DOOM and GLOOM!

Ok, so all this news about Pentax needing an alliance....and some people predicting the beginning of the end, (think Minolta) I was just wondering what some of you wonderful Pentaxians would go for if the unthinkable happened? Olympus? Canon? Nikon? Sony? Just a curiosity type question. I love Pentax stuff, and will cross my fingers hoping for the best!

My needs are well sorted for the moment - if Pentax were to go bust tomorrow I'd hoover up all the K-7's being dumped by people fleeing to Canikonypus and sit tight for a good few years yet!

Then it'd just be a case of who was making the most appealing (to me) cameras at that time. Probably Olympus though as I've always had a soft spot for them.

If we turned the clock back to 1975 and asked, "What would we do if the Spotmatic stopped being made?" then the answer with all these years of hindsight would be that we would continue using our Spotmatics.

Eventually we would repair them, maybe replace them with mint examples, even now we could buy, with a little patience, replacement bodies and most lenses that were made.

If you want to be a Spotmatic user today, you still can be.

So, looking forwards, I don't really see it as a problem.

If Pentax would disappear (but they won't),I would buy all the Pentax Limited's I could lay my hands on
That would go nicely with a then discounted K7
But Pentax will not disappear
Change is inevitable, but disappearance not...

I have several other makes that I use from time to time, AGFA, KODAK, Zenit, even an Olympus.

All are 'obsolete', but work well, some 50 years on!

So no need to leave Pentax, just look after what I have and keep using them.

That includes the Spotmatics!

I'd buy lenses if they go cheaper with many abandoning the system at the same time.
The K-7 would very likely drop price, as as long as the die hard pentaxians dont jump all at once, I'd be well of on a bargain.

Actually I'd be all for feeding this rumour to see if prices fall... But it might actually cause problems, so better not.

Once i've got my K20D i would'nt need another make of camera as this one would fit all of my needs. i would buy a couple of lenses like a 100m Macro & a 10-20m and that would be enough.

I'd quite likely give up the DSLR game and get the best compact come range-finder type I could afford. I used to have a Nikon 35Ti film camera and it was my favourite camera for a very long time. Go anywhere, do anything and it produced great photos.

One fly in the ointment is that no one really knows how long modern DSLRs last for, and especially the sensors in them which do sound a little fragile. So carrying on indefinitely with old kit may not be an option as there could be high failure rates with any make of this modern stuff in, say, 3-5 years.

That'll be an Olympus E-P1 then!

Why don't all us Pentax fanatic's get together and buy Pentax, but we would need a lot of money Pentax X70 Rock's

Nice camera with good image quality Jack, a bit heavy on the wallet at the moment though, besides I have 2 Pentax DSLR bodies and an Optio E50 so guess where my loyalties stand....

Although if the price was lower I could be persuaded by a new Pen, after all there's an adaptor for K to 4/3rds!

I have said this before but when I worked in IBM electronics were designed to last five years so that you would have to upgrade or buy new equipment, on saying that my Minolta Dimage 7 is 10 years old and still works a treat but I don't upload any photos apart from one because it is a Pentax user forum.
Jack.