/mild rant on\
There are many aspects of technology and finance in the trend during
the past decade that influence how exciting or boring a new camera
body from Pentax will be.
No manufacturer can introduce a model that is a show stopper, because
the rapid advances in digital electronics and the firmware that runs
them is progressing so fast that every 6 to 18 months, new "features"
can be introduced that kills the market for the previous generation.
Because the shelf time is so short for each model, and development so
competitive, the quantities sold of each model is pretty small. This
is especially hard on Hoya/Pentax because they are so mired in the mid-
range of DSLR sales. They don't have the demand from the professionals
who are willing to pay $5000 and up for each new generation.
We Pentaxians who can afford it, do add each new generation to our
collection of Leicas and Rollies. We love the technology of the
various forms the industry has produced of the past 70 years or so. I
know my basement used to have 5 units of industrial shelving filled
with cameras and lenses, most f them I only used once if at all. I
bought them for less than I knew I could sell them for. Loved them,
played with them, admired them, but it after time made no sense to
keep them. So I sold off the Hassies, the Rollies, the Zenzas,
Mamiyas, Leicas and the minutia of accessories for each "system" that
I had accumulated.
Other than a few older Pentaxes, and a half dozen 4x5 and 8x10 field
or studio units, and the obligatory drawers full of their boarded or
not lenses, I own 3 cameras. A K-7, K10, and a Z-10. I now realize
that thinking about a K-5, or K-3, is what the industry wants me to do.
But I feel now that all Pentax is offering me is something to fix
some, but not all, of the problems that I paid good money for less
than a year ago. Something that they should have fixed under warranty.
If the product does not match the advertising hype that preceded the
introduction of each generation, make it right. Take the defective
unit back and repair of replace it with a body that does it's job as
advertised.
When the generations were a decade apart, a product that would pass
the test of time was offered for sale. A manual typewriter and the
dial telephone were all I needed for 20-25 years. My Spotmatic, some
good lenses, and a hand held light meter produced thousands of images
from 1965 until 1991, when a robbery replacement of a PZ-1 and some AF
lenses tempted me away from what M42 lenses and bodies that remained.
Then I got an electric typewriter, which didn't last as long. But I
continued to use it for forms that needed filling in. Computers were
bad at that task. Soon I was using the computer for many tasks, but
had to replace those every 2 - 5 years when the draw of new features
and software became too strong.
I don't care about full frame or not. My K-7 has problems that bug me,
but I am also on a fixed income that gives me shelter, feeds me and
the dogs, and puts just enough gas in my 20 year old car to get me
where I need to be. When you nice people on PDML tell me after six
months of owning that a new body has solved the AF problems, the frame
rate is up to 8 or 9 RAW frames per second, and the camera adjusts
it's focus for each individual lens to hit the sweet spot on the
sensor, the finder screen, and the LCD all at the same time. And that
LCD had better be densely packed with pixels so I can tell it's in
focus. If they can correct the optical finder with diopters, why do I
have to put my glasses on to see the LCD? Get an algorithm going that
corrects the viewed image on the LCD for vision problems! And tilt.
And swivel. So I can sell my collection of right angle finders.
I'll be reading and waiting. But my tongue won't be hanging out while
I do. I'll be digitizing my photos and my ancestors photos in between
trips out to the never-lands in search of the unseen.
\mild rant off/
On 10/2/2010 12:00 AM, John Celio wrote:
I noticed something recently: there is not *nearly* as much
discussion
of new Pentax cameras as there was just a few years ago here. I
remember threads going for weeks when new products were announced,
but
that seems to have been reduced to days or even hours sometimes.
It got
me wondering:
Are we generally happy enough with current cameras that new models
aren't worth getting excited about? Has the dSLR market reached a
point
where new models are pretty much more of the same, with few real
innovations appearing with each new model, and thus don't warrant
much
discussion?
If it doesn’t excite you,
This thing that you see,
Why in the world,
Would it excite me?
—Jay Maisel
Joseph McAllister
pentax...@mac.com
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