The lack of used lenses, especially wide angle primes could point to
there being a robust market for Pentax DSLRs. There was a time not too
long ago, when there were always a number of A and FA 20mm lenses moving
through KEH, now not so much. It's hard to find any 24mm and wider A
or later lenses, (or fast 35mm and 28mm A, F and FA), lenses on KEH now.
They seem to be snapped up as soon as they arrive. A lot of Pentax's
more esoteric and well thought of glass is in great demand by
knowledgeable users of systems of every stripe, from Canon DSLR's to
pretty much every mirrorless system. Pentax's decision in retaining the
relatively long flange to film plane distance from the original M42 lens
mount makes adapting those lenses relatively easy. The K mount was a
wide opening for it's era, but both Canon's and Minolta's allow an
adapter that easily mounts a K mount lens at the proper registration
distance. Unlike most other DSLR users not only are Pentax users
competing with each other for the best glass ever designed for our lens
mount, we're competing with with everybody else.
On 7/17/2013 7:14 PM, Mark C wrote:
From: Rick Womer <rwomer1...@yahoo.com>
Notice the trend of so many to say what they have is 'good enough'?
Pentax loses. Notice the trend of so many to wait a year or more until
there's massive price cuts on the newest model Pentax camera? Pentax
loses. Notice the trend of so many to purchase used gear as opposed to
new? Pentax loses. Then there's those that put there money elsewhere
because they're not getting what they want from Pentax. Pentax loses.
There's nothing wrong with any of those actions and all are
justifiable. Still - Pentax loses.
IMO - every other camera manufacturer has to deal with those exact
same issues, and to be honest I don't think that they are limiting
factors. I just checked on ebay - there are over twice as many used
Nikon and Canon lenses there then Pentax. I didn't check bodies but I
assume there are a lot more used DSLR's of those brands simply because
there has been a more active upgrade path. The more people upgrade the
more used bodies there are for the bargain hunters. And Pentax (sadly)
does not have to deal with the "problem" of Sigma, Tamron, and TOkina
making lenses that compete with them - though I wish Sigma would kick
out a few of their macro lenses in the K Mount.
A robust used market is the sign of a healthy brand, IMO. But a brand
that tries to live off its used market is in trouble. Back in the 90's
the buzzword with Pentax was that there was this huge vast reserve of
used lenses and since there was great backwards compatibility with
Pentax you could tap into those old lenses. It was a bargain hunter's
brand. It was a great argument at the time given that Canon and Nikon
had respectively scrapped or significantly modified their lens mount
a few years earlier. And even though I supect that at this very moment
some dim-witted blogger cum photo gear reviewer is repeating that line
about Pentax, Pentax's legacy glass advantage has largely faded. Canon
and Nikon have a couple decades of used gear compatible with their
systems now, and their used market is better than Pentax's, and if you
are a bargain hunter you would be better off trolling in their waters
and not Pentax's.
I don't know how the Pentax brand will be resurrected but I keep
hoping that Ricoh has a plan...
Mark
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