or Pentax doesn't seem to care about the Q much anymore. By that I don't mean discontinuing it but more like not really pushing its development.
No telephoto macro.
I would have wished for an F1.0 fast prime.
Totally agree.
It's pretty clear now that the Q was a money grab right from the beginning -- mediocre lenses over a tiny sensor for a premium price. No one outside of Japan fell for it.
To be honest I don't think I was a blind money grab.
The $800 launch price was a money grab. Even back then, you could get an APS-C sensor camera for less than that.
The quality of build of the Q was semi-pro DSRL class- all magnesium alloy. As things get smaller, they get pricer. It was also bundled with a great lens.
I wouldn't call it necessarily a money grab but I can't see this coming out at say $500 or $600.
Money grab or not, it was doomed to fail...
Figuratively speaking, they dropped a VW engine into a Porsche body, and then charged Porsche money for it. Porsche customers won't buy (for obvious reasons). VW customers won't buy because of the high cost.
I get the impression the original engineers were pretty passionate about it. As was I when I got it. But Pentax changed hands, maybe the market just didn't respond but still would have been nice more development.
I had the same positive emotional reaction when I first held one, but over time it became clear that Pentax wasn't going to deliver really great lenses for it. The whole "Toy Lens" line should've been a hint.
I don't see how the Toy lenses was a hint. That was just a different line of lens.
Toy lenses for a toy camera.
See how naturally that came to mind? Unless their intention was to sell the Q to children, they never should've done "toy" lenses for it.
The 01 was/is a great lens. When the 06 telephoto came out later that was amazing- that lens is quite quite something. And it came out later. I am not sure how you could have concluded that when they released the toy lenses at first around launch.
You are correct. Their whole approach to the Q line makes no logical sense.
Also I don't quite agree the lenses were medicore- not all. The 01 and 06 are pretty good. So is the wide angle The standard telephoto is the one that is "meh."
The 06 came later. The 01 was the only good one available at launch.
Yes but if the 06 comes out later, and it's great, that's part of the set of lenses that are good.
Why do that at all?
Why choose to make a line of crappy lenses, and then euphemistically label them "toy"?
With a new mount, you have a fresh start. You can make all the lenses great (or at least good). Why wouldn't you do that?
It would've made a lot more sense if they'd adopted m4/3 instead, which is the true modern incarnation of their original Pentax Auto 110. The m4/3 sensor size matches 110 film but with WAY more lenses.
The above comment was actually my main point. Why wait around for Pentax to honour us with a new lens every 2-3 years, when there are lots of great m4/3 lenses to enjoy now, and new ones coming at a rapid fire pace?
I agree on the telephoto macro. But I think the ethos of the Q is not to have that many lenses as much as key lenses for specific types of photography. The telephoto macro plus say a night-shooting very fast prime would have kept that ethos if you will, even if those lenses have their own constraints.
But those specific lenses should excel at something. I also wanted them to re-do the standard zoom.
If their intention was to make a limited number of lenses, they should've all been really good lenses. Lenses that small are cheap to make, so there's no excuse for their not being good.
A much smarter strategy they could've done instead...
1) Bundle with the camera, the 01 prime and an 02 portrait prime (~20mm) both f/1.8 lenses.
2) On a sensor that small, f/1.8 gives you FF-equivalent DoF of f/8.
3) In BOLD letters, on the box write: "f/1.8 and be there"
4) Sell it at a price that enthusiasts who understand what 3) means would consider a bargain.
5) Profit.
6) Offer a body-only option of the latest Q camera, available online-only from Pentax.com -- for those who don't like swapping lenses. This is a natural upsell for a camera with two bundled lenses. Direct sale = all the profit goes to Pentax/Ricoh.
7) Release the constant f/2.8 long zoom. This should've been their 03 lens, not 06. Followup with the wide zoom.
8) Instead of the slow/boring 02 zoom, they should've released the MX-1 with the same fast fixed lens, but a Q body. Same controls, same firmware, same everything. Call it the QX-1, and you now have an upgrade path for QX-1 buyers to get on the Q bandwagon for access to prime lenses.
If Pentax had done something like the the above, there'd probably be a lot more activity on this forum.
