Re: Is Pentax dying?
Chris Brogden wrote: Here's some stuff to think about... Pentax survived throughout the 90's largely on the strength of their ps lineup, which was very impressive. Now that more and more people are switching to digital, what will Pentax have to offer in a few years? = snipped = So... where does everyone else see Pentax in a few years? chris One scenario might be joining up with Epson (really Seiko Epson Corp.) and sharing each other's innovations and quality in making a fine digital camera. Those of you who have successfully ignored Epson as a force in digital cameras ought to visit their site and look around. Their latest camera is a 4.8 MPixel 3X zoom camera. PhotoPC 3100Z. Visit a camera store and handle one. A Pentax/Epson affiliation would not hurt MY feelings! ;^) keith whaley
Re: Is Pentax dying?
Alan Chan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Besides, if what most people's claim was true (companies lose money by offering digital cameras), Pentax has had no hurry to enter this market yet. Afterall, business is business, money earning is still the priority. You don't compete for no reason. I believe this is probably correct: Digital SLRs are likely money losers now - but everyone expects they will become profitable eventually. What Pentax has to do is a balancing act: Getting into the digital market sooner means losing more money and having an obsolete DSLR sooner. Waiting too long means running the risk that people will bail out and switch to other systems. What most people on this mailing list want isn't the first digital SLR that will take their SMC Pentax lenses; it's the *second* (or even third) one, which will be less expensive and have higher resolution, of course ;-) Pentax needs to make a product that's as good as they can, yet loses them as little money as possible. A camera that becomes available *soon* enough to keep too many people from switching systems and yet which is developed *late* enough to incorporate sufficient technology to prevent it becoming obsolete too quickly. Not an enviable task. It's certainly one *I* would like to be responsible for. Although I'm certainly not going to stop second-guessing Pentax with the rest of you! (Being an armchair corporate manager is such fun!) -- Mark Roberts www.robertstech.com Photography and writing
Re: Is Pentax dying?
What Pentax has to do is a balancing act: [snip] Waiting too long means running the risk that people will bail out and switch to other systems. That is a distinctly real problem. (It won't happen to me, but it will happen to many, I suspect.) What most people on this mailing list want isn't the first digital SLR that will take their SMC Pentax lenses; it's the *second* (or even third) one, which will be less expensive and have higher resolution, of course ;-) This is true. However, to go a step further, many of us would buy that ~first~ K-mount DSLR ~AND~ the second or the third... Pentax needs to make a product that's as good as they can, yet loses them as little money as possible. A camera that becomes available *soon* enough to keep too many people from switching systems and yet which is developed *late* enough to incorporate sufficient technology to prevent it becoming obsolete too quickly. Pentax, are you listening? Pentax...? Pentax...? Fred
Re: Is Pentax dying?
Not into servicing,just ask WW. Dave Begin Original Message From: Chris Brogden [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 02:10:43 -0500 (CDT) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Is Pentax dying? Here's some stuff to think about... Pentax survived throughout the 90's So... where does everyone else see Pentax in a few years? chris End Original Message Pentax User Stouffville Ontario Canada http://home.ca.inter.net/brooksdj/ http://brooks1952.tripod.com/myhorses Sign up today for your Free E-mail at: http://www.canoe.ca/CanoeMail
Re: Is Pentax dying?
The problem is that some clients abrogate the photographers right to shoot on the most appropriate media by specifying that their job MUST be shot on digital media. Plus, digital files put 1st generation photos directly into the clients' hands, and clients are not the greatest advocates of photographers' intellectual property rights. But it's too late to put the genie back into the bottle. Regards, Anthony Farr - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (snip) In fact, most professionals don't need it. Newspaper photographers and professionals on immediate deadlines need it. (snip)
Re: Is Pentax dying?
Rob Studdert [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Surely it could be that difficult lets face it they've got a fair array of other manufacturers equipment to reverse engineer and fault so I can't see why it wouldn't be a pretty good first attempt. If the MZ-S is any indication the original 6MP camera that was presented would have been well up there WRT it peers. Oly did it with the E-10 too, the subsequent release of the E-20 didn't send a hoard of E-10 users scurrying off to sell their E-10s. In fact most review sites suggested the gains presented by the E-20 were not significant enough to warrant upgrade for existing E-10 owners. Rob, I think you misunderstood: It's not the *engineering* I think would be difficult, it's the balance of capability vs. affordability and, in particular, the balance between introducing it too soon to make a profit (the chipsets, etc. are going to continue getting cheaper) and too late (when too many people have moved to Canon, Nikon, etc.) to be a success. Digital SLRs are still in their formative years but, as indicated in the Luminous Landscape article, the market is starting to stabilize. When things settle down, chipsets will me more standardized and produced in greater quantity and prices will come down (like for CD player chipsets in the 1980s). Due to die size, the sensor itself won't come down in price as drastically, but I expect improvements in CMOS fabrication to come and make sensors somewhat less expensive than they are now. -- Mark Roberts www.robertstech.com Photography and writing
Re: Is Pentax dying?
Anthony Farr [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The problem is that some clients abrogate the photographers right to shoot on the most appropriate media by specifying that their job MUST be shot on digital media. There are still plenty that don't accept digital now! I sent some stuff to Runner's World magazine earlier this year and found they don't accept digital files: Slides only! Plus, digital files put 1st generation photos directly into the clients' hands, and clients are not the greatest advocates of photographers' intellectual property rights. True. There are advantages to this, though. With slides, you can only submit the original to one client - you have to wait until they decide they don't want to use it before you can send it out for another try. With digital, you can submit an original to several clients at the same time. Of course, you can submit slides to multiple prospective clients by making duplicates, but there's always a loss of quality with dupes, as well as the time and expense of making them. -- Mark Roberts www.robertstech.com Photography and writing
Re: Is Pentax dying?
There are still plenty that don't accept digital now! I sent some stuff to Runner's World magazine earlier this year and found they don't accept digital files: Slides only! making slides from digital originals can be done but it's not cheap. i don't understand the pricing structure either, since it is per megabyte of file size for all the places near me. i just did 16 for a calendar submission and it came out to $8 each, after accounting for files that were above or below the 2 megabyte JPG mark. Herb
RE: Is Pentax dying?
Go to the chat room on http://www.pentax-digitalworld.de/ and you will notice: here take place regelmabig live chats approximately around the digital photography. To professional photographer the Thomas' haltner betrayal tipps cheat, tricks and small secrets, as they come to better pictures. if they chatten also, they learn others pentax befriended do know and experience them more from the fascinating pixel world. the nachste is chat to 27.09th, of 20-22 o'clock. The topic is this time: new approximately around photokina. -Original Message- From: Herb Chong [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 25 September 2002 17:24 To: INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Pentax dying? There are still plenty that don't accept digital now! I sent some stuff to Runner's World magazine earlier this year and found they don't accept digital files: Slides only! making slides from digital originals can be done but it's not cheap. i don't understand the pricing structure either, since it is per megabyte of file size for all the places near me. i just did 16 for a calendar submission and it came out to $8 each, after accounting for files that were above or below the 2 megabyte JPG mark. Herb
RE: Is Pentax dying?
On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Rob Brigham wrote: here take place regelmabig live chats approximately around the digital photography. To professional photographer the Thomas' haltner betrayal tipps cheat, tricks and small secrets, as they come to better pictures. if they chatten also, they learn others pentax befriended do know and experience them more from the fascinating pixel world. the nachste is chat to 27.09th, of 20-22 o'clock. The topic is this time: new approximately around photokina. Can someone translate the Pidgin German into Pidgin English? :) -- http://www.infotainment.org The destructive character is cheerful. - Walter Benjamin
Re: Is Pentax dying?
Babelfish certainly sucks! The translation should read: Regular live chats on the subject of digital photography take place here. Professional photographer Thomas Haltner shares his tips and tricks, cheats and little secrets, so you can get better pictures Chat with us, meet other Pentax fans, and discover more about the fascinating world of pixels The next chat is on September 27 from 20.00 to 22.00. The theme this time is: News from Photokina Hope this helps, -- Kristian On Wednesday, Sep 25, 2002, at 17:46 Europe/Dublin, gfen wrote: On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Rob Brigham wrote: here take place regelmabig live chats approximately around the digital photography. To professional photographer the Thomas' haltner betrayal tipps cheat, tricks and small secrets, as they come to better pictures. if they chatten also, they learn others pentax befriended do know and experience them more from the fascinating pixel world. the nachste is chat to 27.09th, of 20-22 o'clock. The topic is this time: new approximately around photokina. Can someone translate the Pidgin German into Pidgin English? :) -- http://www.infotainment.org The destructive character is cheerful. - Walter Benjamin
Re: Is Pentax dying?
On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Kristian Walsh wrote: Babelfish certainly sucks! The translation should read: I've used it many times, but unfortuantly, its translation wasn't really helpful for me...Then again, I've got a killer headache. I'll blame my poor reading comprehension on that! Hope this helps, Quite a bit, danke. -g. -- http://www.infotainment.org The destructive character is cheerful. - Walter Benjamin
