to be seen again. At least if you print four by sixes and stick them in a shoe box, some day your kids may happen on it and re-experience old memories. As it is, the best we can hope for is that they'll happen on a decrepit hard drive and be able to dredge photos off of it. Seems less likely somehow...

[monochrome]

What did the iPod and iTunes do to the audio equipment business? That might be a kind of guide to what is coming.

[Tony Belding]

I liked the article, and I think he is on-target with the majority of it. As for Pentax... He said their strategy is an "enigma" to him, not that they don't have one. Those of us who've been watching Pentax more closely can probably shed some light.

Their Q series mirrorless isn't taken seriously...

But he makes that sound like a bad thing? It's a fun camera! The zillion different colors should have been a tip-off to that. Every camera in the world doesn't have to be a high-spec, high-performance, professional (or "prosumer", haha!), SERIOUS photographic implement. It can be a gadget. It can be a digital lomography cam. Who else is making cameras like that besides Pentax? Anyone?

It's pretty clear Pentax are going for the outdoors adventure crowd with DSLRs. All the other companies are getting into weather sealing now, but Pentax was there first, has more WR lenses, and has weather sealing on the entry level cameras. He's right that they do need to come up with something new, though.

[derekkite]

What did the iPod and iTunes do to the audio equipment business? That might be a kind of guide to what is coming.

Watching how one of my co workers uses the IPhone camera, I think it has already occurred, and that is where the disappearance of the compact camera comes from. He is constantly taking shots and immediately sending them to his wife or friends.

I use the camera on my phone constantly taking shots of details on the jobs I'm working on. The limitations of the phone are an issue; I like the idea of doing a wide angle shot of high resolution that I could then pixel peep to get the information I need, the phone is not good enough. But the ease of use trumps; to take a shot with my K-3 requires a huge number of steps before it gets to where I want it. That is fine for photography that I do, but for work use it is not good enough.

The O-FC3 card might change this. I've used the internal JPEG engine in my K-5 and K-3 a handful of times no more, but if I can quickly transfer something while shooting I may use it finally.

Itunes and Ipod were workflow fixes. Digital cameras, we forget, became popular due to the workflow improvements. It is a matter of finishing that process.