Re: Whatever happened to Pentax?

David J. Littleboy wrote:
> "Doug Jewell" <ask@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Dudley Hanks wrote:
>>> Back in the '60s, '70s and even into the '80s Pentax was right up
there 
>>> with Canon and Nikon.  But, today, it seems like the company doesn't
even 
>>> get honourable mention in the brand wars.  What happened?
>> Not sure about in the rest of the world, but their distribution within 
>> Australia didn't move with the times, and hence their availability was 
>> poorer than other brands.
>>
>> They have also pretty much abandoned the serious pro market, leaving
that 
>> for Canon and Nikon. They are still a fairly strong player in the
advanced 
>> amateur category at #3 in DSLR (albeit a long way behind Canon and
Nikon). 
>> In the compact camera market they are just another one of the m*****.
> 
> FWIW, Pentax is _the_ camera of choice for medium format film landscape 
> photographers in Japan. They split the medium format film market with 
> Mamiya, whose cameras are seen more as studio cameras. Interestingly,
only 
> one of the Pentax and Mamiya medium format film cameras has been 
> discontinued. Yet. (My best bet is that most of the Mamiya cameras are,
like 
> the Hasselblad 500 series, not being mfd, but are still being sold as
new 
> from stock. But Mamiya is still advertising (6645AFD, 7II, RB67(!!!),
and 
> RZ67) in the current magazines here.)
Yeah, from what I can understand talking to the a few 
working pros around here, Pentax pretty much own the MF 
category. Unfortunately that category has started to take a 
hit with more and more switching to high end 35mm digital 
like the Canon 1DIII and Nikon D3. There was a time not so 
long ago, when most of the serious wedding photographers 
were shooting Pentax or Mamiya 645 equipment - now it is all 
30D or 5D. The price has gone down, but so has the quality IMO.
Have you heard any word on the much rumoured 645 Digital? 
If/When that comes out, that should really make people stand 
up and take notice of Pentax again as a serious pro brand.

A full-frame 35mm DSLR wouldn't go astray in their range 
either, but since it appears most of the film format lenses 
have been discontinued (including the 50/1.4, what are they 
thinking?), I can't see that happening any time soon :(
> 
>>> What about the rest of you?  Any ideas on why Pentax has sort of faded

>>> into the background?
>> Because Pentax don't have the serious pro 35mm format digitals, that 
>> market has been left to Canon and Nikon. As a result, these 2 hold the 
>> vast majority of the market share.
>>
>> Actually Nikon have only been a major player again in the last couple
of 
>> years - they almost became marginalised too - the D40/D40x were the
start 
>> of their clawback, helped by the D200, and now with the D3/D300 they
are 
>> well and truly back in the game.
> 
> Yep.
> 
> David J. Littleboy
> Tokyo, Japan
> 
>