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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-30-2009, 10:00 AM
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That's why, if anything, I'd see it as a positive. Having worked in photo retail, well, it does a manufacturer some good if those further down the chain see such a figure as someone *representing* the local consumers *to* the company, not just the other way around.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-30-2009, 09:56 AM
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Hrm, well, I don't particularly see the *name* going away, ...it certainly doesn't do me any good for, say, people to be panicking over Pentax not making competition for Micro Four Thirds when there's a DSLR about the size of an ME Super and DA Limiteds there. I saw one blog saying something to the effect of 'Pentax guy gets some street cred.' Maybe the buzz will lead a bunch of people who'd turned up their noses to actually pick up a Pentax, and see what there is about em. :)
But, yeah, even people looking for fodder for flamewars could be asking about Pentax in what's left of the retail world. Cheaper than payola. :) I would be willing to bet that what's between releases of new models and them being announced has to do with getting production together, ...I don't think they can afford another QC debacle like with the 16-50s. No one really knows what the economy's going to do, consumer confidence, not to mention cashflow, isn't the best right now, and with the recent Hoya thing, I think they need to be sure the next thing is a well-timed win.
In terms of company direction, well, I see some almost trollish agitating for things like EVF near-SLRs (from the company named after the pentaprism, no less) whole full-frame systems, (Hey, I'm all for that, eventually, ...it'd mean more full-frame lenses for film) but I'm not in that market at this point) and a general sense people are trying to scare folks off the brand. It's kind of a drawback of this relative silence from Pentax about what they're doing next, I suppose.
I mean, I'm here for the DSLRs, and the fact that these are a little different from the results of megapixel-and-features races that people kind of competitively geek out about like it was a video game console.
I mean, the K20d is kind of a consolidation of the kind of tech I couldn't afford before all this time, and someone finally sprung for the O-rings and a two dollar PC terminal. :) One thing that'd kept me *out* of other brands was that more and more of the basics one used to take for granted just seemed to be taken away from more-affordable-but-still-more-than-I-ever-spent-on-a-piece-of-kit-in-my life 'entry level' and 'prosumer' models.
I mean, if I'd been an EOS shooter, I'd have been a little cheesed off that I waited so long for the 5d to be updated, and then when they did, they compromised the image quality to make the thing double as a really lame video camera. :)
I don't mind Pentax being a bit conservative about some things... So, the live view isn't impressive. Big whoop: as long as they didn't dim the finder over it, great. It's not even enabled on mine. :)
I'd rather, in most ways, that they took their time with the next model, rather than coming out with something that was rushed into the market with a deal-killing drawback, just to have a feature to strut around with. Stuff like that you have to live with long after the Internet buzz has moved on to the next thing. :)
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-30-2009, 08:41 AM
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I don't know, it certainly has been going around in circles. I think maybe everyone would be happy if the 'Company loyalty' camp set a good example and limited their point and shoot purchases to what Pentax produces, and if there's nothing in the category, pretend the category doesn't exist. That'll show Mr. Burnnell. :)
I really do have trouble seeing a consumer being cheesed off at this. It doesn't do us any good if the guy's out of touch, or if he wants to plug Pentax products, if it's that much easier to dismiss as it being his *job* to say the new Pentaxes are wonderful and perfect whatever the situation may be.
Frankly, I think that if it's not a prelude to the announcement of some collaboration with Leica, it just shows the guy's in touch with a lot of the people Pentax sells DSLRs to. The advertising really is aimed to a degree at nonconformists, or self-styled ones, anyway. :)
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-29-2009, 03:01 PM
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Well, Falconeye, it's certainly good to hear Leica's getting their stuff together, one way or another, I hated to hear of a company with such heritage having such a hard time. My own speculations are just me playing a guessing game based on what various companies are coming out with,
Does seem they at least, have given up on the 4/3rds venture, and I'm pretty sure I recall seeing the Leica name coming off lenses on Lumixes. Does Leica still have some call to share patents and R&D with some bigger company? Seems likely, to me. That S-system looks awesome, but I wonder if it, all on its own, is really profitable, or there need to be some returns from a more popular use of the tech in there. Just in general, I can see some pretty natural alliances forming, considering the different sectors of the market the companies-other-than-Nikon-or-Canon seem to be breaking for.
In tight times, such an alliance might just be the best thing for any and all involved. Competition can, of course, end up being pretty destructive... say most of the smaller companies have the different technologies and capacities among them that together, they can put together a whole bunch of different products that actually can compete in their areas with Canon and Nikon, ...that's better than the little guys 'bumping each other off' and other strange metaphors.
(Have to say, I found the Micro Four Thirds concept... Something that might be very interesting in the future, but it seems to inspire among its advocates a tendency to glower darkly and obsessively speak rather shrilly about various forms of *doom.* :) )
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-29-2009, 09:47 AM
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I really think you overestimate some things, 'Pentax USA' doesn't even make the cameras, just sells them. The only people who are going to go to some guy's personal blog and know the Leica/Panasonic connection, never mind the name Pentax, aren't going to be uninformed enough to be thinking in those kinds of simplistic terms, anyway. Certainly not the point and shoot market. Or the bigger-sensor point and shoot market, for that matter.
The whole thrust of Pentax marketing has really been toward the informed image-maker, not some kind of blind 'loyalty.'
Frankly, looking at the overall picture among the smaller brands, I actually do suspect there's a reshuffling in progress. Leica's been in a bit of trouble for a while, and the Four-Thirds affiliation hasn't served them very well. I could see some new affiliations under the Hoya company: Pentax does SLRs, anyway, ...maybe Lumix and Olympus (My little theory wouldn't be sure how Olympus and Samsung and Lumix really fit in) as part of the whole thing making EVF cameras, or going their own way... with Leica as the premium brand of all of em, (Maybe that big Leica that just came out is the premium version of a to-be-released-sometime Pentax 'medium format' digital system, even.)
Anyway, I'm not leaping to assume that this is some kind of incompetence or disloyalty, or even that there's more to it at all than a guy saying, 'Hey, we're photographers, too.'
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-28-2009, 11:46 AM
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I don't think dumbing down in the name of 'brand loyalty' necessarily helps the Pentax brand. Heck, most Pentax shooters here *make fun* of the Nikon and EOS shooters for seeming to base their decisions on some manner of fervent, almost evangelical, brand loyalty.
I mean, how many Pentax shooters here have or would like an LX-3 or the Leica version? For darn good reasons which don't encompass those cute, but teeny and consumer-oriented Pentax compacts? (I, for one, have had an older Lumix bridge camera for years, and what's more, I like it a lot, the little guy's the household P&S now. ) Personally, I'd rather have the marketing rep for my DSLRs share my (eminently-sensible, of course) tastes and preferences, rather than running around and dumbing down as if in denial of the fact there's more to life than a brand name.
The competetiveness is a bit silly, I think. The car metaphors are kind of apt, actually, cause it seems like 'Canon's going over here with this video thing! You're behind! Pass them!' (...But... I don't want to *go* that way,) "Oh, no, Micro Four Thirds! Pass them! Or we're doomed!'' (...But... I don't want to go that way...)
Hey, you know, I think it's more in-touch with a lot of the people Pentax appeals to... than is any flag-waving sense of 'corporate loyalty.' I don't *want* to buy cameras from someone who says, 'If you don't like what we say you want, for how much we say you should pay, you're a 'traitor.'
Why should some marketing guy be any different. That's not a 'higher standard,' that's just the same kind of corporate myopia that's messed up the world economy in the first place.
Point and shoots aren't interfaced with my SLR systems in *any way.* Who cares what brand bigger-sensor point and shoot the guy uses. It's not his job to sell Pentaxes which don't exist. I'd really rather see the company represented by someone who's in touch with reality.
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