[UncleVanya]

The depth of confusion in this thread is unexpected.

[stevebrot]

Wondering If Pentax Is Missing The Boat

I am confident that the good folk at Ricoh know their market and have also calculated penetration and done sensitivity analysis for additional mirrorless product. They play in that space, remember? Apparently they do not see any ROI in deeper participation in what has become a fairly crowded market

As for the pros...I am not Zach Arias or the others on the list of YouTube mavens and I don't shoot their style. Horses for courses is a good rule. I considered the Sony A7 and A7R at the time I bought my K-3 and while I found the products impressive, I felt at the time and still feel that they are poorly suited to my needs and style of shooting. I like the Fuji stuff and can see a good fit for some of my shooting, but not at their price point. As for Panasonic and Olympus...not a good fit and availability no better than Pentax.

Bottom line...I shoot SLR for a reason. What is more, this particular subject (Pentax should be going mirrorless) comes up at least once a month on this site. I would suggest that if you find a mirrorless product that fits your needs, that is the thing to go with. If one wants to leverage the full capabilities (AF, automated aperture control, flash integration, etc.) of their existing K-mount lenses with a mirrorless system they will likely be disappointed, even should Ricoh emulate Sony's model. For an example of how that works, consider Sony A support on their FE mount cameras or maybe the vintage Leitz VisoFlex. The solution is not pretty and defeats the small/light paradigm.

In the end, it is obvious that...

PENTAXISDOOOMED!™


Steve

[stevebrot]

If I could get a DSLR with a viewfinder like my old Ricoh XR7, it would be no contest.

Pity that is the case. Returning to that point of excellence in an SLR requires one major change...dump PDAF or any other system that scavenges light from the viewfinder.


Steve

(...love the viewfinder in my Ricoh XR7...)

[stevebrot]

Look at Kevin Mullins and his wedding photography. He's all over the web where folks are saying how great he is and he is that good. I love his work but he's not doing anything differently than someone with a K3II and some primes could do.

...or a competent pro shooting film...


Steve

[noelpolar]

The depth of confusion in this thread is unexpected.

Reflect on that..... I'd suggest the thread is evolving in a typical manner.

(generally, all threads that are constructed around mirrorless or Sony evolve in a mostly repetitive way)

[C_Jones]

Not that this completely relevant, but for example of cameras and reviews, the K-3II (which I have) is rated higher on occasion than the Sony A6300. An instance of that is per a review at the web address below. I myself am satisfied with the DSLR type camera, features, and size as opposed to the mirrorless type.

Pentax K-3 II vs Sony A6300 Detailed Comparison

[Tanzer]

I think your point is that Pentax products are fine but their marketing seems almost non-existent, relative to other brands. I would agree with that.

[indy]

The depth of confusion in this thread is unexpected.

And disturbing. The op made an interesting point that seems to be completely ignored. A bit like trying to have a discussion with someone about the weather and getting a response about the flavor of blueberries.

[RobA_Oz]

The depth of confusion in this thread is unexpected.

This is the Internet, and you reckon that confusion is unexpected?

[Zygonyx]

I think the point has been taken back by Tanzer.

I would add that Ricoh hasn't quite yet figured out the synergies that can be obtained in building a "pro photogs network" with both photography talented and charismatic communicating persons.

On that point, answer to OP's question is alas positive...

[RobA_Oz]

I would add that Ricoh hasn't quite yet figured out the synergies that can be obtained in building a "pro photogs network" with both talented and charismatic persons.

I'd be surprised if they hadn't. I'd be more surprised if they behaved like Sony, and started splurging their surpluses on paying talented and charismatic persons to spruik their gear, before they'd received those surpluses.

[UncleVanya]

This is the Internet, and you reckon that confusion is unexpected?

The degree, not The inevitability... That's what blindsided me.

---------- Post added 04-22-16 at 11:39 PM ----------

And disturbing. The op made an interesting point that seems to be completely ignored. A bit like trying to have a discussion with someone about the weather and getting a response about the flavor of blueberries.

Great turn of phrase.

[Davidparis]

This is not another thread bashing Pentax but I've been watching a lot of videos where pros are switching from FF CaNikon to Sony and Fuji mirrorless cameras. In all case, the pros all say that the AF won't keep up with DSLRs but the lightweight more than makes up for it. Pentax DSLRs are just about as compact with decent AF.

Search You Tube and you'll see everyone from Zack Arias to Kevin Mullins giving testimonials on how great Fuji is for fashion, street, and wedding photography. Jason Lanier has his 10 reasons I switched from Nikon to Sony. In all cases, the pluses described by these pros for Sony and Fuji, Pentax has in spades. They talk about the light good quality prime lenses. Pentax Limited and FA primes are terrific! They are as good as anyone's lenses. I would put a K3II or K3 against anything from Fuji or Sony. Yeah the A7RII should crush a K3II and it had better for $3500. Is the XPro2 or the A6300 any better than the K3II? I doubt it.

Pentax, you are watching, please take advantage of this...

I say "let them eat cake" and excuse me while I go out and shoot pictures.

[biz-engineer]

Wondering If Pentax Is Missing The Boat This is not another thread bashing Pentax but I've been watching a lot of videos where pros are switching from FF CaNikon to Sony and Fuji mirrorless cameras. In all case, the pros all say that the AF won't keep up with DSLRs but the lightweight more than makes up for it. Pentax DSLRs are just about as compact with decent AF. Search You Tube and you'll see everyone from Zack Arias to Kevin Mullins giving testimonials on how great Fuji is for fashion, street, and wedding photography. Jason Lanier has his 10 reasons I switched from Nikon to Sony. In all cases, the pluses described by these pros for Sony and Fuji, Pentax has in spades. They talk about the light good quality prime lenses. Pentax Limited and FA primes are terrific! They are as good as anyone's lenses. I would put a K3II or K3 against anything from Fuji or Sony. Yeah the A7RII should crush a K3II and it had better for $3500. Is the XPro2 or the A6300 any better than the K3II? I doubt it. Pentax, you are watching, please take advantage of this...

Both DSLR and mirroless camera are the result of a compromise. DSLR bodies are larger and heavier. Mirrorless loose the advantage of size/weight saving as soon as using tele lenses, and even then mirroless is a disadvantage because it's harder to handle a larger system of a tiny mirroless body attached to a large lens. Regarding AF capabilities there are discrepancies between mirroless and dslr, dsrl liveview mode potentially could be on par with mirror-less, it's only a matter of software. So, the answer is more about suitability depending on use cases. For someone doing only landscape, street photo, portrait, family with wide to normal lenses, there is no big advantage of using a DSLR, and mirroless size/weight is appealing for backpacking. Then as soon as using longer lenses / faster AF / tracking, DSLR is still a better choice.

Then there is the marketing perspective. Currently, I think Fuji and Sony are pushing really hard on the marketing budget to get their mirrorless stuff sold, so are the tons of video review about Fuji and Sony mirrorless cameras. All those videos make me thing of advisory about stock market trading: the interest of the trading company is to have inverstors sell and buy because everytime the invertor pay a transaction fee. So if with camera system, the interest of merchants is to make you feel discontent about your current system so that you'll buy another one and so on... Please take a look at this video:

You Tube

You Tube

[Not a Number]

I would add that Ricoh hasn't quite yet figured out the synergies that can be obtained in building a "pro photogs network" with both photography talented and charismatic communicating persons.

Ricoh has their Pentax Ambassadors who are working professionals. Just ask @kenspo