I seem to recall reading a post recently that said that Pentax expects its DSLRs to outsell its film SLRs in two years.
Are Pentax's film camera sales that bad? I find it hard to believe that a product that is currently selling for $1350 or thereabouts is going to outsell a product that is going for less than $350. Where are people going to come up with that spare $1000? The film N80 is likewise $1000 cheaper than the digital D100 that is based on it, and there are several Nikon models below that, in the $300 range. Perhaps people who are currently buying N70s for roughly $300 are not going to buy D70s for $1000 but will buy a $300 coolpix digital P&S instead (that's cheaper than a lot of coolpixes...) If people were willing to spend $1000 for SLRs, why is there so much effort put into capturing the $250 and $300 segment of the market? I don't see everyone toting MZ-Ss, or even Nikon F100 or Canon EOS-3s (which can run rings around a D70 in almost every way). Last I looked, $300 didn't get you a very impressive digital P&S. The models that tempted me were more like $500, which could have gotten me a second LX in good shape instead. Pop photo's "report from Japan" suggested that most manufacturers expected digital camera and film camera sales to stabilize. Digital SLRs are still trickling down to the lower rungs of pros who have much stronger economic and functional reasons to pay for them than most people, and this may account for the continued strong DSLR sales. DJE
