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I haven't heard anything, but will keep my eyes open! That would be a really significant news indeed!
If it's true, let's hope things don't turn out like Contax - the brand is being discontinued by Kyocera after being bought out by it...
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I don't know if that is good news or bad, surely to the die-hard Pentax fans it will mean more. Sony is a huge company with a lot of money in R&D and marketing. If anyone can bring the SLR to everyone digitally that can't be a bad thing. Never been overly fond of their image quality on their cameras like the F828 etc.
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I havenât heard these rumours but I would be quite surprised that if Sony did want to create it's own DSLR it would need to buy Pentax to achieve it. Why not create a Sony body that can be used with Nikon/Canon/Pentax lenses? Or perhaps go the whole hog and create a new system like Olympus. In fact the more I think about it the less likely it sounds to me that Sony would even create a DSLR. I feel that as time goes on we are going to see the one piece digital camera improve and improve and people are really going to have to think twice about the cost/weight benefit of a digicam over a DSLR. What I would really really like is a compact digicam with a DSLR sized CCD/CMOS - Good 3X zoom lens and manual features.
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While I don't believe this is true, it is possible that Sony want to break into the DSLR market. If they do, then I think it would make a huge amount of sense to them to buy out an existing DSLR manufacturer simply because the Sony name would not sell DSLRs....Sony have no credibility as a manufacturer of high quality photographic equipment. The F828, was possibly their attempt to achieve credibility with "serious" photographers, and was, in my opinion , a dismal failure. In the end it served only to reinforce the idea that Sony don't make cameras (other than the average Joe P&S with bells and whistles variety). Looking at the current DSLR market there is no-one making them that didn't have an established name as a manufacturer of film SLR's going back years. Buying Pentax would give them the credibility they need in this market, (at least with folks who've never had ny previous interest in SLR photography).
Unfortunately, I believe this would be a disaster for Pentax users as Sony's main thrust will, as always, be on marketing to the masses and making the maximum possible profit. This will mean cheap, plastic bodies, loss of backwards compatibility and a move in the direction of proprietary batteries and accessories that, like other faceless corporate manufacturers, change with every new model to force more profit out of the pockets of the buyers.
The only way I could see this being helpful to Pentax users would be if Sony were to use its undoubted marketing prowess to sell the Pentax system, but leave the design and manufacture of the cameras and lenses entirely in the hands of the exisiting Pentax team, with the whole Pentax ideology intact. I can't see that Sony would be happy to do that though as they would want an immediate and huge return on their investment, so I believe that if the story is true then Sony really only want to buy the Pentax name - any DSLRs produced by Sony under a Pentax badge will be Pentax in name only.
--NN
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