Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 
Log in or register to remove ads.

Showing results 1 to 25 of 126 Search:
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 07-08-2011, 07:26 PM  
K-5 dissed by Consumer Reports...
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 71
Views: 21,719
JVC was never a division of RCA. It was and still is a division of Panasonic. It was indeed movies, or lack thereof, that sank Beta. After RCA marketed their machines aggressively, more consumers bought VHS than Beta, and the movie companies responded accordingly by releasing more movies in VHS than in Beta. The video stores also had more movie rentals in VHS than in Beta format. When people bought their first VCRs, they asked what their friends bought so that they can share movies and videos. That further doomed Beta. Eventually, even Sony marketed VHS machines. Since Sony dropped the Beta format, innovation stopped abruptly.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 07-08-2011, 05:01 AM  
K-5 dissed by Consumer Reports...
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 71
Views: 21,719
I remember them. I went into a photo store and the salesman tried to sell me one, pointing to a satisfied customer standing next to me, who nodded. Having owned a Yashica SLR with Contax mount, I hesitated because I had a ton of trouble finding good lenses for my camera when I first got it. Non-photograpy magazines often do not have the same experience as photography magazines as to the importance of "systems." It does not matter how well a camera tests, you are buying into a system.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 07-08-2011, 04:43 AM  
K-5 dissed by Consumer Reports...
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 71
Views: 21,719
It is a myth that Beta was better. It wasn't. The Beta cassette was a design mistake. It could not hold a full length movie, unlike the 2 hr VHS tapes. Therefore when someone rents a movie and plays it on Beta, it had to be played at a lower speed (equivalent to 4 hr. speed or LP mode on a VHS machine) than a VHS owner playing the tape at SP mode, surrendering any advantage Beta may have in picture quality because of the lower tape speed. Further, the video heads of Beta machines are always in contact with the tape, so you can wear out the video heads just by winding and rewinding the tape without playing it. The VHS machines do not suffer from the same problem, as the tape is withdrawn from the drum when winding or rewinding tape.

RCA was really aggressive in pricing the VHS recorders, while Sony was pricing theirs higher. There was also competition in the VHS market, with JVC, Hitachi, Fisher, Panasonic, RCA, and others competing against one another. Sony had the market to itself and only allowed Sanyo to sell low end recorders. Beta was therefore more expensive. When VHS lowered the recording speed to allow 6 hours and even 8 hours of recording time, Sony had to respond by making the tape thinner (and therefore easier to break) to come close to the same capacity. Super Beta gave Sony a temporary edge in quality, but it was soon matched by Super VHS.

The thing that really sank the Beta format was video stores. They weren't going to stock both formats so they picked the one that most people owned: VHS. Beta was doomed.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 07-07-2011, 03:20 AM  
Ricoh to buy Pentax camera business from Hoya
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 738
Views: 133,352
Canning the K mount would defeat the purpose of buying Pentax. Ricoh did not make any lenses. It rebadged them. Some of the Ricoh lenses were clearly identical to Vivitar Series 1 lenses and were made by Kino Precision. Others may be made by somebody else. Ricoh therefore has nothing to resurrect. Minolta did not survive because Konica bought it. Konica used to be an SLR camera maker (one of Japan's big 6) but stopped selling them in the 1980's. Konica bought Minolta primarily because of the copier business. WHen Minolta priced its first DSLR too high and sales tanked, Konica decided to just get rid of Minolta.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 09-17-2010, 03:57 AM  
The $1699 Pentax dilemma..!!!
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 42
Views: 8,213
That is not all. The D7000 has an aperture coupling ring. That means AI and AI-S manual focus lenses will meter with the camera. Pentax took away the aperture coupling ring years ago when it introduced the *ist D, and it has not put it back in any of the DSLR cameras to date. The K5 would be a good place to start. The D7000 also has GPS connectivity, something only Sony has matched with its new cameras. Both Canon and Pentax are lagging far behind.



You have a point. The in body shake reduction is an attractive feature that many Nikon users openly envy, but Nikon does have some sharp lenses for those who can afford them, such as the 400mm f/2.8. Nothing like that in the Pentax catalog.



Americans buy these cars because they are status symbols for the middle class, not because they are sporty. The Mazda 6 and its predecessor the 626 are geared more to the enthusiasts, but they sell poorly in a market dominated by Toyota and Honda.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 03-12-2010, 12:18 AM  
FF in 2010?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 635
Views: 105,991
Yes, if all or most of your lenses are the DA and DA* variety. FA, F and manual focus lenses will work fine on a full frame. In fact, Canon full frame users have been using Carl Zeiss Contax SLR lenses on their cameras. Some are even using K mount lenses with adapters. It is a myth that the FA lenses are not suitable for full frame. Nothing can be further from the truth.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 03-12-2010, 12:15 AM  
Pentax K-5 (?) - new camera this year
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 359
Views: 140,204
They could just put the 12mp sensor from the K-x into the K-7 body and call it the K5. It has fewer pixels than the K7, so it is in between K7 and KX. I think a lot of people would like that, because the K-x sensor has lower noise, but they want the extra features and performance of the K7 body. If it is lower priced than the K7, that would be icing on the cake.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 02-10-2010, 12:59 AM  
645D is here ...
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 810
Views: 170,194
Me too I don't think it is a 645D. It looks too rectangular than the squarish 645D. Besides, Pentax may be using Sony's 24mp full frame sensor for a full frame. It could sell for between $2k and $2.7K. That would make a lot more sense than a 645D that may sell a few hundred copies if Pentax is lucky.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 12-14-2008, 10:14 PM  
Poll: Full frame K20D in 2009? Vote now! Yes or No.
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 232
Views: 39,761
The original question is not whether you would buy one, but whether you would like to see one introduced. Full frame prices for now are still high, too high for most people, but they cannot come down unless more companies are making them so that there is more competition. FF models with more than 20mp used to cost $8,000. Now there are two of them for $3,000 or less because of competition.

So, yes I would like to see a Pentax full frame, even though I won't be buying one in all likelihood.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 10-15-2008, 07:59 AM  
Samsung reorientation?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 68
Views: 10,802
Profit margin is good for FF, and also good for medium format. The question is: if people think that a $3,000 FF is too expensive for a bad economy, then how about a $10,000+ price tag for a medium format camera in a bad economy? Most pros shooting medium format are using Hasselblad or an interchangeable back. To woo these pros to a Pentax 645D with a fixed camera back and a new set of lenses, the Pentax 645D must be a very compellng camera. So far, the announced specs for the Pentax 645D put it at the low end. That means most of the potential customers will be amateurs looking for better image quality. In a bad economy, there are very few amateurs who would spend that sort of money on a camera.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 10-15-2008, 07:12 AM  
Samsung reorientation?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 68
Views: 10,802
We don't know if Samsung wanted to buy Pentax or not, but by the time Pentax announced the merger with Hoya, even Pentax's own management was unable to stop the deal. That means even if Samsung had wanted Pentax, it would not have been possible. Samsung can presumably buy the Pentax camera operations from Hoya now, but I think Samsung may want to wait and watch Pentax wallow a little more in red ink and then get it for a lot less money.




Yes, definitely. Samsung is unable to lower prices to increase market share. When the K20D was announced, Samsung announced a lower price for its own version of the camera, but had to raise it to match Pentax's price. K20D sales were disappointing, and the rest is history.






QuoteQuote:

Pentax and Samsung Partnership Not Perfect - PhotographyBLOG

Do note that the goal of magazines and journalists is to exagerrate the negative parts, to focus on the bad things. Because this sells magazines, this grabs attention. One does not want to read good news, only bad news. It is interresting that they start out with the "bad news" and makes a headline out of it, when the "bad news" only takes up ONE SENTENCE of the article... This is just how journalists works. No matter of small those "bad news" are, they are always more important than good news, no matter how big the good news are.





That is quite true. As they say in good old England, no news is good news. In fact, when you see a news report of a car race, you would most likely see video of a crash, rather than a brilliant passing maneuver. The news folks even mistakenly think that the tens of thousands of people who showed up to watch car racing are there to wait for a crash!



The on line discussion forums are just like a group that hangs around the water cooler or the coffee machine. They gossip. Sometimes somebody spreads a vicious rumor. But that is no different from most human interactions. So, online forums simply mirror the human condition, rather than being an unpleasant subset of it.



It is not even full frame, but Samsung is saying it is going to go full frame. There are rumors that Pentax does not want to have a full frame DSLR. If true, that could be a source of conflict.



It remains to be seen whether Pentax can successfully market a 645D with an expensive Kodak CCD sensor. I think Pentax is just testing the market with such a leak. It could be financial suicide to release a medium format digital that costs 5 figures and the economic slow down kills any demand for it.



AF, metering etc. are like lipsticks. The sensor is the main attraction.



Actually it costs the same as the Sony 10mp sensor. The real reason the KM does not have the Samsung sensor is product differentiation.



OTOH, I think you are ignoring the tensions between Samsung and Pentax. As the Pentax exec. himself acknowledged, there are issues between these two partners. It is quite possible that Samsung may buy Pentax, or alternatively it may want to partner with someone else, such as Cosina and build its own DSLR cameras. Cosina builds the manual focus FM10 for Nikon, so it is possible that Samsung can partner with Cosina and build a DSLR with a Nikon mount, in addition to the Pentax mount.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 10-11-2008, 10:46 PM  
Samsung in Taiwan
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 16
Views: 3,993
That would be interesting. Perhaps Samsung could produce multiple bodies with different lens mounts. That way they don't need to supply users with any lenses.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 10-11-2008, 10:42 PM  
Samsung reorientation?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 68
Views: 10,802
That would make the medium format DSLR very expensive, since large CCD sensors are very expensive to make.



Pentax did not show a new DSLR, just an entry level remake of the K100 with the 10mp Sony sensor. Apparently Samsung was not interested in that camera.



That is what Pentax is doing now. Buying sensors from both Samsung and Sony.



Samsung could not have bought Pentax. The old Pentax management sold Pentax to Hoya before Samsung had a chance to bid.



Correct.



$3,000 is a lot of money for a FF camera. But medium format costs a lot more than $3,000. If ff is a bad idea for a bad economy, then medium format is even worse.



Prestige does not pay the bills. Mamiya had a prestigious medium format camera and had to sell its camera business.



It is what Pentax needs: an entry level model. Pentax shouldn't have discontinued the K100D, its earlier entry level model.



Don't bet your mortgage on that.



That remains to be seen. It may fail, or it may be successful. It depends on the price, size and the competition.



Pentax entered the partnership because Samsung could supply electronic parts at low prices to Pentax. Without the partnership, cost will rise. If prices do not, then profits will fall.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 10-04-2008, 12:31 PM  
Pentax interview
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 196
Views: 30,382
Full frame, if it is announced, will seriously hurt the DA* lens sales. These lenses cost a lot of money and they are designed with a small image circle or they are optimized for best performance in the center of the frame even if they cover full frame. Pentax, even if it is working on a full frame body, would not want to hurt DA* lens sales by announcing full frame body development. The 645D announcement is a smoke screen, designed to deflect attention from the full frame. The medium format market is small and it is overcrowded with the recent announcement of the Leica S2 and the rumored entry of Nikon. Pentax would lose its shirt if it jumps into the 645 market.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-29-2008, 07:07 PM  
Future laid out by Pentax -- no full-frame
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 158
Views: 25,807
Nikon has not discontinued the D300. It has just introduced the D90, which has some nice features from the pro bodies, such as GPS connectivity and of course the gimmick of HD movies. Canon has just announced the 50D. Sony is still selling the A700. The APS-C market is crowded and there is no sign that any of these 3 companies is going to abandon the APS-C market soon. In fact, they have priced their full frames at $3K or near it to make sure both a higher margin for the full frames they sell and to make sure they will be able to charge a bunch for the APS-C models.

Pentax has a way to go to even catch up to the D90, 50D and A700, since all of these cameras can shoot faster than the lethargic 3fps of the K20D. That means it would have trouble selling any DSLR camera for more than the D90's $999 price, even if it improves the speed of the K20D successor to 5fps. Not an enviable position to be in for anybody.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-29-2008, 06:57 PM  
Future laid out by Pentax -- no full-frame
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 158
Views: 25,807
That is simply not possible. No matter what is done to the APS-C sensor, it cannot rival full frame image quality. The K20D already outresolves a vast majority of lenses, adding more pixels to the sensor will not deliver more resolution to the prints, only more noise. Not adding pixels mean that it is easily outclassed by the Sony A900 and Canon 5DMKII in the market place.



That would be a mistake. The future of DSLR cameras is full frame, and Pentax would not have much of a future if it does not have a full frame model. Even Sony has a full frame DSLR.



The full frame market is expanding. It is far from crowded. True, there are now 5 full frame models from 3 different manufacturers, but Nikon alone has 4 different APS-C models: the D40, D60, D90, and D300. The APS-C market is even more crowded, and the profit margins are slimmer because of all that competition.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-26-2008, 12:28 PM  
Leica opens a door for Pentax
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 96
Views: 13,273
Building a medium format camera is nothing amazing. Mamiya did it a few years ago with the ZD.



Yes, and that could be its downfall. Hasselblad has medium format cameras with sensors that are nearly 60mm x 45mm. Hasselblad cameras can theoretically go all the way to 6x6 in sensor size, although most of the time the extra sensor real estate will be thrown away by cropping.



The 5DMKII just made the 1DSMKIII pretty much obsolete. A replacement camera will probably be 30+ megapixels. That means the 645D will need to be about the same resolution. A 30+ CCD sensor would cost too much for the 645D to be sold below $10,000.



The rest of us must be rich enough to pay for a camera in 5 digits.



The Contax N digital did not have "sensor" problems.

Contax N Digital Review

"The Contax N Digital produces images of outstanding quality that in my tests supersedes any current 6-megapixel SLR and holds up very well against Canon 1Ds and even Kodak DCS Pro Back mounted on Contax 645 body. Partly due to outstanding Carl Zeiss optics and partly to developed by Kyocera thin low-pass filter that eliminates light frequencies that produce image artifacts common in digital images."

The problem seems to be the rather subpar in camera image processing. This is the same problem that plagues the Mamiya ZD and most other medium format digital cameras. Pentax will probably excell in this area since it has proven itself capable of good image processing in its DSLR cameras. What Pentax probably needs is a cheaper sensor to compete with a possible Nikon entry, which would most likely use a Nikon designed CMOS chip.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-24-2008, 04:03 PM  
Pentax products at Photokina - disappointment or admiration?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 252
Views: 32,995
The macro flash looks like one of the old ringflashes Pentax used to sell, updated to P-TTL. Nothing revolutionary like the Nikon i-TTL macro flash introduced years ago. Such a simple update should have been made 2 years ago when Pentax abandoned support for TTL flash.



It looks like Pentax is allergic to lenses 400mm and longer. Pentax used to sell 600mm and 1200mm lenses. Now its longest lens is a 300mm. Very disappointing.



The advanced pro-sumer market is now dominated by full frame cameras like the Sony A900, Nikon D700 and Canon 5DMKII. Pentax has nothing in this category to compete. Looks like Pentax needs some serious catching up to do to even compete in the pro-sumer category. Full frame lenses are easy enough to produce. It is the DA lenses that are taking Pentax all this time to develop. It took Pentax about a year to come up with an entire series of SMC M lenses to replace all the K lenses introduced with the K2, KX and KM. So it should not take much longer than that to come up with a new series of full frame lenses. If they stick with APS-C, then they would need to sell their cameras for less than the Canon 50D, a 6+ fps, 15mp camera with low noise at high ISO settings. Even if Pentax is content at being a niche player, it is not an easy niche to be in.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-19-2008, 06:24 AM  
Will Pentax have an answer for the Canon 5DMK2?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 33
Views: 7,455
I use Pentax because it is better, not because it is a lovable loser like the Chicago Cubs. BTW, the Cubs are winning this year. The *ist D is better than the Canon 10D IMO. It supports TTL flash (no preflash); Canon supports E-TTL flash (preflash). Since the *ist D was discontinued, Pentax became another me too brand and dumped TTL flash support. The *ist D was low noised, with lovely colors, and I still use it regularly, especially if I need TTL flash. If Pentax has to rely on nostalgia, brand loyalty and sympathy to sell cameras, then it is in deep trouble. It has to be better than its competitors to do well.



Pentax did not make me-too cameras. Now it does. It has entered the megapixel race full tilt. Its cameras are now no different from the Canon and Nikon equivalents in offering preflash TTL flash only. It is copying Canon, Nikon and Sony in eliminating the aperture ring from its lenses.



Being a niche brand is euphemism for throwing in the towel and conceding defeat. If Pentax is content in being a niche brand, it may as well sell its assets and move on because it can no longer compete and it will go further downhill from now on. Pentax should instead work day and night to catch up, and bring back TTL flash so it is once again ahead of its competition in at least this one category. Users of other camera brands are complaining about the preflashes causing people to blink. Pentax can eliminate those complaints by bringing back TTL flash. If Sony will let Pentax use the 24mp full frame for a reasonable price, then go ahead and use it. If not, Pentax should be designing a full frame body to go with the Samsung full frame sensor under development, if it has not done so already.

Pentax has hope. It has not painted itself into a corner like Olympus, which has embraced a small sensor format and can find no easy way out, and no easy upgrade path to full frame. Olympus is digging itself deeper into the 4/3 hole by releasing micro 4/3. Curiously the micro 4/3 format is quite similar in size to the Pentax Auto 110, which has a mirror and big bright pentaprism optical viewfinder that even shames the Olympus 4/3 DSLR cameras. If Pentax brings back the 110 body and stuffs a 110 film sized sensor inside, it can trounce the micro 4/3 body. There are already lenses floating around in the used market. All Pentax needs is to add electrical contacts to the mount to update it. The cuteness factor alone virtually guarantees its success in the market place. Pentax can show the world that there is no need to do away with the mirror and viewfinder in order to design a compact interchangeable lens camera.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-11-2008, 06:55 AM  
Anyone notice the marco ring flash patent from Pentax?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 21
Views: 7,978
I heard that Pentax will announce an SMC based face cream (patent pending) at Photokina. It is well known that people with male pattern baldness often have very shiny foreheads, which reflects a lot of light towards the flash meter, causing underexposure. It seems like a problem without solution until one day a bright engineer at Pentax thought about using the Pentax SMC coating, the best anti-reflection coating in the world, and applying it to the scalp of the offending subjects. Voila! Problem solved. No more inaccurate flash exposures caused by male pattern baldness. :D
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-09-2008, 06:21 PM  
Anyone notice the marco ring flash patent from Pentax?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 21
Views: 7,978
There is a P-TTL macro flash on the market, marketed under the Promaster label. A Pentax macro flash won't be cheap, probably more expensive than my *ist D, which is compatible with TTL macro flashes that are dirt cheap on the market.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 08-30-2008, 09:30 AM  
Samsung to release Micro 4/3 competing system
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 9
Views: 3,256
Samsung will have its own new lens mount, so it could be a first step for Samsung to wean itself off of the K mount. Pentax is probably not going to get involved except may be to design/redesign some lenses and to rebadge some Samsung bodies. Since there is no mirror box and optical viewfinder, Samsung should be fully capable of making the camera from start to finish.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 08-30-2008, 09:06 AM  
Will Pentax compete against Micro 4/3's?
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 176
Views: 39,385
It looks like Samsung will compete against micro 4/3 with its own lens mount

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/35870-samsung-rele...tml#post330120
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 08-30-2008, 08:38 AM  
Samsung to release micro 4/3 competitor
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 10
Views: 4,731
According to the following article, Samsung will release a bridge camera with a new lens mount by 2010 to compete with the micro 4/3. The 14mp Samsung APS-C sensor will be used in this bridge camera

New interchangeable lens system compact digital camera system on the way

If Samsung releases a new lens mount, could this mount be the prelude to its own DSLR camera system?
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 08-30-2008, 12:57 AM  
Well, the sky *IS NOT* falling. Sorry Pentax bashers.
Posted By Anastigmat
Replies: 183
Views: 35,674
Let's see. Pentax has two DSLR models: the K20D and K200D. Weak demand for "certain models" (plural) means weak demands for all of its models. Is that the understatement of the century or what? :D
Search took 0.01 seconds | Showing results 1 to 25 of 126

 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 12:38 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top