Originally posted by Reciprocity I don't know this is the right place to start this discussion and maybe someone has asked this before, but has Pentax ever decided to relaunch a new ANALOG camera?
Because I got interested again in photography in general and my old analog Pentax in particular because of 'lomography' and the like, and I have noticed that analog film never went away completely...like vinyl records perhaps.
And the additional question: what kind of analog camera should it be?
I'm thinking myself of an analog 6x6 SLR, like a Hasselblad, but of course a Pentax one.
I think if Pentax wanted to go down this path, it would have to be in 35mm.
I think as impractical as it would be to make a 35mm SLR in film these days, that pales in comparison to making a medium format film camera...
Would you be willing to pay as much for a film version of a 645 as for the 645Z?
And in 35mm, it would still be a trick.
As far as I'm aware, Pentax never made an interchangeable lens rangefinder, and their only single-lens rangefinders were autofocus point-and-shoots (so not really rangefinders in the "hey, it has a rangefinder" sense, but only in the "you don't look through the lens" sense)
I think with their all-SLR philosophy, it would have to be a SLR.
Then you've seen the arguments already... and I don't want to spend $1,000 on a new body to replace my all manual K1000 or my "modern-ish" ZX-L...
If Ricoh were going to do anything wacky, they should introduce the digital S1.
A K1ii with a M42 screwmount instead of a K mount, in silver, with a AOCo logo.
Development cost is nearly zero. Wackiness is nearly infinite...
Though I wouldn't buy that, either...
Maybe just the silver body with some cosmetic changes and package it with a M42-K adapter ring... that's a little more practical...
-Eric