I knew when Hoya took over Pentax, that it would spell trouble. And the K20d, whilst a nice camera, was released at a price that was well above where it should have been, simply put, it got murdered in the marketplace, add to that the overpriced K200d, and it was sales slump for pentax all round. Not that their sales were great..but they did ok before with the cheaper entry level cameras. Hoya don't have a clue how to run a camera division.

Olympus, the best they had was in the OM days, they were great cameras, they picked the wrong format with 4/3, no doubt, and micro 4/3 won't be the mega seller some suggest.

Shame to see 2 once great companies fluffing about and not doing much..

I bet many people would have liked to have seen Olympus somehow carry the OM series of cameras into the digital age. I think it would be a great idea from a marketing perspective.

Perhaps Panasonic could do a Sony and take over Olympus if the latter reaches the point where it can no longer compete.

While Panasonic is not quite in Sony's league it is still a big player and has a huge potential customer base for DSLR's with its high-end compacts and super-zooms.

Perhaps Sony-Zeiss could be followed by Lumix-Leica?

I suppose they could keep the Olympus name, but for new customers Lumix is going to be better known. Then they could start using the OM branding again.

The 4/3 system would be the real problem. With sensors getting bigger and more affordable the 4/3 sensor - no matter how good - is increasingly going to look like the poor relation. Some major redesign would be needed - and would 4/3 lenses work on an APS sensor?

I could start speculating about Samsung takeover of Pentax but I'm going to stop because I'm beginning to sound like one of those sad people on the DP forums.

Panasonic is a serious player for compacts and superzooms. But their SLR entrance has been nothing short of a spectacular disaster! I have to be cruel here a bit, the L1 was released at an earth shattering price, kept at that level for too long, then it ended up on the discount shelf, much like the SD14 from sigma. The L10 also suffered the same fate, and entry level SLR priced at semi pro levels. I bet neither sold in any decent numbers. The G1 is on sale for a wallet denting £650 odd, from one company, whilst it might drop, it's nowhere near what it should be - £250 odd..maybe.

I just don't take panasonic very seriously, not for this level. And they continue to conflict with Oly AS on the sensor, with their OIS..which makes zero sense at all, esp considering 4/3 is meant to be a standard. I see neither as a significant force in the market.

The only hope for pentax, is if someone buys it out from hoya, IMO the brand will never reach it's potential with them at the helm.

Hi Barry,

I have to say I do agree with most of what you say about Panasonic. Their compacts have been phenomenaly successful in the uk market, innovations like I-auto are great (for the target market). The slrs are a different matter though and as you say are too expensive, the G1 does look tempting and stands a reasonable chance of enticing new users and point and shoot upgraders- well it would if it was priced properly. As you say it needs to get to at least £300 as that puts it a little above the likes of the fz28 and near to the A200/300.

Pentax really deserves to do well, they are introducing lots of nice lenses that Sony really ought to have (300mm f4, 200mm f2.8 and 50-250 f4) and they all have SDM. Unfortunately they made similar mistakes to panasonic and priced the cameras too high- the K20d hit the high street at £800 odd, at the time a 40d or a700 was only a little more.

Sony do appear to have done remarkably well considering the time they have been in the market, only time will tell if the A900 willbe a true success- so fat it seems to be selling well and garnering plenty of interest (over on DPR at least) I just wish they would make a tilt and shift lens.