Good for Pentax! Eliminate the horrible little P&Ss

In article <3bicr3dpi2iodgoge828arb32hnihhnrl8.TakeThisOut@4ax.com>, John Navas
<spamfilter1.TakeThisOut@navasgroup.com> wrote:

> >olympus is stuck with a 4/3" sensor when the rest of the dslr market is
> >moving to full frame sensors. there is *no* growth path for them.
>
> In your opinion. Not in mine, and Olympus is clearly doing very well,
> better than Pentax by a large margin.

a large part of their sales are for p&s cameras, not dslrs. pentax
dslrs are selling quite well, and much better than olympus. one key
advantage are the large numbers of excellent pentax lenses available on
the used market.

here are some numbers from 2006:
<http://bcnranking.jp/sys_imgs/news/article/11835-digi_camera_2.gif>
<http://bcnranking.jp/sys_imgs/news/article/11835-00.gif>

if olympus is doing better 'by a large margin' why are there no olympus
models listed anywhere on the chart, and olympus' trend mostly flat, at
the bottom? granted, that doesn't include the e3 that was just
released, but pentax and sony have more offerings at more price points.
and as i stated before, the 4/3rds sensor is going to be a big issue in
the future.

> >what olympus needs to do is capitalize on the fact the sensor produces
> >decent images and make a compact camera that's actually compact, rather
> >than make dslrs that are just slightly smaller than what nikon, canon
> >and pentax make.
>
> Four Thirds is actually doing surprisingly well:
> * Fuji
> * Kodak
> * Leica
> * Olympus
> * Panasonic
> * Sanyo
> * Sigma

of those, only leica, olympus and panasonic make 4/3rds cameras, and
leica is a niche player.

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:36:59 -0800, nospam <nospam RemoveThis @nospam.invalid> wrote
in <150220081936598696%nospam@nospam.invalid>:

>In article <3bicr3dpi2iodgoge828arb32hnihhnrl8 RemoveThis @4ax.com>, John Navas
><spamfilter1 RemoveThis @navasgroup.com> wrote:

>> In your opinion. Not in mine, and Olympus is clearly doing very well,
>> better than Pentax by a large margin.
>
>a large part of their sales are for p&s cameras, not dslrs. pentax
>dslrs are selling quite well, and much better than olympus.

From my prior post (did you miss it?):
<http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=16898>

By sector, sales at the imaging equipment division, which deals in
digital cameras, increased 14.6 pct to 253.3 billion yen, with GLOBAL
SHIPMENTS OF DIGITAL SINGLE-LENS REFLEX CAMERAS SOARING 85 PCT TO
370,000 UNITS. [emphasis added]

The same period sales increase for Pentax was ... ?

>one key
>advantage are the large numbers of excellent pentax lenses available on
>the used market.

That's not a significant factor in the new equipment market.

>if olympus is doing better 'by a large margin' why are there no olympus
>models listed anywhere on the chart, and olympus' trend mostly flat, at
>the bottom?

See above.

>granted, that doesn't include the e3 that was just
>released, but pentax and sony have more offerings at more price points.
>and as i stated before, the 4/3rds sensor is going to be a big issue in
>the future.

In your opinion. I disagree.

>> Four Thirds is actually doing surprisingly well:
>> * Fuji
>> * Kodak
>> * Leica
>> * Olympus
>> * Panasonic
>> * Sanyo
>> * Sigma
>
>of those, only leica, olympus and panasonic make 4/3rds cameras, and
>leica is a niche player.

Fuji, Kodak, Olympus, and Panasonic are all serious players, and Leica
adds considerable cachet. I wouldn't be surprised to see Four Thirds
cameras from Fuji and Kodak in the relatively near future.

--
Best regards,
John Navas
Panasonic DMC-FZ8 (and several others)