[Jonson PL]

Great idea and thread Benjamin, its super to have you with us. Nothing to ad, continue the good work.


Some comments on issues mentioned by other users in the thread :

benjikan:
Mention a fullframe camera with a 100% viewfinder to them.

Not even Canon have FF with 100% viewfinder, so that’s not gonna happen.

Pentax have hinted that down the line a FF could be a possibility. Otherwise go for the 48mm full-frame DSLR 645D.

A guess would be that the big brother to K10, is gonna be K5, and then the K1 can be reserved for a future FF.
I love the film-like characteristics of Pentax DSLRs that’s one of the reasons I’m with them. So please no changes there.


jeffkrol wrote :
bold enough to ask them if Pentax branded AND engineered cameras will still be sold in 08, or is Hoya going to chew them up and spit out the "camera division" for scrap? ..... nooooooooo.........


From a thread by tcom :

“In the actual issue of Fotointern, a swiss magazine of the photo industry is an interview of the manager of Pentax Switzerland. There are not a lot of news but here is a summary of it:

* The Pentax brand is well known in cameras. They do not want to make the mistake in changing the camera brand label due to the Hoya-Pentax merger. The cameras will still be released under Pentax brand. No further consequences on the merger is known yet”


From the outline report fresh from last week in Japan, it is reported that :

Overall net sales up 15.9 % in the Imaging System Business.
And operating income drastically improved.
So things are looking up for Pentax.

Pentax is currently third in Japan, with 10 % of the marked. And with the K10 recently out, new lens factories coming up and running, the anticipated goal of 16-20 % should be within reach in time.
If Pentax can settle as third, just behind the two big players, there is a substantial market for them, and the SLR market is far more profitable than digicam and P&S.

PentaxLife » Pentax third. Nikon first

With a full available lens assortment, and updated lens roadmap, things can definitely be boosted further. Exiting.


And to acrbill :
Yes, the K10 does support SDHC 4 and 8 GB cards.


Great forum by the way.

[GregNS]

Hi Ben,
Thanks so much for taking these requests to Pentax. We really appreciate having you around here. I can't add much to the list.

However, I do have to echo 35mmfilm_user. I would love to get my hands on a legendary Pentax AutoFocus TC (Like the 1.7x out there). I really think that there would be a solid market for these if they were to re-release them.

I know it's outside of the scope of your meeting, but I had to say it :-)

My other SERIOUS desire is for the upcoming DA300mm to have autofocus compatibility with my *IST-DS2. I am soooo hoping that they don't abandon us loyal Pentaxians who just bought withing the last couple of years and go exclusively with "in lens" AF.

thanks again.

[benjikan]

Great idea and thread Benjamin, its super to have you with us. Nothing to ad, continue the good work.


Some comments on issues mentioned by other users in the thread :



Not even Canon have FF with 100% viewfinder, so that’s not gonna happen.

Pentax have hinted that down the line a FF could be a possibility. Otherwise go for the 48mm full-frame DSLR 645D.

A guess would be that the big brother to K10, is gonna be K5, and then the K1 can be reserved for a future FF.
I love the film-like characteristics of Pentax DSLRs that’s one of the reasons I’m with them. So please no changes there.


jeffkrol wrote :
bold enough to ask them if Pentax branded AND engineered cameras will still be sold in 08, or is Hoya going to chew them up and spit out the "camera division" for scrap? ..... nooooooooo.........


From a thread by tcom :

“In the actual issue of Fotointern, a swiss magazine of the photo industry is an interview of the manager of Pentax Switzerland. There are not a lot of news but here is a summary of it:

* The Pentax brand is well known in cameras. They do not want to make the mistake in changing the camera brand label due to the Hoya-Pentax merger. The cameras will still be released under Pentax brand. No further consequences on the merger is known yet”


From the outline report fresh from last week in Japan, it is reported that :

Overall net sales up 15.9 % in the Imaging System Business.
And operating income drastically improved.
So things are looking up for Pentax.

Pentax is currently third in Japan, with 10 % of the marked. And with the K10 recently out, new lens factories coming up and running, the anticipated goal of 16-20 % should be within reach in time.
If Pentax can settle as third, just behind the two big players, there is a substantial market for them, and the SLR market is far more profitable than digicam and P&S.

PentaxLife » Pentax third. Nikon first

With a full available lens assortment, and updated lens roadmap, things can definitely be boosted further. Exiting.


And to acrbill :
Yes, the K10 does support SDHC 4 and 8 GB cards.


Great forum by the way.

I have already forwarded all of the links that related to user suggestions. I think Pentax didn't realise the extent and dimension of my relationship with them when they started this sponsorship. I think we may have to be a bit patient as I don't want to jump on them as soon as they come in to the studio. We'll have to give them some time to respond with the appropriate political correctness. They have been extremely considerate however in listening to some of my suggestions for improving their platform.

[benjikan]

I know...I'll have to do another self portrait with the Pentax...hee hee https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Lars]

Hello,

I'm a very satisfied K10D owner, especially after the firmware update which gave us fast access to ISO adjustments.

But if further upgrades are planned, wouldn't it be nice if one could set manual WB in a more direct way, lets say by taking a preview shot (with lever) pointing the camera on a white referens while pressing f.ex the EV-button.

Regards

Lars

[Jonson PL]

I have already forwarded all of the links that related to user suggestions. I think Pentax didn't realise the extent and dimension of my relationship with them when they started this sponsorship. I think we may have to be a bit patient as I don't want to jump on them as soon as they come in to the studio. We'll have to give them some time to respond with the appropriate political correctness. They have been extremely considerate however in listening to some of my suggestions for improving their platform.

Hi Benji,

this is fine, no rush. It’s great to have somebody who can talk directly to Pentax. I’m sure they’re gonna be happy with the sponsorship. As I already have mentioned earlier, some of your pictures simply blows the viewer away, extreme high quality.

Yes, you seem thorough in the things you engage in. I’m puzzled by the DPR ban, but it’s in the past. I guess Phil is more of a scientist type photographer, and doesn’t necessarily appreciate the real photographers.

Take your time to report back, no stress. The rest of us Pentaxiens will just wait with excitement for the PMA show in March. Sonic lenses, maybe a little glimpse of the K10’s big brother, and a new lens roadmap.

You will know a lot more about what to improve in cameras than us, so all of us tech fans may have wishes, but I’m confident that there’ll be just as much progress if you simply have a chat with Pentax in regard to things to look into.

I’m leaving for Canada tomorrow to go skiing. Great to be able to read from you in this forum.
Take care.

[Lars]

Sorry, I missed that WB already have been mentioned, but as there are no dedicated button my idea might work?

Lars

[Harald]

Sorry, I missed that WB already have been mentioned, but as there are no dedicated button my idea might work?

Lars

I think that in original *ist D it was just like you desribed it.

How about an possibility to set the RAW button work like the WB button was in *ist D? It would be just an firmware tweak.

[mutley]

Ben:
Great. I'm new to this forum so I don't know if many others have noted the problem with green button metering in Manual mode with old lenses (such as the "M" and "K").

Thanks,
Alan Eskenazi

This has been traced to the new brighter focusing screens in the K10D. In order to make them brighter, there is a discrepancy in their evenness that varies with smaller f-stops.
Using the more even dispersal of a DS screen in the K10D makes the exposure results accurate.

I wonder if there is a way to have firmware predict this, or at least be improved upon if it is different on each lens. Or maybe a different style bright screen?

Larry

[benjikan]

Hi Benji,

this is fine, no rush. It’s great to have somebody who can talk directly to Pentax. I’m sure they’re gonna be happy with the sponsorship. As I already have mentioned earlier, some of your pictures simply blows the viewer away, extreme high quality.

Yes, you seem thorough in the things you engage in. I’m puzzled by the DPR ban, but it’s in the past. I guess Phil is more of a scientist type photographer, and doesn’t necessarily appreciate the real photographers.

Take your time to report back, no stress. The rest of us Pentaxiens will just wait with excitement for the PMA show in March. Sonic lenses, maybe a little glimpse of the K10’s big brother, and a new lens roadmap.

You will know a lot more about what to improve in cameras than us, so all of us tech fans may have wishes, but I’m confident that there’ll be just as much progress if you simply have a chat with Pentax in regard to things to look into.

I’m leaving for Canada tomorrow to go skiing. Great to be able to read from you in this forum.
Take care.

Pentax just called me about an hour ago. They were a bit concerned about me in that I am not the ambassador for all of the disgruntled Pentax users of the world. They are concerned that this would become a full time job and take away from the object of the sponsorship, that being as a hands on pro shooter using Pentax to accomplish my photographic goals. They have received and read most of the feedback. They assured me that it is off to Head office Europe and from there to Tokyo.

They do however appreciate all that I have volunteered to do on behalf of all of you Gals and Guys, but they also said that "we are sponsoring you Ben and in doing so we improve our capability to provide a better product to all future users based on your feedback..."

My contact at Pentax probably spent the last two days reading all of the posts sent to me and as a result he probably didn't have the time to do what his intended job actually is...It is a very fine line that one has to walk at times between being empathetic to others and tending to ones own needs.

I am certain that in the next few months and as a result of all of the fine and well deliberated input, that we will all reap the benefits.

Best Wishes
Ben

[Lowell Goudge]

Ben

Perhaps people should do what I have done with my requests, write them directly to Pentax.

Pentax should have someone looking over all these things, unfortunately many issues seem to get a simple response. I raised the question of different ISO settings, and all I got back was "the range is 100-1600."

It seems that the people responding to questions do not themselves have any mandate but to state what is written in the manual.

There needs to be a direct access on the Pentax web site for performance enhancements, that go to someone other than a camera technition who simply replies with what the existing design specification is.

The other solution would be for pentax to make a portion of the software open for independant modification, such that users could modify button functions, or add new functions themselves, and re-complie the code.

Note that we are not dealing with firmware here, but application software. The firmware that controls things like reading and writing to the memory card, uploading software etc would remain unchanged, and people could go back to the official software at any time, but it would allow development of functions that are important to them.

[Lars]

I think that in original *ist D it was just like you desribed it.

How about an possibility to set the RAW button work like the WB button was in *ist D? It would be just an firmware tweak.

But then you loose this function. I rather wished they improved the raw button (possibility to set camera to raw and getting JPG when pushed - also that it stayed at JPG until next push)

Lars

[Harald]

But then you loose this function. I rather wished they improved the raw button (possibility to set camera to raw and getting JPG when pushed - also that it stayed at JPG until next push)

Lars

I do not need this RAW-JPEG function at all, so for me it would be nice to put this button to good use. Alternative function, switchable.

" also that it stayed at JPG until next push" isnt that allready possible or have i mistaken?

[carpents]

My contact at Pentax probably spent the last two days reading all of the posts sent to me and as a result he probably didn't have the time to do what his intended job actually is...It is a very fine line that one has to walk at times between being empathetic to others and tending to ones own needs.

I am certain that in the next few months and as a result of all of the fine and well deliberated input, that we will all reap the benefits.

Best Wishes
Ben

Well, if Pentax intends to sponsor photographers only to cater to prima donna professionals, without that benefit running downhill to the Pentax user base, it is a worthless waste of time and money. As a small company relative to the competitors, I am quite happy seeing Pentax invest its resources into consumer products rather than senseless PR.

That being said, it is quite clear that Pentax has been responsive to our requests. They specifically read our fora (dpreview at least) to which the recent firmware and probably even the K10 itself will testify. This is why I like Pentax, this is why I'm optimistic that I'll stay with Pentax.

Ben, I hope you continue to convey the idea that the way to win photographers is to make great cameras. Yes, you need some PR - but not at the expense of the product.

--Sean

[Lars]

I do not need this RAW-JPEG function at all, so for me it would be nice to put this button to good use. Alternative function, switchable.

" also that it stayed at JPG until next push" isnt that allready possible or have i mistaken?

In my K10D (firmware 1.10) set to:

- RAW+JPEG --> button have no function
- RAW --> button gives RAW+JPEG as long as I
do not change mode (f.ex Av to Tv etc)
-JPEG --> button gives RAW+JPEG as long as I don't change mode.

I missed this in the beginning and shot a lot of JPEG's when I wanted RAWLars