I think Rob makes a good point, and if Pentax are late to the market I am sure they will pick the eyes out of competitive products. In addition, I would be reasonably certain that the experience gained in making the Optio series will stand them in good stead when making a DSLR, as much of the technology will be the same. If I were making the business plan for Pentax vis-a-vis a DSLR, I would be looking at accepting that Generation 1 will lose money: I would plan to use it to gain market share and user awareness, through widespread advertising. I would expect to incorporate a combination of good, well-proven, but not necessarily cutting-edge technology, reliability, flexibility (existing glass usage), and affordability. I might expect to sink $X million into this, but to build on the results for a longer-term, profit-making operation. To some extent, the doom-sayers who say that Pentax (or anyone else for that matter) who can't make money from DSLR's because of the ever-advancing technology tend to lose sight of the fact that much of that advance is incremental, and does not mean you have to throw away everything you do right now. At this stage I wouldn't necessarily be worrying about full-frame chips - get to the market with something that works, at 6 MP or greater, or stack two side by side and sort the integration out electronically.
John Coyle Brisbane, Australia On Monday, October 14, 2002 9:50 AM, Rob Studdert [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote: <SNIP> > > If Pentax does produce DSLR then they have no excuses whatsoever for > not ensuring that it is flawless within its design specifications. They > have a pretty good track record to this point in film cameras and now tens of > competing products from their peers to scrutinize. > > Cheers, > > Rob Studdert
