Re: Any future for Pentax?

"TW" <hong236@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bYWdnSLYepmBn5fYnZ2dnUVZ_qOdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The price of any camera must cover the costs such as advertising and other
"non-essential" SAG. A low price does not necessarily mean dumping; it
could imply Pentax has found a way to lower the manufacturing cost through
better sourcing, less waste, lean manufacturing, etc. I have been a Pentax
user since 1979 (MX) and am extremely excited and quite eager to upgrade
from my DS.



Pentax has not demonstrated any superiority in digital cameras, unlike Nikon
and Canon. The Golden Age, for Pentax, was back in the M42 days, when they
were competing head-to-head with Zeiss, and when their lenses were built
with lots of handwork and just oozed quality.

Pentax's last hurrah was when they made the LX. After that it was plastic
cameras, made in China. As a long-time Pentax user, it is sad to see them
fall by the wayside, but nobody gets excited about Pentax anymore. I read
recently that several of their largest investors have been pressing
management to get out of the digital business--apparently because Pentax has
not demonstrated having an edge in a niche in the digital domain. If Pentax
were to restrict their production to film, they would surely die a quick
death.

Erwin Puts has recently written that Nikon, Leica, Zeiss and Canon are all a
step above what he calls "second tier" lens makers, of Olympus, Minolta and
Pentax. His tests lead him to conclude that Canon made the best Japanese
lenses (even he admits that the difference in quality between Canon & Nikon
is very small), but his overall impression of Pentax's current lens line is
so-so.

I have some excellent Pentax stuff, but it is mostly from the early 70s.
The trouble with Pentax is that I feel like I'm in a time warp--Canon and
Nikon have continued to introduce numerous innovations, while Pentax's best
days were over a long time ago.

That's just my subjective view. The Pentax of today is not the same Pentax
("Asahi") that I loved 30 years ago. Plastic lens mounts don't impress me.
Your MX was probably the last of the great Pentax mechanical cameras. And
their FA Limited lenses are nice, but there were only 3 of them, and that is
not much of a lens line. If you were to ask me why anyone would choose
Pentax over Nikon or Canon TODAY, I could not come up with a reason. That
is sad. Time was when Pentax ruled.


.

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