If you scour the depths of Pentax's web site, amongst the medical
equipment, etc., you'll find the video equipment Pentax provides with
their gear is Sony.
Some kind of merger or mutually cooperative arrangement would make sense
for both companies. Sony wants to get into the DSLR business. Pentax
would bring their own lens mount so Sony wouldn't have to develop a new
one (Sony's corporate philosophy of "propriety everything" would never
allow them to adopt something like the Kodak/Olympus mount). The
installed base of users and back catalog of existing lenses and cameras
would be a huge bonus. Pentax would get Sony's electronics manufacturing
and R&D capacity.
I don't think any of this, if true, would mean going exclusively to the
low end of the market: Sony has always tried to keep a high end presence
in audio and video. They make a lot of inexpensive gear but, like Nikon,
like to offer some very expensive stuff as well, to maintain their
image. The Sony CD player in my home stereo cost more than my ist-D.
BTW: I've been hearing the same rumours from other sources for the past
few months.
The problem is that Sony has been coasting on their reputation in
the consumer realm for over 15 years. They do make very high quality
professional gear... at a very professional price. Any of their
consumer-affordable stuff is the same bargain-basement, "Gen-u-wine
Panafonic" crap.
Pardon me for being a skeptic, but the compatibility of the
K-mount is completely at odds with the Sony "proprietary everything"
philosophy. If use today's market and prices for an analogy, I would
envision the pricing of a Sony/Pentax DSLR to be $1000 and have the build
quality of a Rebel or worse. They will also make a solid, high-quality
unit with roughly the same specs, but it will cost $5000 and only be sold
in professional markets.
I've been burned by Sony enough to be very skeptical of their
practices. They have always been the king of crappy consumer support.
If they're not currently manufacturing, selling, and making a profit on
the product, you will find *NOTHING* about it on any of their worldwide
websites.
</rant>
-Cory
*************************************************************************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
*************************************************************************
