Originally posted by cheapterrorkitty To me, these seem to be the exact same camera with a couple of sly marketing tricks to get people to pay more for the SV
Rather it was a way to sell incremental units to people who otherwise wouldn't purchase a camera at all. Most people would stretch to get the fully-featured model.
FWIW, the K1000 is another obvious example of that marketing strategy - an afterthought that intially was a commercial failure. The KM was supposed to be the bargain camera. It just so happened photography teachers figured out the K1000 was an inexpensive way to get cameras into the classroom and the rest is history.