Do you remember the Pentax MX1? It was a brass point-and-shoot camera that was beloved by many. It returned in popularity two years ago, and in many ways, it represents a time when cameras were just so much different. Truly, I wish that Pentax would make it again — but without a digital screen, the way so many point-and-shoot cameras are being made today. Seriously, the Japanese camera market feels very monotonous, boring, and not at all exciting. At times, it feels like the designers and product managers have brain rot because all they’re doing is consuming content on social media and Youtube.
For several years, I’ve been saying that the camera world (as it pertains to photography) needs to embrace what the watch world did. You see, when the smartphone killed watches, they became a product for enthusiasts and for those of us looking to have something a bit more unique on our wrists. What’s more, some of them are also still professional tools.
Sound familiar? It should.
But for some odd reasons, the camera brands never adapted. They leaned more into the technology than the features and experience of the product. I mean, look at the menus of nearly any camera out there. If you printed them out, they’d probably be thicker than an encyclopedia. Obviously, that’s an exaggeration, but it surely feels that way.
That’s why I really think that it’s time for Pentax to do something weird and unique. The Pentax 17 camra was surely a good idea, but I don’t think that it was designed to go after the people who would actually buy the camera. If the brand charged that amount for something digital, then I think that there would be promise.
I mean, if the Chinese and American companies can do it, why can’t Pentax?
Pentax: please do something weird and unique. Maybe take your K1 II DSLR and put it in a retro-style camera body of some sort. If you did that, I’d surely buy it just because I’m so sick of staring at screens and I’d love to use some sort of DSLR again.