Originally posted by GordonZA Then when they put the camera out, it turned out to be a strictly landscape type camera not suited to fast action.Now fast forward to 2021 and they have just released the awesome K3iii which is undoubtedly meant to be a sports camera. Has anyone else felt this frustration with the Pentax eco-system?
I also had this feeling to not understand what Ricoh/Pentax are doing, sometimes. What they (Ricoh/Pentax) consider is not a system per se, but what is built around the K mount. Each product is developed slowly, to complement the existing K mount lineup or replace one of the old products in the K mount lineup, adding or removing one or two products at a time, not more. In the short term, we can't understand what they are doing, as the "system" is built over a decade, and it seems to me it has always been like that for Pentax, slow and long. I believe it is done so to avoid that some products don't sell well (business aspect for Pentax/Ricoh) and also to match buying power of customers. Most Pentax customers aren't professionals, they have a limited budget for cameras/lenses, they also need money for other parts of their lives.., and they won't spend 20 grands on camera system the same year. So, what Ricoh/Pentax do? They make new products each year to match a $1000 to $2000 yearly budget of their typical customer. With Pentax , we have not to consider buying a full system at once, but rather be patient and think long term, and over time, one piece at a time like, a system emerge, albeit slowly.
---------- Post added 16-07-21 at 08:05 ----------
Originally posted by GordonZA Just before the K1 was released I got info from the South African distributor that the 150-450mm was about to be launched
Well, the 150-450 was released way before the K1. I purchase the 150-450 long after it was released and I used it extensively for wildlife/birding photography with my Pentax K3 (8 FPS) which was released before the D-FA 150-450. The K3 Mk III is a K3 Mk II upgrade. There is nothing not logical here, if we consider the lens being release after the camera and not the other way around.