On Fri, 10 Oct 2003, Alan Chan wrote: > >I admit to being a little confused as to why more people don't like > >Pentax's p&s digitals. Pentax has always excelled at putting out small, > >well-featured, well-built products. They're rarely the first on the > >market, but they're usually worth the wait. > > Not that I can see for the digital market so far. Pentax have some > reasonable digital cameras but they are exactly so unique to draw much > attention from the competitions.
Again, I like them because they're unique, and it actually makes them easier to sell. It's a love/hate thing. If you're showing a customer 5 cameras that all look the same and then one Pentax that is completely different, the odds are maybe 50/50 that they'll like the Pentax over the other 5, instead of being 1/6. > >What do most people want in a p&s digital? Something small enough that > >they'll take it places, something reasonably well-built, and something > >with as much flexibility as you can fit into a small body. > > Perhaps I have a different way to approach the digital products. The 1st > thing I check is the picture quality. If they aren't good, I don't care. > Why bother to produce a 5MP model when the images are that good anyway? > I might just stay with a cheap 2MP for snaps and 4x6" prints only. Optical quality is important to me, but I don't have excessive expectations for p&s digital. It's hard to find a 5MP digital that takes really bad photos, and I'd feel comfortable enlarging the Optio 550's shots to 5x7. I haven't made any 8x10's with one yet, but the 5x7's I've seen from the 550 have been superb. And it's a matter of perspective. I don't expect my SLR to fit in my pocket, so why should I expect my p&s to take as good a photo as my SLR? If it could, I wouldn't need the SLR. :) A 5MP p&s digital is good enough for most standard shots, but if I'm going to put the emphasis on image quality then I'll probably bring my SLR instead. > >Most people are probably familiar with the Optio S, which might still be > >the smallest 3MP digital with a 3x optical zoom. Definitely in a class by > >itself. > > Everywhere I checked, the Casio is better than the Optio S. It's selling > point is compact size, and only imho. Is this the one that uses Pentax lenses? We don't carry Casio, so I'm not as familar with their stuff. > Marketing aside, I think Pentax need a new way to design their digital > products. They look too much like the traditional P&S. Sony, for > example, have good designs imho, and that alone made themselves to the > hands of many teenagers. Possibly, but that can backfire as well. Nikon's SQ is turning off a lot of people. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing some more innovative designs, though, given the different requirements of digital p&s's. chris
