Pentax Film Project

K0d wrote:

I have stopped buying new Pentax products because there is no longer any value. I got a Canon 7D with a Tamron 200-400 5.6 last week for $360 both in mint condition. Weather sealed good AF at 8fps and Pro construction. Pentax are now competing against the pro second hand market from a decade ago at higher prices than competitors new products.

I've bought two lenses in the last 3 years (DFA* 85 in 2020, and DFA 21 Limited this year). They are the first new lenses I have bought in quite a long time, although I have 4 other lenses bought used since 2016. I bought the K1 in late 2016 and the K5 in late 2011 or early 2012 just before the II models arrived.
I'm thinking here if you've got a warranty contract with someone they're still a customer, once that expires they're not, but an ex-customer you hope will return. So if guarantees run for two years, anyone who hasn't bought for two years can be considered to have stopped buying, they might still be using, but that doesn't show in Ricoh's bottom line. for most of the dozen years I've been an ex customer, but there has been something to come back for. Now I have all the lenses I want (unless they make a new 28-300 SDM zoom).  So they either have to produce a new FF body - and show me the value in it - or when I'm next a camera customer it will be with someone else.

I can buy an old Mercedes E-Class for less than price of a Harley; who buys a motorbike when they can have a car? And yet, Harleys sell, they cost more and are less technically advanced than Japanese bikes (AIUI - you wouldn't get me on either kind!)  yet there are people who want that sort of bike. Pentax survival depends on finding the equivalent people and there being enough of them who will spend enough. I don't think there are for film. But I've been wrong in the past.