No doubt contrary to the belief of many, my assumed role as cataloguer of Pentax corporate woes is not one I particularly relish.

However, robust discussion in good faith doesn't trouble me in the slightest -- no problem, Mongoose

Mongoose, I don't believe there is much point in getting into a detailed discussion over this given the unknowables.

However, I think you give several good reasons why it is unlikely anybody should actually want to enter the market in the first place!

As for Sony, for me they are a completely different kettle of fish. That said Samsung are somewhat similar, but the fact that they have so far failed to reach an agreement given their close relationship with Pentax makes me highly sceptical a deal is going to happen.

Certainly it should be from the point of view of customers, as opposed to for prospective owners of Pentax's operations.

However, at the end of the day all selling points - big and small - and all sundry other factors influencing end-market behaviour are translated into market share. And on this easy to obtain measure I'm afraid Pentax are failing.

Wrong.

There are industry specific problems and company specific problems. The reason Hoya is agonising over the future of Pentax is entirely due to company specific issues.

I am afraid that one of the key problems facing Pentax/Hoya and any potential acquiror/strategic partner is that the K mount backwards is a huge liability.

If you are selling dslr bodies, you also want to be selling the punters brand spanking new lenses at what must be hefty markups given these are basically pieces of glass stuck together in a plastic/metal case.

You certainly don't want them digging out and god forbid using 30-50 year old bits of glass the profit on which is long gone.

The magnitude of the industry "cross-subsidy" from lens sales on the total dslr operations is impossible to quantify given the limited accounting information the players release. However, even disregarding the issue of old k mount lens stocks cannibalising 'current' sales, this is undoubtedly a further reason why Pentax's tiny market share is such a serious business problem.

Photo Rumors are carrying a report from Bloomberg that contains some comments from Hoya's CEO regarding Pentax.

They pull this quote out:
And as regards the last comment specifically ("let me be clear: we will not shut down this business") Suzuki has previously said in the recent Nikkei interview " Pentax camera division . . .may be sold to other company or become a independent company itself".

However, if the latter happens without the presence of a strong strategic partner the new company is highly likely just to burn through whatever financing reserves Hoya grant them at the time of a spin-off in short order, which would probably merely delay its winding up.

As I have previously mentioned the longer this drags on without the emergence a strategic partner the greater the chances become of such a spin-off. And with the division potentially able to deliver some kind of meagre operating profit for the just closed financial quarter and a reasonably attractive product line-up on deck, the expediency of a decision to cut Pentax cameras lose is unlikely to be greater any time soon.

However, the imperative of finding a strong partner - as opposed to some "electronics guys " - remains, and in this respect no news is in my view most certainly not good news.

. . . Although of course with the 1D MK IV you could evidently forget all about the autofocus and just bump the ISO up to 102,000 and shoot video at F22 all night long

Although the idea of mounting police style surveillance operations may become more appealing to me some time down the road, for now my main objective is to photograph my two young daughters around the house.

I find flash far too intrusive for that, and I would love to have the ability to use noise free ISO 3200 or 6400 so I could stop down to F/5.6 or even F/8 with faster shutter speeds and get a much higher percentage of shots in focus.

Put that into a small, lightweight package with video that autofocuses so I could give it to my dear old mother and get useable results and I am a buyer no matter what the brand.

Well I certainly wouldn't buy an EP-1 when the very same site is suggesting the EP-2 will be out by the end of the year.

They have separately mentioned the last day of the month as a likely announcement date.