Pentax rumours become truth: *istDL to come as low budget model

On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 10:42:23 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

Trapezium wrote:

There will almost certainly be other downgrades from the Ds which, itself,
was downgraded from the D - if this keeps up we'll soon be back at the
digital equivalent of a box Brownie.

Sounds like a winner to me. Perhaps Kodak should take notice now that
they've killed their SLR.

A manual mode only DSLR with basic functions but well-built would be
very welcome.
-Rich

"Steven M. Scharf" wrote in message
link.net...

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
Trapezium wrote:

The last thing that the market needs now is yet another discount
de-featured
DSLR.

It may be what Pentax needs to keep less photography-serious Pentax lens
owners from running to Canon.

Perhaps, but I don't think that their business case for this camera is to
only be able to sell them to existing Pentax lens owners, even though
this
is certain to be the actual group that buys such a camera.

The best hope for Pentax and/or Konica-Minolta, is for someone like Sony
to
buy one of them. Olympus is already beyond hope with the 4:3 system.

Today the Minolta Canada rep confirmed a soon to be announced 5D to compete
in the Rebel, *istDS, D50, E300 market..

"Morris Sachs" wrote:

I was a Pentax MX 35mm user. I now have a fairly comprehensive Nikon
DSLR system. I will be very interested in the new Pentax *istDS as I
have a drawer-full of old K-mount lenses that served me well for many
years and that are now doing nothing. I wouldn't expect top-line
performance from the DS, but if it's cheap enough, I'd get it just to
be able to use my old-buddy K lenses once in a while.

Do just that! Though a photographer off and on for 50 years, I never owned a
Pentax. A week ago I bought a *istDS and now am busy surfing eBay for
exactly the kind of oldie-but-goodie, cheap Pentax lenses you already have.
I chose the Pentax over the Nikon and Canon in the same price range because
the *istDS handles like a true classic SLR, and though full of bells and
whistles is also VERY easy to use in manual fashion... its designers must
have catered to old geezers like me who prefer stick shift to automatic.

"Trapezium" wrote:

So they've cobbled together a camera that can be manufactured for
noticeably less than the cost of producing the Ds - which only seems to
confirm that Pentax have made a conscious decision to become a 'cheap'
brand.

Cheap? The *istDS has a large, bright true pentaprism. The Canon and
Nikon DSLRs in the same price range make do with dimmer, smaller
pentamirrors.

As for market strategy, I wager the "gets no respect" Pentax firm has over
the years sold more SLRs to more satisfied buyers than both Nikon and Canon
combined. Not everybody wants or needs a Corvette... Pentax is the Honda
and Toyota of the camera industry :^)

--
Anti-Spam address: my last name at his dot com
Charles Gillen -- Reston, Virginia, USA

RichA wrote:

A manual mode only DSLR with basic functions but well-built would be
very welcome.

The *istDS is exactly that, whenever you want it to be. All controls are
very familiar to us old manual shooters, and not deeply buried in
unaccessable screens.

Trapezium wrote:

"Darrell" wrote in message
...
[..]
Actually that is what the market is calling for. The biggest growth in
dSLR is the sub $1,000(usd) market. People who think the market revolves
around a $2,000 dSLR body are dreaming.

You're right - but why bring out another low spec dslr?

To compete. :-)

- why not forego the R&D costs of the 'new' model, and just cut the price
of the Ds?

The only reason I can think of is that, for Pentax, the *istDs is too
expensive to produce, and cutting the price long term isn't viable.

Yup. The *ist DS is a tremendous value at its current price.

So they've cobbled together a camera that can be manufactured for
noticeably less than the cost of producing the Ds - which only seems to
confirm that Pentax have made a conscious decision to become a 'cheap'
brand.

Actually, if you look at their past products, you find that each SLR
series has a flagship, and then a bunch of reiterations of that flagship
that are cheaper to manufacture. I mean, there's no good reason for
there to be 11 different versions of the MZ/ZX line, other than to mark
which ease-of-manufacturing change was made.

Pentax isn't a 'cheap' brand. They make economical low-end versions of
their products, just like other camera manufacturers. On the other hand,
when I picked up a Canon Rebel XT at the store, I was afraid it was
going to crumble under the pressure of my hand. That is, to me, 'cheap.'
I know that Canon makes worthwhile products, but it's low-end entry is
not one of them. This doesn't mean Canon is a 'cheap' brand, and neither
does it mean they're a 'pro' brand.

"Morris Sachs" wrote in message
om...


The DS (and, now, the DL) aren't aimed at existing SLR users - they are
targetted at the folks moving up from a digital point-and-shoot. That's
the only area in the digital camera marketplace where there is growth,
and an opportunity for Pentax to capture a little more market share.

I was a Pentax MX 35mm user. I now have a fairly comprehensive Nikon DSLR
system. I will be very interested in the new Pentax *istDS as I have a
drawer-full of old K-mount lenses that served me well for many years and
that are now doing nothing. I wouldn't expect top-line performance from
the DS, but if it's cheap enough, I'd get it just to be able to use my
old-buddy K lenses once in a while.

In that case get a DS, you will not be disappointed, it is not a "dumbed
down" D, in fact some of it's features are improved over the D.

Yeah, pretty bad, you get that sometimes,.LOL

I will try again.

Amazon has a page where you can pre-order one.

And while I am here I am still amazed at the people that say the Ds is
"dumbed down" , go to DP Review and do a comparison, it stacks up very well
with other D-SLR's and they work really well.


"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
Pete D wrote:

Amazon already have them for preordering.

I hope you realize how illogical that sounds. ;-)

--
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-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.

"Charles Gillen" wrote in message
...
"Morris Sachs" wrote:

I was a Pentax MX 35mm user. I now have a fairly comprehensive Nikon
DSLR system. I will be very interested in the new Pentax *istDS as I
have a drawer-full of old K-mount lenses that served me well for many
years and that are now doing nothing. I wouldn't expect top-line
performance from the DS, but if it's cheap enough, I'd get it just to
be able to use my old-buddy K lenses once in a while.

Do just that! Though a photographer off and on for 50 years, I never
owned a
Pentax. A week ago I bought a *istDS and now am busy surfing eBay for
exactly the kind of oldie-but-goodie, cheap Pentax lenses you already
have.
I chose the Pentax over the Nikon and Canon in the same price range
because
the *istDS handles like a true classic SLR, and though full of bells and
whistles is also VERY easy to use in manual fashion... its designers must
have catered to old geezers like me who prefer stick shift to automatic.

Yes, absolutely agree, they handle so nicely it continues to amaze and
thrill me. I have a couple of older lenses, they are great, 50mm F2 K mount,
50mm F1.8 S mount, Tamron 28mm F2.8, metering works very nicely stopped
down. Looking for something a bit bigger for some long shots. Not that happy
with the kit Sigma lenses that I got but they are okay under most
conditions.

"Paul Mitchum" wrote in message
...
Trapezium wrote:

"Darrell" wrote in message
...
[..]
Actually that is what the market is calling for. The biggest growth in
dSLR is the sub $1,000(usd) market. People who think the market
revolves
around a $2,000 dSLR body are dreaming.

You're right - but why bring out another low spec dslr?

To compete. :-)

- why not forego the R&D costs of the 'new' model, and just cut the price
of the Ds?

The only reason I can think of is that, for Pentax, the *istDs is too
expensive to produce, and cutting the price long term isn't viable.

Yup. The *ist DS is a tremendous value at its current price.

So they've cobbled together a camera that can be manufactured for
noticeably less than the cost of producing the Ds - which only seems to
confirm that Pentax have made a conscious decision to become a 'cheap'
brand.

Actually, if you look at their past products, you find that each SLR
series has a flagship, and then a bunch of reiterations of that flagship
that are cheaper to manufacture. I mean, there's no good reason for
there to be 11 different versions of the MZ/ZX line, other than to mark
which ease-of-manufacturing change was made.

Pentax isn't a 'cheap' brand. They make economical low-end versions of
their products, just like other camera manufacturers. On the other hand,
when I picked up a Canon Rebel XT at the store, I was afraid it was
going to crumble under the pressure of my hand. That is, to me, 'cheap.'
I know that Canon makes worthwhile products, but it's low-end entry is
not one of them. This doesn't mean Canon is a 'cheap' brand, and neither
does it mean they're a 'pro' brand.


Yes, but, my contention is that Pentax may have decided to *become* a
solely cheap brand and that the cut-down DL is part of a strategy that will
involve ending the costly production of the Ds once the DL is on stream

If I'm correct, Pentax will not bother offering a high spec-D
eplacement. - they might well have decided to try and make some money at
the bottom end of the market and to forgo higher spec/lower profit cameras.

This would be disappointing for current Pentax owners who are waiting to
upgrade to a higher spec dslr.