A Pro Pentax

I am quite taken a back by many of the questions regarding the pro capacity of the K10D. There have been the doubting Thomas's that ask.."Is there a Pro Pentax?" or why doesn't Pentax make a pro camera etc etc etc. The answer is this. The K10D is the Nikon D200 of Pentax. It compares favorably with all of the top end dslr's on the market. So why these insecurities? I think it has more to do with the perceived value of the camera. If it sold for 1500€, the public perception would be the contrary. Perhaps Pentax should re-consider their pricing just to satisfy those who perceive value solely by the price tag.

Interesting comparison. Naively, I had imagined that the closest Nikon to the K10D would be the D80. I freely confess that I know nothing about non-Pentax cameras.

I also know nothing about http://www.trustedreviews.com, but I thought it was quite interesting that in their review of the D200, they say this:

I'd be more than happy to sell them the K10D at the price you mentioned
...then I could afford the new lenses LOL!
Matt

You are absolutely right. But by pricing the camera at this level, Pentax has sold many more than it would have done otherwise, and thus gained much-needed market share. Pentax is now a force to be reckoned with again.

It's a pity more potential buyers don't take the trouble to evaluate the relative merits of different cameras before locking themselves into an unsatisfactory system.

G

I think that it is widely accepted that the K10D set a new standard for the mid price point, with a range of 'pro' features only previously found on much higher priced cameras.
Having now firmly established a presence in both the low and middle 'price' segments, I would expect the next model to sell for considerably more.
Pentax will not only need to add new features to justify the price, those features must be new and innovative and valued by 'pro' users.
From what I have read on this forum, most K10D users are fairly happy with the current specification. It might be interesting to start a new thread on what Pentax would need to include to entice K10 users to 'trade up' to a camera with a £900 price tag.
One last point, the market at the high price point is relatively small, the volume and profit is in the low and mid price points. While it is great to have well known photographers such Ben endorsing the product, Pentax really need to realise that the money lies in selling to 'non photographers' and get their product onto the high street.
For example I was in my local Tesco last week and had a quick browse through their camera section, which was actually quite impressive, everything from basic digital compacts through to Canikon SLRs, but nothing from Pentax. The same goes if you browse through an Argos catalogue.
Sorry for the rant, but as a Pentax owner for over 25 years I have an emotional as well as financial investment (cameras and glass) in the company, lets hope Hoya will put some serious money into some decent promotion and marketing.

yesterday I watched a fairly inept sales clerk trying to help a customer choose between the nikon d80 and d200.
Watching them pour over the specs sheet, I was amazed at how much neither of them knew about the cameras and how the features apply to taking pictures!
This one one this many more pixels and that gives better quality...(I could've pointed out that my canon g5 produces better 8x10's than my canon pro one....aspect ratios result in the two extra megapixels being cropped off on the pro one leaving you with them same (albeit more densly packed) pixels with more noise and a wider ranged zoom, resulting in a lower quality 8x10 portrait.
blah blah blah....
I was about to point out that the pentax has the same sensor as the nikons, when he brought up his old nikon lenses...

when i did get to talk to a (different)clerk, he pointed out that the supply of used pentax glass was drying up and credited the k10 for "saving" pentax.
He said they were on the verge of dropping the brand, but sales of k10s exceeded thier expectations, and boosted sales of thier new and used lenses. (It seems people often have more than just a camera body on thier wish list, and if you leave them some change in thier wallets after the body, they buy other things! Who knew?!!!)

Sadly, I found out, that the inept sales clerk, who appeared to know little, but was trying to push a d200 on a fella that knew even less, was the store manager.

I'd love to see a 3200 iso image that can't be discerned from a 400 iso images, at 10-14 megapixels.

"I'd love to see a 3200 iso image that can't be discerned from a 400 iso images, at 10-14 megapixels."

That may be coming sooner than you think.

Just got back from a walk around the nearest town of any size, whilst I was there I thought I would checkout the availability of Pentax DSLR's.
Two privately owned photographic shops had the K10 with standard kits lens in stock (sadly no pentax lens), which came as a surprise as I know for a fact that they did not about 3 months ago.
Curry's Digital had only a K110 kit in stock
Jessops had both K10 and K100 kits in stock, some Sigma, but no Pentax glass. The shop window had two quite large A2 size posters promoting the K10, right next to them was a poster for a Nikon 40Dx kit, on offer for over a £100 less. Approx £398 including a Nikon rebate (K10 kit for £400 by the end of the summer???)Intrigued I went in inside to take a look around, I was going to play the dumb customer, when someone beat me to it.
I paraphrase
'I am looking for a camera said the person, one that has 10 mega somethings and can use different lens'.
The assistant immediately pointed the potential customer towards the Canon and Nikon displays. To be fair he did take the time to answer several quite idiotic questions, from the person who quite obviously was no photographer. I was about to step in and point out the Pentax cameras, when the person said that they also wanted to buy an extra lens and flash. Both Canon and Nikon displays had additional branded lens and flashguns, unlike the Pentax display that had only 3rd party kit.
To get finally to the point, the buyer was a non photographer, with an amount of money to spend on camera and kit that they would most likely never fully utilise.
Secondly the buyer wanted to see and touch everything and take it away there and then.

The choice made was the Nikon kit plus a tele zoom and flash, along with a bag, memory card ect, basically because in the customers eyes, they got more for their money.