> -----Original Message----- > From: Bruce Rubenstein [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > It is, however, very similar to the situation a few years ago when > Minolta came out with their flagship (Maxxum/Dynax 9). It > sold well for > a short time due to the pent up demand from Minolta owners, and then > sales slowed to a trickle. It's very hard to find and most > stores don't > carry it. Things for high end film cameras have gotten worse > since then.
That's a very reasonable hypothesis. This seems, on the face of your facts, to be a much better comparison. However did minolta have as much pent up demand as Pentax? And did the Dynax 9 fulfil their demands better than the competition? We really don't have all the stats to actually support any guesswork here, but it is likely that the demand for a pentax film flagship would likely depend on its appeal to LX and MX users. IF Pentax make a camera which appeals to these people, then they have something truly unique which cannot be obtained from any other marque which also makes DSLRs to fit the same lenses. > The vast majority of working pros in this country > are not "names" and > buy there equipment like everyone else. Very often they don't go the > cheapest places either, because they want service and personal > attention. That's why, in NYC, Ken Hanson is still so popular > with pros > even though B&H is a 15 minute walk away. Yeah but how do we know which camera stores were saying "that D100/D60 outsold F5/EOS1V by a very large scale in 2002"?? It might have been B&H or Ken Hanson, but unless it was everyone then it is not a worthwhile statistic. Besides, I would have thought that 'ex' 1V buyers would go for the pro DSLRs in the main anyway, not the D60. Really we have nothing by which to measure how successful a film flagship for Pentax would be right now. Pentax probably have a slightly better idea, but even then it would be a gamble on their part. As Pal says though, it they are building a flagship DSLR chassis anyway then it may make sense to market the film variant.
