Where are they made?

Where are the new Pentax Dslr's manufactured? I know Olympus for example is making theirs in China. The last Pentax I bought (ZX-L) was made in Japan. Just wondered where the new K100d/110d is manufactured.

Thanks.

My K100D was assembled in the Philippines and the 18-55 lens was assembled in Vietnam. My 1stDS is the same.

Of my small collection of both new & 2nd-hand Pentax lenses and in addition to the 18-55 above, 2 were made in Vietnam, 1 in Taiwan, 1 in Japan and 1 does not seem to be labelled. All the new ones were made in Vietnam.

Glyn

Pentax recently built a second lens making plant in Vietnam so I guess the chance that lenses will be assembled there is high. The glass blanks and parts could be made there or anywhere else. The last "Made in Japan" item I had was my MZ-3.

As long as they are made well, I don't think it matters where any more.

Isn't it comforting to know that of all the electronic equipment available in todays throw-away society, PENTAX cameras can still be repaired and serviced at a reasonable cost.

I suppose any thing that can be made in the first place must be repairable in theory, but the cost is always the issue.

In the case of many compact Digital cameras, repair is not really a viable option, especially as prices continue to fall.

I wonder if there will come a time when further development of digital sensor technology will be unnecessary and we will again see camera production runs lasting years, rather than months. Pentax's range of digital cameras are very good, but I can't imagine them ever being held in the same regard as some of the older classics like K1000, MX, LX, etc. simply becasue they didn't 'live' long enough. The D's production run was barely 2 years, I don't know exactly. Compare that with 21 years for the LX in its various forms.

I think there is still some way to go yet but it has got to happen one day that there is just no point in packing more pixels in to every square millimeter of sensor because the improvement in visible & printable resolution will be minimal, if any.

I think once the APS-C sensor is 'max'd out' pixel wise, we might begin to see 35mm sensors becoming the norm for consumer/prosumer products. After that, who knows, 2 1/4" square maybe.

Maybe not in my lifetime but, just as there is no real size constraint with film, apart from its decreasing availibility, the same may become true for digital sensors.

Just imagine the possibility of a 10" x 8" monorail camera . . . with a digital back . . . awesome. It could happen, one day. Trouble is, the battery pack would break your back. I dread to think of how many MP/GP that would work out to even at todays pixel density.

There are such things as 8x10 digital scanning backs, they are used tethered in the studio.

Ordinary mortals like us will never even get to see such a thing!

Now here's an idea - upgradeable sensors. I mean if you can plug a different CPU into the motherboard of your PC, it ought, in principle, to be possible with cameras. OK the sensor might have to be on a board along with some electronics to talk to the camera, and the first bodies for interchangeable sensors might have to be built with some future proofing (e.g. big bandwidth for getting the data off the chip)



P.S. All ideas above are (r) (c) (tm) to Me!!!!

Glad to see you're on your way to earning your first million, ammonyte!