Originally posted by Rondec I had assumed that the target price for this thread was something in the 1100 dollar range. Clearly that is achievable, but it would be a stripped bare camera and as you say, it would be odd to pair such a camera with Pentax's current lens line up.
Yes, but that's the OP's - not biz-engineer's. And I would not say it's "clearly achievable", you cannot go too far in reducing the production costs for the risk of making a product unsaleable.
The only FF camera which managed to reach this price is, AFAIK, the Sony A7 - thanks to some extreme price reduction (wobbly mount, anyone?) and Sony's strategy to flood the market with multiple models.
Its replacement has a street price of $1600, 3 years after its launch.
The problem is, people are looking at others' old, discounted, replaced cameras and then ask Pentax to match prices with a brand new model. Launch price vs. EOL price.
Yet if Pentax would somehow do it, what's stopping those people from looking at even cheaper cameras - gray imports, second hand, suspicious e-bay entries - and claim the Pentax is not "cheap enough"? There will always be a cheaper camera.