Did somebody say that Minolta announced a DSLR in Maxxum mount at PMA? Somehow I missed that, if so. I've always felt that Minolta was the Rodney Dangerfield of the camera industry. They've always made products with good specs and sensible designs and from what I've read they, like Pentax, have a number of very fine "pro" lenses that very few people buy. Minolta has been fighting the good fight for a while (adding USM to its lenses, new pro glass, etc) and the lack of a DSLR until now surprised me. I've been sorely tempted by the logical design of the original Maxxum 9000, or the sexiness of the SRT101. So far, limited financial means and already owning two complete camera systems has kept me from doing anything stupid.
Interesting to hear about the upgraded Kodak N14, but I don't think, as somebody suggested, that it will hurt Nikon. Quite the reverse. The N14 has a Nikon lens mount and last I looked a body built by Nikon based on the N80. Nikon is presumably making money on the bodies, and also by selling lenses to the N14 buyers. It also gives a "Nikon" hi-res DSLR option to compete with Canon 1Ds, although why Nikon has not come out with a D2X of their own really puzzles me. BTW the thrust of Nikon's "we take the world's greatest pictures" campaign was that the majority of pros at the time (in certain fields) used Nikon, and indeed many of the great images of the time were taken by pros shooting Nikons. Presumably, if the big guys trust the quality of Nikon, you should too--that was the ad campaign anyway. That's why the Canon campaign that followed was "NOW, it's Canon". At least as true, at the time. It's noticeable that Nikon introduced "light grey" lenses right after a Canon campaign touting the visual predominance of their white telephotos at major sporting events. I can see Sigma making a 4/3 camera as well as 4/3 lenses. The SD9 and its successor SD10(?) didn't seem to do real well in the market, despite having potentially better but underdeveloped foveon sensor technology. Only taking Sigma-mount lenses probably had something to do with it. If Sigma made a 4/3 camera they could also do something about the limited lens line-up for the Olympus e-system and kill two birds with one stone. 4/3 looks like a bad idea in so many ways, yet the trend is ever to smaller and cheaper... What would I like to see from Pentax? An extension of the FA limited series into slightly more extreme focal lengths. Some way to put K-mount lenses on a $1000 DSLR. Something more like a full-frame sensor would probably be important if I were actually shooting a *istD right now simply because the make-wider-lenses-for-smaller-sensors game has its problems. How 'bout a FA limited CAMERA to replace the LX? DJE
