I guess I wasn't being clear about this. I'm definitely not saying that Pentax needs a DSLR to stay in business. I'm saying that my fear is that Pentax might have so much financial trouble (for any reason) that they will go the Olympus route and stop producing their better cameras, especially the 35 mm variety. I think this financial trouble is most likely to come from overall loss of market share and not from the absence of any single product. Pentax serves my needs just fine and I would be more likely to buy an IS lens than a DSLR.
I'm not sure what I think about the so-called flagship 35mm. In my mind, the MZ-S is obviously in league with the F100 or EOS-3. The Pentax flagship would be the EOS-1v/F5 counterpart which would cost at least $1200-$1500. Even if such a beast were available with better FPS, AF x-sensors, etc., I know that I would still prefer my MZ-S at the lower price (given my needs). Would such a camera "save" Pentax. I have no clue. It certainly didn't help Minolta that much. Steven Desjardins Department of Chemistry Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA 24450 (540) 458-8873 FAX: (540) 458-8878 [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/04/02 10:36AM >>> > My biggest problem is not that I need a DSLR but > that Pentax will suffer > so much financially that it might have to go the > Olympus rote and just > stop making SLR's altogether, and instead make their > money on P&S cameras. more likely, they would suffer financially if they *did* produce a dslr. besides, many have pointed out (and i also agree with that) that it may very well be that dslr is not The Way, so why waste tons of r&d resources now on a potentially loosing technology? a new flagship slr or a bunch of top notch lenses would more likely to win them new customers as well as good publicity. speaking for myself, i would definitely pass a $5K whizz bang gadget that takes worse pictures than any $100 p&s, but would seriously consider $1K slr that had USM, IS etc. and i suspect, i am not the only one. > By the way, my spell checker keeps trying to > replace "Photokina" with "Fettuccini". makes sense to me :) best, Mishka
