Shaky wrote:
It is somewhat pointless to speculate too much on this topic given the launch is so close to hand, but I am excited by the prospects for this camera so a few comments nevertheless spring to mind.

First of all while you can always find people who will take different points of view, I am confident that the proverbial 9 out of 10 experts in competitive strategy would agree that one or both of Pentax and Olympus will drop out of the dslr market in the next few years, all other things being equal.

Hoya's financial report mentions persistent exceptional costs related to consultancy services, and I have little doubt this is the advice they will be getting, assuming they are hiring the right people.

For this reason, reports that the K7 will be a reboxed K20 albeit a little better seem unlikely to me; that would merely allow Pentax to stand still competitively, whereas what they urgently need is to grow market share substantially, say by a factor of at least 2-3 times.

Further, given the D5000 and D90 cameras are available relatively cheaply, a K7 with video but lacking autofocus is a me too product that just lets Pentax stand still, delaying the inevitable.

I have seen several consumer reviews bemoaning the lack of autofocus on these models, and notwithstanding technical challenges and differences, I believe the mass market will rightly reject a relatively expensive camera that can't even do what their cheapo point and shoot will.

However, in an era where the mass market is posting pictures and video to Facebook, etc, I believe the introduction of a useable dslr/video combo could transform the competitive landscape in much the same way as when digital displaced film; if Pentax play their cards right they have the potential to repair much of the damage done during that fiasco, especially if their solution is patentable.

I really hope they can get this right, because I want that product.