K20D status now end of life

According to a Dutch blog the status of the K20D in Japan is now "end of life" which means production has stopped.
Apparently, according to the Dutch importers, the K-m is also scheduled for the same status soon
With the demise of the K200D that leaves only the K-7 in production.

Either there are new models due very soon or the doomsayers are right.

For those who can read Dutch:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/61609/pentax-japan-zet-k20d-status-op-end-of-life.htm...

Or in (almost) English...

link

You are just as bad for even thinking such things .

I doubt Pentax would have bothered with the K-7 if things were that bad.

Hoya have always said the K20D will be discontinued as they will be replacing it (and the K200D) with one middle ground camera and the K-m could probably benifit from some small upgrades as well.

I know Mike, I know . I am sure there are new models on the way. It was just a shock to hear the K-m is to be discontinued so soon.

Meanwhile I'm hanging on to my K20d and my cash (hah! what cash? ) and will see what they come up with next.

Personally, I think its a sad indictment of modern times that such a superb camera as the K20D has had a production life of only 18 months. Compare that to the older film cameras (K1000, ME, MX etc.) and it is disgraceful, I think.

I agree , but like or not the K20 is seen as old technology. I doubt that its replacement will be significantly better, but low and middle range cameras are classed as consumer electronics and like everything else in that class they have short life cycles. The KM (2000)and K20 were practically given away in the US. An inability to sustain price increases in NA as seen eleswhere has probably hastened their demise.

Going back to the original post, the unease that the annoucement causes, is once again indicative of a poorly thought out marketing strategy.

Raise the price of a 18 month old design.

Announce it is being it being discountinued.

Fail to annouce what the replacement will be and when it will be available.

How many new K20 will be sold as a result of this brilliance?

I really do wonder why these people are still in employment.

Rant over - Steve

I think it was Mark Twain who declared that reports of his death were "exaggerated". I have been hearing that Pentax was on the brink for more years than I care to remember, but like Ol' Man River, Pentax jest keeps rollin' along.

Next topic?

G

I found a function the other day on my K20 that I have never used, I knew it was there but never had a use for it. It was the multi shot setting where you program in the amount of shots and the time frame in which you want those shots taken. I thought that it was a fantastic function and was perfect for the task I had in mind.

What I am getting at is that there are so many functions on the K10 & K20 that aren't availabe on other cameras. Ok this mode maybe on other cameras but Pentax cameras are full of cleverness!

I have been looking at other camera manufacturers lately and am gobsmacked by the fact that Pentax is the only one with SR built into the camera. Others may follow suit but Pentax was the first.

It is a shame that they are stopping the K20 as the K7 is not everyones cup of tea.
Well at least there will be a demand for the older K-series in the second hand market. The camera maybe "Old" but the technology is far from it!

Paul

Did this task you had in mind by any chance involve the wine glass and the drinks spillage and the messy floor and curtains the other day?

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....No!!!
I didn't have a chance to use it on that

I could have been the only person in the world to have a unique red K20 Luckily the camera and my studio flash didn't get splashed at all

No this was an outside shot and I was really impressed with it

Lots of smilies


Paul

Hi Paul, I think you will find the both Pentax and Olympus introduced in body image stabilisation at pretty much the same time with their D-SLRs the K10D and E-510

I believe Konica Minolta was first with in-body sensor anti-shake in their Maxxum 7D in late 2004. Review here link.

K10D was in September 2006 and the Oly E-510 in March 2007.

I have all the lenses I need and my GX20 produced picture quality mostly beyond my needs, so provided it continues to work I don't care whether they drop it or not.

Ooops, ok I should say I was really referring to Nikon & Canon. I have absolutely no experience of Olympus DSLR's. Only Olympus I knew about was the OM10. Cool camera that


Shame Mode

Oh well, Pentax SR ROCKS!!!!

Hehehehehe

Paul

The K-7 IS the replacement for the K20D.

In todays money (and exchange rate, whether we like it or not :roll the K-7 is actually a little cheaper than the K20D was at it's introduction, which was around £900 at the time, which, if you convert it to today's rate would make it £1240 (i.e JPY 220=£1 v. JPY 160=£1)!

The fact that the K20D now sells at around £650, it's still excellent value. Hopefully with the strengthening £ we will see reductions in the price of the K-7 over the next few months, which will be good news for those that like the new camera but can't justify the cost and the fact that it's already cheaper in many countries, such as Australia.

The next model will effectively be the K200D replacement. I suspect that the K-m replacement (probably next year) will feature a CMOS sensor with LV and maybe even movie, these features are almost "De rigueur" these days.