they make DSLRs?

aside from the usual suspects, canon and nikon--and now dead minolta zombie turned into sony there are surprisingly a lot of others. there's always sigma (a lens manufacturer that makes excellent canon clone lenses and weird photosensor cameras), fuji (nikon's clone, at least it works with all their lenses, with an even weirder photosensor). then there's pentax, which makes one of the cheapest, but really good prosumer rigs.

lumix and olympus are around, and having a micro 4/3rds war. then there's samsung. when i saw one of these thingies being wielded by an overweight snowbird that asked me why i needed a "big flash" when these cameras have a popup one, i was confused.

what's the purpose of making a DSLR line based around a handful of lenses when the big boys have dozens of NEW lenses, and choices extending into hundreds when older lenses (compatible) are considered and aftermarket (sigma, tamron, cosina, etc) glass? and that doesn't even include flashes...

when you buy into one of these things, you buy into a modular system. if you don't have any support, there's no reason as not to just jam a noninterchangeable lens onto a body and be like the decent powershot series.

Whut was the question again?

I don't think there was a question.

Sony has a lot of fans because Minolta lenses will still work on the new bodies.

Not sure about the other manufacturers though.

dontcallmeash wrote in post #10037057
what's the purpose of making a DSLR line based around a handful of lenses when the big boys have dozens of NEW lenses, and choices extending into hundreds when older lenses (compatible) are considered and aftermarket (sigma, tamron, cosina, etc) glass? and that doesn't even include flashes...
.

Well geez, I guess you have it all figured out. I'll call Pentax and tell them to cease production

All those wonderful Limited prime lenses can thrown away and everyone can now just shoot Canikon.

egordon99 wrote in post #10037499
Well geez, I guess you have it all figured out. I'll call Pentax and tell them to cease production

All those wonderful Limited prime lenses can thrown away and everyone can now just shoot Canikon.

i love pentax. they just have dropped off of the face of the earth in terms of market share.

my first camera was a 1970s zenit (KMZ) pentax k-mount.

dontcallmeash wrote in post #10037609
i love pentax. they just have dropped off of the face of the earth in terms of market share.

my first camera was a 1970s zenit (KMZ) pentax k-mount.

I used to shoot Pentax when I first got back into photography in 2005. I had a *ist DS, followed by a K10D, and a couple of FA primes and the DA* 50-135mm. Nice optics, great low ISO performance (especially the K10D), not so good autofocus (although I've heard they're getting better)

egordon99 wrote in post #10037620
I used to shoot Pentax when I first got back into photography in 2005. I had a *ist DS, followed by a K10D, and a couple of FA primes and the DA* 50-135mm. Nice optics, great low ISO performance (especially the K10D), not so good autofocus (although I've heard they're getting better)

my old man took all of my baby photos with the zenit. when he bought a maxxum 7000i in the 80s, he gave the soviet-era zenit.

i still have it somewhere. i switched over to a nikon FM2 for photography class in high school.

Check out my thread: Canon and Nikon vs. everything else..

I still don't know why.. lol

dontcallmeash wrote in post #10037057
what's the purpose of making a DSLR line based around a handful of lenses when the big boys have dozens of NEW lenses, and choices extending into hundreds when older lenses (compatible) are considered and aftermarket (sigma, tamron, cosina, etc) glass? and that doesn't even include flashes...

I think you're question is why are there other manufacturers besides canon and nikon. It's the free market and if a company wants to squeeze in and try to get market share, then that's their choice. No one is forced to buy their equipment and if they don't sell enough, then they're out of the market. When Sony introduced a DSLR several years ago, I thought they were crazy, but they appear to be doing all right with that system (although I don't have any of their stuff). Who knows? Maybe a smaller company will come up with some new thing and sell the patent rights to canon and nikon.

dontcallmeash wrote in post #10037609
i love pentax. they just have dropped off of the face of the earth in terms of market share.

my first camera was a 1970s zenit (KMZ) pentax k-mount.

My first SLR was a pentax in about 1973. I have know idea of model number

Still not sure the purpose of this thread though

In the fourties and fifties, there were car and truck makers that did nothing but buy up old chasis at the junkyards and rebuild and recycle them with their bodies and nameplate. they have all died off, leaving behind some very rare marks of automobile for collectors to look for.
Why couldn't someone make a body that used old FD lenses and recorded digital images? Or better yet, just a digital back for an AE or Nikon F body?
I am so old, I remember when "digital back" meant "date back" and all it did was put an LED stamp on your exposure-Neeto!

Most consumers don't need the range of the whole system when buying DSLR's which is why they buy things other than Canon or Nikon.