[jonlg]

I'm a huge Pentax fan and have shot nothing else since 1981, and I'm a very keen amateur and occasional pro. It was the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographer's') annual show in London this weekend and Pentax were there BUT I've just had a report from a mate who attended and said the Pentax representation consisted of a desk, two 645Z bodies and some lenses - really??? We're talking less than a month to perhaps the biggest launch Pentax has done since the Spotmatic in 1952 and this is the best they can do at a show targeted at exactly the market they need the full frame to appeal to - working pro's. At the very least I would have turned up with a couple of beta test bodies for people to hold and handle, some marketing material etc. It just seems such a wasted opportunity at what amounts to the UK's second biggest photography show and the only one targeted at the pro market. The show is very large indeed and basically takes over a whole Hilton Hotel for the entire weekend and ALL the top manufacturers attend.

If Pentax want to make serious inroads in the marketplace they absolutely have to get their act together at these things in a much more professional way, especially in the rtun up to a big launch.

Needless to say I just don't understand it - this would be a cheap way to get several thousand professional photographers and major dealers excited and engaged about FF.

Jonlg - If Pentax actually had an email address I would send them this message because somebody in Pentax UK marketing needs a wake up call...

[pathdoc]

If you were such a big Pentax fan, you would know the Spotmatic was not released in 1952.

Also, this being a wedding and portrait photographers' convention, Pentax brought to the occasion its best current-production field camera, the 645Z. Unless other medium format makers were present, it was probably the best camera in the room.

I call troll.

[monochrome]

Pentax is in the quiet period before the big reveal at CP+. Every Pentax huge fan knows that.

Feeding time is over.

[btnapa]

I'm a huge Pentax fan and have shot nothing else since 1981, and I'm a very keen amateur and occasional pro. It was the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographer's') annual show in London this weekend and Pentax were there BUT I've just had a report from a mate who attended and said the Pentax representation consisted of a desk, two 645Z bodies and some lenses - really??? We're talking less than a month to perhaps the biggest launch Pentax has done since the Spotmatic in 1952 and this is the best they can do at a show targeted at exactly the market they need the full frame to appeal to - working pro's. At the very least I would have turned up with a couple of beta test bodies for people to hold and handle, some marketing material etc. It just seems such a wasted opportunity at what amounts to the UK's second biggest photography show and the only one targeted at the pro market. The show is very large indeed and basically takes over a whole Hilton Hotel for the entire weekend and ALL the top manufacturers attend.

If Pentax want to make serious inroads in the marketplace they absolutely have to get their act together at these things in a much more professional way, especially in the rtun up to a big launch.

Needless to say I just don't understand it - this would be a cheap way to get several thousand professional photographers and major dealers excited and engaged about FF.

Jonlg - If Pentax actually had an email address I would send them this message because somebody in Pentax UK marketing needs a wake up call...

You have a valid point.

How about this one. I attended CES in Las Vegas just a few weeks ago. The attendance was at all time high of 170,000 from all over the world (50,000 international attendees). Ricoh shows up to a massive show like that with their Theta and nothing else. Ricoh's CES strategy reminded me a little bit of the Infinity car launch. They went ZEN with their TV commercials. They showed flowing water and river beds and stuff like that never the cars. By the time they wake up from this ZEN state and changed AD agencies, Lexus had stolen the show and taken a lead. Infinity never recovered from that marketing strategy and they are still trailing way behind. I hope Ricoh does better with their marketing in these massively attended shows. I was shocked when I got to the show and did not see a single camera other than the Theta on display.

[biz-engineer]

Needless to say I just don't understand it - this would be a cheap way to get several thousand professional photographers and major dealers excited and engaged about FF.

Ah ah. Pentax were/are essentially an engineering company, they are too small to be everywhere and at the same time they continue to target the wrong market (they've already lost the pro market segment).
You could compare with RED, who have a consistent marketing: they are small but they target a precisely identified pro market. In comparison, Pentax k mount is a dog, kudo the Ricoh if they can turn this around... but the chances are slim.

---------- Post added 24-01-16 at 22:02 ----------

Pentax is in the quiet period before the big reveal at CP+. Every Pentax huge fan knows that.

Yeah , they're most likely preparing for CP+. It's going to do a big bang like when you open a bottle of champagne, a small spike lost within the continuous omnipresence of Canon and Nikon pounding shelves with a wide range of camera products. You don't sell by a single event single product effort, in marketing and sales, it's long term sustained effort (after sales service as well) in building relationships that pays off.

[Adam]

I think their plan is to primarily put the FF in the hands of current and prospective 645Z owners. They have to find their niche, as competing directly with Canon/Nikon sports photographers isn't going to end well

[monochrome]

I just don't understand why we continue to compare Pentax to Canon and Nikon. They're not Canon or Nikon, and likely won't be for a long, long time (if ever). Pentax doesn't even want to be Canon or Nikon, at least not now.

So why should we expect them to market like Canon and Nikon, and find them lacking when they don't?

I think they're doing just fine being Pentax.

[jonlg]

Pathdoc,

Most definitely not a troll - but fair point on the Spotmatic, I couldn't be bothered to look up the launch date. Pentax may not wish to be Canon or Nikon but they need to shift bodies if they are to recoup the investment in their FF body and lenses. The simple reality is that the FF represents a £2000 body and with the fact most people are going to want a 24-70mm F2.8 and 70-200mm F2.8 to complement it, then in truth anybody thinking of committing to a £5000 expenditure is either:

1. A pro or semi pro
2. A very serious and committed amateur with fairly high levels of personal income.
3. Am amateur who is thinking of turning pro and is evaluating the options to upgrade from APSC to FF.

So I would argue that the SWPP is exactly the kind of event with this target demographic which is exactly why not being there is a very bad idea. This isn't about being Canon or Nikon, it's about growing pentax in a market where they need to make some serious inroads.

My pal (who was there) is a pro with an extensive Canon system. He and I are pretty respectful of each others choices of cameras, sometimes we even swap and shoot with each other's gear. He respects and likes the K3, just as I like and respect his EOS 5D MK3, but he has frequently made the point to me that Pentax have a heck of an uphill struggle to regain market share from Canon and Nikon who are attending all these events, smothering the market in a very complete range of cameras and lenses which are all very competent. The issue is that pentax marketing is too invisible. There was a guy on DP review in the past few days with an existing low end Nikon system wanting to commit to a serious camera system to advance his photography. Needless to say he had a shortlist of options that didn't even include Pentax (but did include Sony, Olympus etc) - the issue is it's not acceptable for Pentax to remain anomynous anymore - that's what got them into this mess. They need to:

a. Be visible enough that people (apart from die-hard fans) consider their product offerings
b. Offer some unique advantages over the competition that will appeal to certain users - one element might be that if you're setting up as a wedding photographer/weekend warrior that pentax might offer the same quality as Canon/Nikon but for significantly less outlay.

Btnapa - I completely agree, I cannot for a moment understand why you would pay the huge costs associated with turning up to CES and yet only show a fraction of your available and relevant product range!! They really do need to look at what they're doing with marketing...

Jonlg

[pathdoc]

I appreciate all your points. That being said, I think a particularly focused conference or show such as you mention is still not the place to launch a camera intended for general use. If we were talking about a digital-era soft focus lens, then yes - portraiture fanatics would jump at such a thing. But if you launch the FF into a portrait/wedding context, before you know it, a thousand armchair experts on YouTube, here and everywhere else will be blogging about how Ricoh Imaging sees the full-frame as weddings/portraits equipment.

As for the Spotmatic, that IIRC was first demonstrated at Photokina in 1960... but the revolutionary idea of not only the first-ever SLR with an intrinsic meter BUT ALSO a meter that could be steered within the viewfinder didn't work out all that well, and what the users got four years later was the Spottie we all know and love. Actually, apart from that prototype I STILL don't think we have a spot-metering function that can be steered literally anywhere within the viewfinder (although those cameras which have umpteen billion different focus points and can lock metering to whichever one you choose come close), so Asahi were really onto something there. A pity they weren't able to make it work smoothly!

[monochrome]

They won't recoup their investment in technology on the FF. And they don't intend to. The return on investment is in the high volume APSc bodies when the tech migrates down.

[MadMathMind]

There was a guy on DP review in the past few days with an existing low end Nikon system wanting to commit to a serious camera system to advance his photography. Needless to say he had a shortlist of options that didn't even include Pentax (but did include Sony, Olympus etc) - the issue is it's not acceptable for Pentax to remain anomynous anymore - that's what got them into this mess. They need to:

a. Be visible enough that people (apart from die-hard fans) consider their product offerings

Here's Amazon's camera lens page:



Olympus and Samsung are not powerhouses. The fact that Pentax is not on this list? They need to fix that.

[monochrome]

It all costs money.

How much more money are you willing to pay for Pentax gear in North America to see Pentax lenses in the Amazon list? What are you willing to pay dpreview (owned by Amazon) for faster, more friendly reviews?

[boriscleto]

Here's Amazon's camera lens page:

Attachment 296134

Olympus and Samsung are not powerhouses. The fact that Pentax is not on this list? They need to fix that.

Amazon? The Amazon that lists most Pentax lenses as discontinued? The Amazon that says most Pentax lenses don't work with Pentax cameras?

[Pioneer]

Amazon, Walmart, and the few Electronics super stores still alive.

These are the places where the great majority of amateurs buy the cameras.

So, since Pentax isn't there...

And Pentax isn't found at any of the Pro market shows...

Where the heck are they???

[monochrome]

B&H and Adorama.