Correction: "What ever happened to Pentax?"
From: Bob Sullivan
John (and Walt too),
This forum is my substitute for holding a new Pentax in my hands.
I've bought everything mail order, sight unseen.
That's a *ist DS, K-10, K-20, K-7, K-5 & K-5IIs.
Once you are locked in by the investment in lenses, you're locked in.
You go for the best price you can. And that's mail-order,
even 5 years ago when the *ist D was in local camera shops.
You're a hobbyist, not a pro.
What do you NEED to do with that new camera that you can't do right now?
No seriously, how is your current camera/lens holding you back!
Stop falling for all the marketing hype and just shoot some pictures.
Photography is a hard business to make money in.
The successful ones I've seen are better salesmen than photographers.
So just get over it...or wait for Godfrey's
'After the World's End Sale Days'.
Regards, Bob S.
Yeah, you can get better prices on-line. Wasn't my point.
What do people look for on-line?
They look for the brands they know about; the ones they've seen at
Walmart, Costco, Target ... or they buy from Walmart, Costco, Target or
once upon a time Wolf Camera/Ritz Camera (are there any camera chains
left?). Sometimes, they even shop at independent camera stores like the
two here in Raleigh.
They may look at the camera in Walmart & look on-line at Walmart.com for
a better price and then end up buying from Amazon, Adorama & B&H.
But they don't look at Nikon/Canon/Sony at Walmart and then go looking
on-line for Pentax.
There's actually a couple of different things going on here from my
point of view.
1. People ain't gonna buy Pentax if they don't know Pentax exists.
And without Pentax being in the stores, for far too many people Pentax
does *NOT* exist. Pentax needs more than just old fogies like us looking
on Amazon for the best deal on last year's discontinued model. At some
point too many of us won't be around any longer and not enough people
will know Pentax exists to keep the brand viable.
When there's nobody left to buy Pentax cameras, there won't be any new
Pentax cameras.
2. I want certain things in a new camera. And I *DO* *WANT* a new camera
(I don't NEED a new camera, but I want one). Pentax doesn't offer
anything that even comes close to what I want.
But, someone else does. Or at least they offer a camera that gives me a
whole lot of what I want, say 90%.
The only real drawback is that none of my current lenses will fit it.
Replacing all that glass is going to be painful. But it's doable.
How much longer does it make sense for me to wait to see if Pentax is
ever going to offer me a camera that comes close enough to what I want
that I should wait however much longer it will actually take to get one
into my hands.
I'll make a little personal prediction here ... one year from today,
either Pentax will have introduced a Full-frame DSLR that's within close
enough shouting distance to the Nikon D600 or in 2014 I won't be
shooting with Pentax any longer.
If so, I'll miss Pentax. I can't begin to say how much that's going to hurt.
I hope I'll be able to console myself with a camera that gives me what I
want.
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