Interview with Hiraku Kawauchi, Head of Marketing of Pentax Ricoh Imaging Japan, by the PF

(URL: http://youtu.be/PP-t4ODEqbs)

This time I think the PF guys have done a good job, they carried out the Interview at the CP+ at Japan and have done the translated scripts. I am not sure if they are actually sponsored by Pentax or not for the trip, but one thing is certain, i.e., now they have close relationship with the official Pentax. Nonetheless, I think they have asked a few good questions that we Pentaxians have been concerning about including some long lasting Pentax issues, somehow indirectly. Putting aside those pure marketing and sales talks by Hiraku, here are some more important points and messages that I am extracting from the interview, quoted and summarised as follows:-

- At 4'30": DA50/1.8 and FA50/1.4 will co-exist.

- After 4'30": Whether the DA50/1.8 has the Quick-Shift Focusing (QSF) mechanism cannot be disclosed! (But nevermind, there is 99% of chance that it won't have! It looks exactly like the DA35/2.4, which is essentially a DAL, but not a true DA!)

- After 7'00": OVF is meaningless and EVF is not present for the K-01! (Well, we all knew about the stance of Pentax since the K-01 was marketed! :-|)

- Before 8'00": Astrotracer (and actually also the navigation) function(s) of the O-GPS1 is(are) not supported on the K-01.

- After 10'00": There is currently not many FF lenses in production and the time-frame for a FF body is uncertain.

- After 11'30": DSLR is still required for higher performance and EVF cannot replace OVF with the current technologies.

- After 12'30": There is no FF mirrorless body on their product development roadmap.

- At 14'10": Pentax productions will not be moved back to Japan. (Yes, we all knew!)

- After 15'00": The DA*16-50 SDM lens will be replaced.

After all, this interview is still worth watching. But I just wonder why after the publication of it for more than 12 hours with email alerts to all PF members, there is only about two thousand watches to the video up to now. :-o So, I think it's time for me to promote it and encourage you to watch! :-) It is just because I think it is still valuable, otherwise I just won't bother to mention it! Nevertheless, marketing and sales talks are always existent in between statements but Hiraku is actually a marketing guy, right?