Just one other concern: market share. In 2007, the major players in the worldwide DSLR market were Canon (43% and falling), Nikon (40% and climbing), Sony (6%), and Olympus (6%). By difference, all others (Fuji, Kodak, Panasonic, Pentax) make up just five percent.

From a business perspective, will a company be willing and able to stay in a business segment where they have such a small piece of the pie? I certainly hope so, because some of the most innovative features seem to originate from the smaller companies trying to wow the consumer and capture sales away from the slower moving behemoths at the top of the heap.

Chuck,

When I first started working after high school my first full time job was selling cameras in a major department store in Vancouver, B.C. I didn’t know bupkis about cameras or anything that was involved with my job. Learned while working, and started playing in the photography field.

At that time, (1966) Pentax and Nikon were the biggest lines we carried and had very comparable accessories, etc. Canon was there, but was just not a major player in my store. Everybody lusted after Nikon, put it was always just a little more expensive than the Pentax stuff.

When I went looking after I decided to purchase a digital camera when I retired and was surprised to find out that Pentax seemed to have slipped well back into the pack and nowhere near the accessory line available for Nikon and Canon.

I just checked out the Pentax on line web site and can find nothing to refute that still.

I hadn’t realized that they had slipped so far until I read your post.

They still seem to be producing solid stuff, but do you remember Yashica, Miranda, Minolta, Konica, . . .

John,
My first film SLR was a Mamiya/Sekor using Pentax screw thread lenses. Mamiya put out a decent,affordable product. Too bad they went away from 35mm SLRs to medium format camera gear. I really hope those companies in the 5% pocket can weather the storm and stay in business.
Chas

Do Mamiya still make cameras? I wondered about it the other day and they don't get a mention in the "Camera Finder" on Flickr. They and Yashica made some quality stuff.

Good points about the smaller camera companies in this financial climate..... some surely will fall by the wayside. Pentax recently merged with Hoya and are probably strong enough to weather the storm. Sony of course will be strong enough, though if they don't sell their a900 much then they could also pull the plug on the camera division. Similar with Panasonic.

Perhaps the biggest problem will be that the big companies will reduce their R&D, though at times I think we've come as far as we can with the dSLR.

I remember reading Thom Hogan's predictions...
http://www.bythom.com/2009predictions.htm
That was early October 2008.
Yes, there may be some concern with Pentax. Otherwise, I know happy Pentax DSLR users with great results, and I must admit the cameras fit well in my small hands and are easy to handle and use.

I read an article a few weeks ago about the company that is most innovative in the camera world. Who? None other than Casio. Definitely a small player in photo business,but very innovative with neat little extras on their cameras that the "big boys"don't bother with. I just wish I could remember where I read about that.
Chas

My second digital camera, a little 1 or 2 mp p&s was a Casio. It was awesome. It had a swivel lens, an 8X zoon lens, AE and Shutter priority modes, as well as full manual and even bulb flash setting. It came with a remote (not cordless, but still handy to have.) It had intuitive, easy to use menus and controls. It was like a little pocket dslr just without an interchangeable lens. I had never used an slr then and assumed this was normal for all cameras. Boy, was I disappointed when my next "step up" p&s didn't do such nice things as display the shutter speed and aperature on the lcd as I composed my shots.

Courtney

Talking of various new camera sales "strategies", I recently came across a little piece about a new Olympus camera. It's not a "true" dSLR, but it's got some pretty impressive features and seems very good value. Doesn't appear to do raw files, and I don't know about what other SLR-like facilities it has - I'll wait for a more comprehensive review - but this could fit the bill of a lot of people that want to be creative on a budget. Looks good, too.

http://digital-photography-school.com/olympus-sp-590uz

Doesn't appear to do raw files
http://digital-photography-school.com/olympus-sp-590uz

The link says 'has the ability to shoot in raw..."

I had some Pentax film cameras and thought it only logical that I would switch to Pentax when I went digital.
The experience was a huge disappointment and I sold all of my Pentax equipment and went with Canon.
To start, although the old Pentax lenses will work with a Pentax digital body, they will not work well mechanically and sometimes optically. If you are going to lose auto focus capability and in some cases metering linkage you are losing allot of the fun and advantage of a modern digital camera. Some of my older lenses would not match optically the digital resolution of the newer lenses. After a while I found the another reason to switch. Quite simply there are not allot of digital Pentax bodies out there and as a result the lenses and accessories available to Canon and Nikon are not available for Pentax. Until recently Pentax did not have a prime 300mm available. If you wanted a lens of this length you had to scour ebay where once or twice a year an old 300mm lens would come up for bidding and the bids would run upwards of $1200 for an old lens in poor condition. Their zoom lenses are limited both in focal length and in speed. There is no 400 or 500 or 600mm lens available for the nature photographer. Even aftermarket lens companies like Tamron and Sigma do not make their best lenses available for the Pentax mount. The Sigma 100-300mm zoom is not available for Pentax mount neither is the Sigma 500mm lens. About six months ago Pentax was taken over by Hoya.
Some people were expecting big things from Hoya but so far nothing has happened of note. If you want a camera that is slow to focus ( compared to other brands, has more then its share of digital noise and an extremely limited line of lenses and accessories, go with Pentax, otherwise bite the bullet and start over with Nikon or Canon where everything you might need now and in the future is available