The good old days

Prompted by Kerrowdown's post in User Groups I had this thought:

Funny how things change; in the 60s and 70s Pentax and the M42 mount seemed to dominate, I remember ad campaigns that dominated the Sunday supplements like 'Alan Wicker's Pentax', David Bailey's Pentax, Sam Haskin's Pentax etc.etc. People would refer to any SLR as a pentax in the way we use biro or hoover. When did the Asahi Optical Co. start to let things slip. I started with Spotmatics (Mac and I love them still) then an MX, then 645 and SFXs so I've missed out on quite a few film camera generations. When and why did Pentax lose out on market share?

Well, i am not sure. My best guess is the fact the Photojournalists working in the far east ( Vietnam, Cambodia) demanded a system were fast lens changing was critical. Nikon gave them that in the form of the F. The field experience in that area and the Pro's embracing that system in the roaring years to follow at home, were a big plus! And.......Nikon managed to offer the system at a competing price against the other big marques her in Europe. leica, leitz and Contax. It is a fact that Nikon offered all the major press agencies in that time a lot of free Nikon F kits for use in the field.
So......aggressive marketing strategy that worked.
No hard evidence for the above, but thats my guess.
Martin.

I think the arrival of autofocus hit Pentax quite hard. I know the cameras have their fans, but personally I feel the design lost its way and became too bulky. There was none of the slick ergonomics that Pentax had all the way up to the Super A series.

I feel they only found their feet again with the MZ series of cameras and this has improved until now Pentax are back on solid ground again.

I think two words can explain why Canon and Nikon have come to the fore in photographic hardware. . . "Marketing budget".

This includes all the "giveaways" made to pro's to tempt them to switch. Who wouldn't if it cost nothing to do so?

Olympus did quite a job in the 1970s with their very ordinary OM series of SLRs. It didn't take long for most professionals to gravitate back to Nikon and Canon though.

Pentax too had a very prominent professional share at one time. They made all sorts of highly specialised gear such as the Quartz lenses corrected for UV photography, the Pentax Nocta for surveillance work, but all these things seem to belong to the Spotmatic era.

One very important thing must not be forgotten. Yes...,you can give away free kits to Pro's. But it better works, otherwise it's money and resources wasted. Nikon knew that in the pre AF era.
Canon did so after the kickoff by Minolta of the AF era. Funny though......, knowing Canon original started out making copiers. And until today copying good ideas or things is their main achievement.
Martin.

Are you sure Canon started with copiers?

I thought they made rip off Leicas pre war?

I took a quick look at

http://www.canon.com/about/history/01.html

and copiers surely come far later than 1934?

Mike

That would have been 1970, and they did it without infringing any of Xerox's patents!

Don't take my canon bashing to seriously Mikew.
And by saying they original started with copiers I only suggested one of their longtime moneymakers is the selling of (Very Good) copiers.

Martin.

What did I say?