My intention wasn’t to single you out, Orloff; I simply think the widespread practice round here is bad form and bad karma.

And potentially also prone to a charge of bad judgement the way prices seem to be developing.

Right.

Except here you presumably didn’t uncover anything at all.

In my view a better analogy is that one of your friends altruistically tells you about a bargin in some store, with the intention of spreading the good word to your other mates so everybody can take advantage.

However, quick as a flash you race in there and buy up everything you can carry, with a view to relieving your ‘friends’ of their hard earned cash.

No.

But the interesting thing about mirrorless is that it potentially greatly reduces the mechanical complexity of cameras and as a consequence some of the engineering obstacles fall away.

As a consequence unit cost should decline quite a bit - even ignoring R&D - offering the potential for better margins/pricing, obviously assuming that the viewfinders are ‘competitive’.

Having said that I would still be surprised if Pentax bring out a FF camera regardless of the presence or absence of a mirror.

FWIW:
Source: PhotoRumors

John, I haven’t seen that report and I don’t know what a CSC is, but I think the trend is clear. Nothing proceeds in a straight line, however, and if a blip is now occurring it may be due to increasingly aggressive pricing in dslrs, which could itself be a reaction.

As for the profitability of different lines I have never seen any public information on that from any supplier, and with broader segment details also scarce bordering on non-existent, I am inclined to treat that comment with a high degree of scepticism. In any case this is not a question of what players would prefer to supply, but what punters want to buy!

The answer is yes.

Nevertheless despite the many difficulties the present situation is - as always - not without opportunity. And this currently goes beyond the generalisation because the market is undoubtedly in transition.

From what I have seen Pentax’s market share has been inching higher in dslrs, admittedly from a tiny base. Good news, but the flip side is that the dslr market is increasingly being overshadowed by mirrorless/EVIL cameras. I haven’t been paying much attention to hard numbers but the trend is significant and doubly so given it is relatively recent (think E Pen launched 2009).

I think there are many reasons why this trend will continue and ultimately leave dslrs accounting for only a very, very small percentage of the overall enthusiast/semi-pro/pro camera market, and even that is by no means certain as electronic viewfinders continue to improve.

This kind of technological shift drives changes in the competitive structure of industries, that are in this case occurring only just after the dust has settled from the shift from film to digital.

Sony have already achieved very good results in dslrs with the Konica-Minolta corpse, using their marketing strengths (BTW here we see that the lens lineup is not a key factor at all for the mass-market).

They are now sitting on a several key technologies - sensors and EVF - that are driving technological change in the industry. Their competitive sights must be firmly fixed on the - no longer as - dominant heavyweights Nikon and Canon, with Pentax largely an insignificant bit player.

It is pointless to speculate at length on the possible strategies Sony can employ, but it is certainly possible that Sony might make a good portion of these technologies available to Pentax to accelerate market adoption, as an indirect attack on Nikon and Canon. If that plays out Pentax could secure their market position for many years to come.

However, they will also need to get their marketing right, and unfortunately early indications - the botched leak of the Kr discontinuation sans replacement - are not particularly encouraging.

"Fog in Channel - Continent cut off."

The (pre-Murdoch) Times

Lemmy, if I were you I wouldn’t do anything drastic before we see what delights are revealed at the January PMA tradeshow.

There has been chatter about 2 Pentax mirrorless models (Q+1) for maybe 6 months. and with the Kr now officially discontinued there is at least one glaring hole in the APS C lineup.

Of course it is impossible to know what exactly will emerge, but Sony’s moves may offer some guidance, especially given their sensor links; they appear to be in the process of abandoning mirrors altogether with attendant size reduction, even supposedly on their new full frame flagship out next year.

Separately their new lower end models use the same 25mpix sensor as the Nex 7. This has a feature where you can activate a 2x (APS) crop at 25/2mpix and a 4x at 24/4mpix. Not sure whether the 4x would work for your agency but the IQ at a 2x crop factor should be fine for your purposes, potentially significantly increasing the reach of your smaller lenses.

BTW Nass, you might find it instructive to contemplate the difference between bullshit and informed speculation.

In this regard, the quote of the day thread in general discussion reminded me of the following from Musashi: “By knowing that which exists, you may know that which does not exist”.

Now Official:

Source: Photo Rumors