RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: GM of Pentax UK Interviewed

Monday, January 16, 2012

GM of Pentax UK Interviewed

Further to my last report on the four recent official Pentax interviews, here is a missed one with the higher Pentax official at the CES. The ePhotozine interviewed the General Manager of Pentax UK, Mr. Jonathan Martin, as follows:-

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/we-interview-pentax-uk-gm-jonathan-martin-18246

Below are some important or unimportant excerpts, depending on what one would interpret or interested in (and my comments follow each):-

"When Ricoh set out to buy Pentax, they said they wanted to grow the DSLR market, and fill in the gaps where there are any."

We all heard about that, but that is in past tense! Yes, they wantED!

"The K-r has finished it's final production run, which means that no more are being made, however stock is still shipping to dealers until the end of Feb/Mar, and dealers will still have stock available for people to buy after this.

While I do not know timelines, it is inevitable that a camera company would introduce a replacement for a product that is profitable and selling well."

K-r was discontinued but there is no fixed time frame for its replacement! :-(

"2012 is going to be a very exciting year, and that news is already out there, [referring to the mirrorless camera], although we can't go into details. Also we will be looking to grow strongly in the Digital SLR market."

"To be competitive in the Digital SLR market you need a full range of cameras, for example Canon and Nikon have a range of 4 cameras from entry level to professional. I can't give any more details however as the timeframe for future products is unknown."

Still, no Pentax official has ever told anything about the rumoured new Pentax mirrorless and whilst no time frame is confirmed for the future DSLR product(s) even with the confirmed discontinuation of the K-r. So, how to make a 4 hierarchy product line like C and N do when now there is only ONE camera in the family, i.e., the K-5?! >:-o

Comments (21)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

0 Vote up Vote down

Rob · 689 weeks ago

To me this was an encouraging interview. He seems to me to clearly indicate that a k-r replacement will be coming. Based on the "feb/mar" timeframe for existing k-r stock running out, that replacement might be soon.

Another encouraging sign to me - ebay has a large number of new pentax lenses from dealers. A year ago I rarely saw dealers selling Pentax lenses on ebay. Considering the "tax" you pay ebay in the form of listing fees and paypal fees, this shows me there is money being made.

I could care less about a full frame or a mirrorless. I want a K-? that is like the K-5 - the best APS-C camera on the planet.

0 Vote up Vote down

Marek · 689 weeks ago

Encouraging for me as well... They do not want to tell that there is going to be K-r replacement because they want to sell all that were made without discount. If new K-r-like camera is announced nobody will want to buy the old one. Also it seems to me that Pentax really wants to keep high(er) end DSLR in their portfolio to keep competing with N/C. We'll see ... So K-r replacement announced in Mar? And K-5-like after summer? Fingers crossed!

+1 Vote up Vote down

GordonZA · 689 weeks ago

Good luck to Pentax for the future.... as for me, I am going to get a Nikon D4... the main reason is not so much about the camera body but more about the complete lack of super telephoto lenses from Pentax.... The K5 is a really great camera at a great price BUT then you are stuck, there are no lenses over 300mm from Pentax (both the 55-300 and 300mm F4 are too slow) and you cannot get anything longer than 500mm from anyone!

You can add convertors but then you loose AF etc...

And yes you can in theory buy an older Pentax lens... however these are now several years old in design so the optics and coatings have dated. Also IF you are lucky enough to find one on ebay they owner is asking as much or more than a brand new Canon 600mm!

Sorry but I am not going to prop up the second hand industry paying hugely inflated prices.

As for the supposed plans to bring out competitive products for Nikon and Canon, with all due respect even if they did eventually bring out several new bodies, if they do happen to bring out a D4 equivalent, all their lens developement will have to go into making lenses for the mass market, so once again there is unlikely to ever be another 500mm+ lens from Pentax!

So long Pentax, thanks for the happy memories but it is now time to move on to a manufacturer that can supply.

3 replies · active 689 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

RiceHigh 110p · 689 weeks ago

300mm on APS-C may not be enough but it does still work somehow? :-) See some recent bird examples of mine:-

http://ricehigh.blogspot.com/2011/12/some-bird-ph...

0 Vote up Vote down

GordonZA · 689 weeks ago

Yep agreed and nice shots, like the last one of the Kite?, 300mm does work... I do have very nice shots from my cheap 75-300... I have had this discussion on PF with folks there about if lenses longer than 300mm are really necessary.... my answer to that is for most people they would probably never use even a 200mm let alone a 300mm... but some of us are begging Pentax to being out at least a 500mm plus some new teleconvertors...
I have been drooling over the D4, 10FPS with full AF and AE at full resolution for at least a 10second burst, plus the low light capabilities and the availablity of fast super telephoto's... um for some birding applications that is now my dream setup...
Maybe a K5 as a second body? (I love the Pentax colours)

0 Vote up Vote down

adriano februcci · 689 weeks ago

you are silly here, huge FF ND4 body in replacement for your pentax and cheap telephoto? So what are the lenses which will give you fast 500mm on FF? Seriously. And D4 is like 5k$, you can build amazing birding setup for this money.

0 Vote up Vote down

Rob · 689 weeks ago

Bummer but if you need longer lenses, Pentax is probably not the body to use. That said, Sigma offers two different 500mm lenses:

500mm EX DG APO f/4.5 (http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/500mm-f45-ex-dg-apo-hsm-sigma)

50-500mm F4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM (http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/50-500mm-f45-63-apo-dg-os-hsm-sigma)

I have not used either myself but I have read glowing reviews on both. The 50-500 gives you the option of in lens stabilization.

For me, the longer lenses are not as big an issue.

1 reply · active 689 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

RiceHigh 110p · 689 weeks ago

But Sigma lenses won't give you the Pentax colours!

+1 Vote up Vote down

raist · 688 weeks ago

""When Ricoh set out to buy Pentax, they said they wanted to grow the DSLR market, and fill in the gaps where there are any."

We all heard about that, but that is in past tense! Yes, they wantED!
"
You are being sensationalist or downright stupid. It's pretty normal to talk in a past tense in a sentence like that without meaning a change of opinion. I take the first. This takes credibility away from you.

4 replies · active 688 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

RiceHigh 110p · 688 weeks ago

Pentax had said this for long and their *desire* has NOT been realised up till now! Get it?

0 Vote up Vote down

Raist3d · 688 weeks ago

You are the one who apparently doesn't get it. "they" here refers to Ricoh, not Pentax. You even made up a new interpretation of what you wrote originally in your reply!

0 Vote up Vote down

Raist3d · 688 weeks ago

BTW, more stupidity on your part:

"Still, no Pentax official has ever told anything about the rumoured new Pentax mirrorless and whilst no time frame is confirmed for the future DSLR product(s) even with the confirmed discontinuation of the K-r. So, how to make a 4 hierarchy product line like C and N do when now there is only ONE camera in the family, i.e., the K-5?! >:-o
"

Yes, because Pentax is just going to let us know, well in advance, company confidential plans. I am sorry but what you say here is laughable. This goes for all companies and not just Pentax.

+1 Vote up Vote down

RiceHigh 110p · 688 weeks ago

You can continue your endless defence on Pentax, but this is NOT going to help them in any way. Current hard fact is that their DSLR line is now dying, new lenses are more and more difficult to find and older models have disappeared silently. Now same case holds true for the bodies, leaving K-5 alone which is the only body in the "lineup" that is *officially* still in "production", but nothing else.

As for the commercial secrets that you have been emphasizing, other makers only kept their secrets when they have many current options but yet they still have new products to be announced from time to time, but not dead silence over extended time!

0 Vote up Vote down

Gordonza · 688 weeks ago

Let me put it this way, if you had access to a working tool that gave you 10 FPS at full resolution with full AF and AE and you could get a huge assortment of fast lenses from the 70-200 2.8, the 200-400, 300 2.8, 400 2.8, 500 f4.0, 600 f4.0 plus telleconvertors all of which are extremely high quality, or you could go with a mix and match setup of sigma plus Pentax which while both are great manufacturers quite simply cannot match the Nikon system... Again the Pentax k5 can only get to ISO 51000 and 7FPS, the Nikon gets to 204000ISO and 10FPS. Then to the lenses the sigma 50-500 is a beautiful lens but too slow at f5.8 at 500mm the sigma 500mm prime is also a great lens though still slower than the Nikon... Plus in k mount there is no hsm so you are back to slow focus issues... Then you have AF comparisons... K5 has improved but is no match for the Nikon product.

And by the way I am not talking about photographing ducks sleeping on a pond in your average quiet neighbourhood duck pond, I am talking extreme conditions in remote places trying to get a photo of something elusive where you literally have one and only one chance to a photograph before the bird has gone!

Bluntly put you need every advantage you can get!!

For 99% of situations for most people a K5 and sigma lenses are perfect but for those 1% then you need to go extreme...

If that makes sense?

7 replies · active 688 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

RiceHigh 110p · 688 weeks ago

For bird shooting, I think that the AF of Canon or Nikon systems clearly wins hands down! As for the Pentax system, Gordon is right that the reach is not enough for the original available lenses and then the AF is not on a par with Canon and Nikon, hence for a lower successful rate.

0 Vote up Vote down

Pete · 688 weeks ago

Too right I've used a few Canon and Nikon models and let's not pull any punches here they stomp all over Pentax (sadly) for AF performance. They can track objects moving around the frame mostly very well with a high hit rate. The AF on even the most recent Pentax models feels dated compared to even 3/4/5 year old Nikons. A D300 or 7d will punch the living daylights out of a K-5 for sports shooting, it's not that you can't get good shots with Pentax you'll just have a lot less in focus ones and you will have to work harder to get there.

0 Vote up Vote down

Rob · 688 weeks ago

"The Pentax K5 can only get to ISO 51000 and 7FPS" Read that again and be rational. The Nikon F2 was THE professional SLR and were we still shooting film would probably have a legion of users. It could "only" shoot 5fps (and only for a VERY short period of time) and topped out at ISO 1600. It also could only shoot 1/2000th of a second max and flash sync was 1/80th. The F4 brought things to "modern" standards - 1/8000th and 1/250th sync but ISO was limited by film and 5.7fps was still the max - and only after adding an expensive grip. Yet somehow, people managed to take extraordinary images with both these systems.

Think back to the age of film. A BIG roll was 36 images. A K-5 can shoot up to 40 jpeg images at 7fps. Thats a roll gone in 4.5 sec. ISO 1600 film was reserved for special circumstances. I knew plenty of photographers who refused to shoot above ISO 100. 400 film was for "tourists." The K-5 shoots IOS 6400 as good as my K200D shoots ISO 100.

Now I am sure there are some people who REALLY need the most fps and the highest ISO. I am in the military and we have all kinds of equipment that is just ridiculous in spec because it has to be. But outside of the gadget geek and those few people who REALLY need 10fps of ISO 204000, there is no reasonable argument that the K-5 is not a useable camera.

0 Vote up Vote down

dpm · 688 weeks ago

Phew. finally some common sense...

0 Vote up Vote down

gordonza · 688 weeks ago

Hey Rob, to use your comment on military equipment... it is used because it gives you the edge and an advantage within your application... I am going to get the Nikon because it will give me the edge over anything Pentax currently has on offer. Simply as that really...

And yes, I agree for most serious photographers the K5 and a Sigma lens is an awesome combination... though for most ordinary people an iPhone is more than sufficient. It all depends on the application...

I suppose my point is that the combination of fast AF, lenses, 10FPS and the high ISO really do give me the tools and allow me that little bit extra in the extreme conditions...

+1 Vote up Vote down

RiceHigh 110p · 688 weeks ago

And the world is every changing, that is, we should compare things with the current standards today, but not the "high" standards of yesterdays.

0 Vote up Vote down

Rob · 688 weeks ago

Gordonza - I fully understand. I have to say that had I read enough about the Nikon CLS prior to jumping into DSLRs I might have gone Nikon. On the other hand, a CLS strobe cost more than all of my YN-560s put together. If you have professional reasons to use certain equipment, even the smallest edge is worth it.

RiceHigh - While I agree that we should not set the bar too low, there is a point of "good enough." I also think that comparisons to what was state of the art in film are illuminating. All things being equal, the last 10+ years have mostly been abut bringing DSLR sensors up to the standards of film. I think we did that with the K-5/D7000 generation of sensors. In fact i think they exceeded film in some ways by providing high ISO without loss of detail. TechCrunch ran an article recently about the "Death of Specs" http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/14/rip-spec/ and I think we are getting there with DSLRs. I hope Pentax decides to concentrate on what I think are "specs that matter":

Instead of fps, extend how long we can shoot at those speeds. I would rather have a camera that can shoot 30 RAW images at 7fps than 20 at 10fps.

Instead of megapixels, ISO. I think ISO is already the new arms race anyway.

Instead of tiny bodies, give me weather sealed bodies that weigh the same as non-WR.

JMHO

Post a new comment

Comment as a Guest, or login:

Tweet this comment

RiceHigh's Pentax Blog

Monday, January 16, 2012

GM of Pentax UK Interviewed

Forgot password?

Comments (21)

Post a new comment

Reference Links (by Others)

My Technical Articles (Latest First)