Don't know if anyone has seen the follow-up story on Petapixel, but Zenit's Kickstarter has raised over $1 MILLION dollars and has 18 days still left to go in the campaign. Roughly 2500 copies of the lens have been "pre-ordered".
I do think that there are some lessons that Pentax (and other companies) could learn from this. Over half of the million dollars was raised by the people buying this lens for $350 or $400 ("funding" at a level that gets a production lens, I should say). People paid MORE for the privilege of getting one of the FIRST lenses produced (low serial numbers), or having something engraved on the lens, and some people paid up to $2600 for packages that included a trip and the lens. Zenit was also smart in making two versions (brass and black) available for this lens, so they could effectively double the number of funding points (making separate ones for each lens version). I have to believe that this has wildly exceeded Zenit's initial goals. Knowing exactly how many are "preordered" will allow them to source the materials at bulk quantity prices, as well as gauge potential future demand (should they wish to continue offering it into the future, or have some to sell as stock). It is also worth noting that this is for a lens design that is highly "flawed" by modern optical standards. On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 4:51 PM, Joseph McAllister <pentax...@mac.com> wrote: > Thanks for reminding me Ken. > > Yes, Boeing wanted to get out from under the Engineers and Machinists Unions, > who kept winning against Boeing in the negotiations over most anything. > > S. Carolina (or wherever) offered Boeing a union-free facility and of course > many tax breaks. The Everett gangs won after a walkout that delayed the 787, > along with dozens of other snags that apparently are still occurring. > Building the future of aircraft design is tough. > > > On Jul 27, 2013, at 09:52 , kwal...@peoplepc.com wrote: > >> I remember an issue a while back where the union/government was trying to >> prevent Boeing from moving some production out of Washington state to S >> Carolina. Apparently the company won. >> >> http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/charleston/ >> >> Kenneth Waller >> http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/kennethwaller >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John" <johnsess...@yahoo.com> >> Subject: Re: What if Pentax did a Kickstarter? >> >> >>> On 7/26/2013 11:48 PM, Joseph McAllister wrote: >>>> I'd bet that the parts for a lens come from many different sources >>>> that specialize in the part they are producing for such a lens, or >>>> even a camera body. >>> > > > > > Joseph McAllister > pentax...@mac.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- "Photography is a Bastard left by Science on the Doorstep of Art" - Peter Galassi -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.