New K100Y + 3 Lenses

hikerdoc wrote:

isb_deep wrote:

lowerCamelCase wrote:

They cannot ignore all industry standards, so I expect at least touchscreen as it seems to fixed.

They did manage to put one in the Ricoh GR III, so they have the tech it's only a matter of if they have the resources to actually implement it on the aps-c body.

The new lenses are good news but a lot is left unsaid about the body. The AF, Video and Screen Interface to have improve if Pentax is to be competitive with it's peers.

I am not sure Ricoh is really concerned about competing with peers at this point. Certainly they wish to present a camera they and their users are proud of, but...

I am a Nikon user, D500, D850, and Z7; all wonderful cameras that offer capabilities far beyond my ability to fully utilize. I am in the same demographic group, mid 60’s, in which I perceive a majority of Pentax users coexist. There is nothing Ricoh can offer that is going to make me switch systems. I am not alone in that thinking. Ricoh knows this.

There is a very loyal group of Pentax users who will remain faithful to the Pentax label no matter what Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fuji, etc offer. They are comfortable with the functionality and ergonomics of their cameras, which also offer capabilities far beyond most of their abilities. They are interested in periodic refinements. Ricoh also knows this.

I have kids in their late 30’s. They have no interest in camera gear beyond the ever improving photo, connectivity, and video capabilities of their iPhones. There is nothing Ricoh can offer in a DSLR or MILC that will change that. Ricoh knows this.

Ricoh can use that Pentax label as long as there are sufficient numbers of Pentax DSLR loyalists to provide whatever profit level they deem necessary. When that number falls too low they can just allow that trademark lease to expire, while Hoya continues to put it on colonoscopes, which those 30 somethings will eventually encounter! Ricoh knows this too.

Most endoscopists I know prefer Olympus over Pentax endoscopes. Ricoh could not care less about that!😀

Ha ha very true and well said, I am in my late 30s myself and picked up a K-30 as a starting point and have stayed with Pentax ever since but I have also had Sony and Panasonic 1" cameras along the way. I recently picked up a used m43 body (Panasonic G85) and was impressed with the AF, which was much better than what the KP or K-1 offers with modern lenses such as the 16-85 or 55-300. That being said, I do think I will stay with Pentax, if not for the lenses, then at least for the feel of using the Pentax cameras, which is hard to match with other systems. I think most modern cameras can do 80% of everything that any top of the line camera system and end of the day, it's down to what one prefers and how much investment you have in lenses. As you said, Ricoh knows this and will probably bank on folks like me to buy newer bodies and lenses. It makes me wonder if it is a sustainable model