Pentax - The end?

Sounds like a decision that a lot of us would have consider making - and then can't afford to, and so won't

That's why mirrorless is killing off DSLR's ......... NOT!!!!!

Anyone want me to take their complete obsolete/old Canikon kit off their hands for say £100?

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Unfortunately 'before buying' usually means going home and ordering from Amazon/eBay. I'm not surprised it's getting harder for LCE to justify selling a relatively niche brand like Pentax.

From what I can tell, it's about the same to jump into most systems from scratch?

I'm realistically with Pentax because Fleur had Pentax gear in the film days, and you could use the lenses as we moved into digital.
Without that driver in play for upcoming customers, and with almost no presence in stores or advertising, Pentax will need to do something to attract new customers.

I'm in the same boat as Richard, and I am sure as many others are. I had K mount lenses. So staying with Pentax seemed to be the right thing to do.

I went to our local camera shop, and while I was chatting to the people that worked there, I mentioned that I was a Pentax shooter. The reply was "that has got to be difficult in this country". When I was living in Australia, I had the same conversation, and got the same sort of reply.

But, now I am drifting off to another brand small step by small step. I don't have to buy everything here now and today. The brand that I am moving to has brought out some some new products that I am really interested in buying that suit my style of work, and has got me thinking about trying and buying. Pentax is not doing the same. I really like Pentax, but they are really making it hard to stay with.

No need to get rid of the lenses, there are cheap and not so cheap adaptors for Sony. Here is a link to some taken with my Pentax fit Sigma 18-35 f1.8 with a cheap adaptor. All without a tripod, LINK
John

Your Pentax fit Sigma 18-35 f1.8 would fit a Pentax perfectly and wouldn't need a silly adapter

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For me last time I 'tested' and item in store I bought it there and then. It was my DFA 100 WR Macro in Worcester's LCE. I would have continued to buy from them if they still carried Pentax as they were easier to get to than SRS. Now I have to make trips into Watford to test/buy stuff...

You could combine a trip to Clifton Cameras with one to Slimbridge, probably an easier run down the M5.

Seems that we are a lot of (elderly majority?), generally happy with our Pentax cameras and happy to buy second hand and not chasing the hype of must have. Whether that is sustainable for RIcoh is debatable though. Looking at Photokina SIgma are bringing out 6 new lenses,(none in k-mount) Sony, Fuji, Leica, Panasonic several and I think Pentax have just one and that has been delayed to 2019. Meanwhile Nikon now have a 500mm in their lightweight compact Fresnel range.
We might not want to ditch Pentax but would you start out with it tomorrow if you had nothing?

Who are you calling "elderly" ?

You make some good points. Who knows what the future holds. The one thing that does appear obvious to me is that the current rush to mirrorless will lead to casualties amongst the big names. The market, with the growth all coming from smart-phones/cameras cannot sustain it. I am glad Pentax appear to be sitting this out.

If I were Pentax I would be concentrating all efforts on a new medium format camera/lenses and more FF DSLR top quality * lenses. They know there will be a demand for the latter from us oldies, especially from their core market in Japan. It is the latter who ultimately call the shots, no matter what mutterings we read or write about over here.

You could combine a trip to Clifton Cameras with one to Slimbridge, probably an easier run down the M5.[/quote]Hmmm... Good point... Never used them so never considered them before.

Yeah that's the angle I've been pondering lately, actually coupled with the fact that would you even know about Pentax to consider it?

You could combine a trip to Clifton Cameras with one to Slimbridge, probably an easier run down the M5.[/quote]Hmmm... Good point... Never used them so never considered them before.[/quote]They do have a Pentax display but as much of their stock is in a warehouse it’s worth a call first if there is something specific you have in mind and they will fetch it over.

I think Fuji and Sony are just bringing out some medium format cameras. I heard that the new £900 i Phone has a brilliant camera. I'm wondering who will be the first to fit a phone chip in a DSLR