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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
Ned Bunnell is the President of Pentax Imaging (USA), and an avid photographer. He considers himself very fortunate to have a day job that combines his love of photography with leading a company in selling and marketing cameras. Prior to Pentax, he worked in product marketing and planning roles at Canon Computer Systems, Polaroid, Adobe Systems, Agfa-Gevaert and NEC. Ned has also operated two studios over the course of his career, most recently Bunnell Photography in San Clemente, CA.
We had a chance to sit down with Ned at PMA, as well as a follow-up on some camera and market details later this fall at their press event at the International Center of Photography in New York City for their release of the K-x. Ned was very gracious to go over his past history and what lead to his current career as the president of Pentax, as well as reveal what blogs he frequents, and which Pentaxian photographers he finds inspiring. Read on!
Tell us a little about your past history as a photographer.
I grew up in Connecticut with two strong influences: my father who worked on Wall Street, and my mother who was and still is a very active watercolor artist. I would spend summers with my father while I was in prep school planning to work with my dad on Wall Street. I had a mixed childhood—interested in business but also attracted to art. While in high school, I had been a photographer and the editor of the school paper. I went to college in Boston at Northeastern and spent the first year in business school, and started to take more and more pictures.
By the end of the first year, I realized I was no longer interested in business school. I switched from Northeastern to Emerson College and started taking photography courses. Before I knew it, I was totally committed to photography. I ended up finishing my schooling at the San Francisco Art Institute. I mainly shot with Leicas and returned to Boston to work as a stringer for the Boston Globe. I did nothing but street photography and got some really good assignments. I also did a lot of graphic design work. I had two different studios over my career: I had a studio in Amherst, NH in the early 80’s with a complete darkroom for both black and white and C-chrome. I was doing photography for a little known company at that time, Brookstone. Back in the 80’s they were issuing four catalogs a year. My studio primarily was being supported by doing product photography. On any given day, I would have to shoot sometimes 25 to 30 small items that they were bringing in. I had a full-fledged studio with all the lights you could imagine.
Palladium Print, circa 1974
I then embarked on the path to where I am now. In the early 80’s, I had an opportunity to start working for a Japanese company, NEC, who was building printers. I had been a calligrapher and understood letters. They wanted me to help them design better printers. They brought me in as a consultant. I helped them design some of the first post-script printers and helped them build the typeface library for the US market. They understood the Japanese character set, but they weren’t so good with the Roman character set, so I was also able to help them there. After NEC, I worked with Adobe for a number of years and spent some time at Polaroid. With Adobe, I was doing international business development. Again, it was based on licensing software tools to convert the alphabet from Japanese manufacturers into English. Throughout this I was still taking pictures. Then was hired by Polaroid to help them turn around their digital imaging business. I then spent eight years at Canon before coming to Pentax. At Canon, I was responsible for the Bubblejet printer business in the US and it was our group that introduced Canon’s first digital camera, the Powershot 600, back in 1995.
My entire career has been focused on imaging, product planning, and marketing. I really am enjoying what I’m doing right now. We [Pentax] may not be the biggest company in terms of market share, but one thing a lot of people say, is that we’ve got the best photographer as the president in the industry. Ego aside, the point I’m making is, as a photographer, Japan understands that when we talk, I’m really the voice of the customer. I reflect a pretty deep understanding of the way photographers think and what they want, and that’s really helpful. In too many companies, the sales subsidiaries are in fact just sales subsidiaries—they need to reflect the needs of the market, and report back to headquarters what’s working and what isn’t working. There’s usually a sales bias towards that, or headquarters is never sure they believe what the US market is saying. At least I can speak to both the real market conditions, the business issues, as well as why a product is popular or not popular. I speak with conviction because I use the product.
Printed Card (example of letterpress printing, circa 1976)
Even though your business studies in college were pretty brief, do you think the exposure of that helped define the career path you took?
I think so. My father was a real stern taskmaster. I learned a lot from him in terms of understanding business, to be very practical, and really pay attention to numbers. It’s influenced how my wife and I manage our personal finances. My mother encouraged me to be creative and my father reminded me about how careful you have to be when it comes to business and to look at both the risks and rewards. You make the right decision and then you have to accept the consequences. I think I benefited from having both those strong influences.
When you’re working with feedback, being that you are the representative of the Pentax customer, how do you go about acquiring, pooling and digesting feedback you’re getting and relay that to headquarters?
Before the Internet, companies would spend a lot of money and time trying to assimilate through old-fashioned analogs like warranty cards: demographics, what you liked about the product. In the analog days, it took forever to get the information back, then you’d have to analyze it, and put all your faith into it. Another thing we used to do, which many companies still do, is spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on focus groups, going from city to city talking to 20 people in each group, to collect feedback from the major cities, doing qualitative feedback where you might show different groups of consumers mock ups of a product, i.e. the camera and talk to them about their views of whether or not they’d be interested in things like an SLR other than black. The problem with that type of research is that it’s a lot of money, it’s qualitative.
Brothers, Lowell MA
How has that changed since Hoya acquired Pentax?
The marketing test I mentioned at the New York event was the limited edition White K2000 we released in January of this year. When we talked to Hoya about doing focus groups, their view was we’re just going to build the white cameras—it’s actually a lot less expensive to build a limited number of cameras (2500), get them out into the hands of consumers and hear what they have to say about being able to touch and use a real product. That’s a very good example of how we’re working differently. With all my experience of doing these qualitative focus groups, you never really get the feedback you want. You’re asking somebody, “What if you had a product like this, would you like it?” That’s a lot different feedback than getting emails from somebody who just bought a white K2000 and talks specifically about what they like and don’t like about the camera. The combination of what we did with viral marketing, emails, blogging, we were able to get data back immediately.
Pentax historically has been more of a qualitative-driven company, that didn’t really look at data or consider data important. Hoya demands data in rote numbers about anything we do. The fact that we were able to get back to them, on how people liked this white K2000 within three months of running the test, and now here we are in September announcing the Pentax K-x (black), 18-55mm kit (review), which will be available in white, navy, red, and black. That’s less than six months after the test. We were able to turn the data around into a real product and eliminate any fear of risk that colors would be a problem. My point is, that fast of a turnaround would never have happened in the analog days where you never were able to touch or reach customers.
I enjoyed the article very much. Here's one on my wish list for Pentax:
An option for bluetooth upload of photos to computer instead of tethered. In my opinion, it seems simple that when a user presses the "play" button to see the images, a menu choice of enabling bluetooth upload could appear instead of viewing the images on the camera LCD. Since that extra menu pop-up might miff some users, allow it to be disabled in set-up options to function as all previous models. Furthermore, you would only want to run the bluetooth for minimal time since it can be a power hog. I simply want to upload photos without cable.
It is a shame that two of the links above (blog and Pentax photo gallery) appear to be hijacked by someone else (photographer, Harold ?). What happened here photo.net?
A great interview. Pentax is the only DSLR manufacturer that I know of that has this mode of direct input.
I've been using my K-7 for 10 weeks now (previous was a D300). The body certainly compares well with the D300. The easy handling actually sets it a notch above. I use it professionally, so the handling is VERY important to me.
Things I would like to see:
Viewfinder is great, but the alpha/numeric display is dim!! Can this be corrected with firmware and can it auto-adjust? Just brighter would help.
Firmware again - can the depth of field position on the on-off switch be made to turn the illumination of the top panel on/off?
Mid range zooms a little short. The 17-70mm is a great lens, but a "street shooter" in the 16-90mm would be better (I owned the Nikon 16-85mm. Very handy). I know that there are trade offs with such a range, but the lowly, old Nikon 24-120mm (original) was carried by many Pros).
Document that Green Button. It's great, but only a small portion of it's uses are documented in the manual. An addendum on the Pentax website? A second edition of the Owners Manual would be timely.
Very interesting interview. Ned seems to be very representative of the company. Quotes I found telling:
"The K-7 is a good example of our niche."
"my view of photography is probably different than a lot of people today...I don’t need a lot of different lenses."
and most interesting to me, this question and answer-
Q. Do you sometimes go to local retail store to take a look at some of the new products from other companies as part of your research?
A. "I am a pretty avid shopper. I think you have to be if you’re in any marketing, sales, or executive level position. I’m interested in not only the products themselves, but also how the product is being displayed, how it’s positioned."
Here's the problem. I'm a Pentax fan. I think they have done an excellent job with their latest products, the 60-250 zoom, the K-7, and the K-x. BUT THERE IS NO PLACE IS MY ENTIRE STATE FOR ME TO HOLD AND TRY THEM OUT! Like I said, I think they have a hit on their hands with the K-x. But for entry level cameras especially, people need to see it in a store! Sure Pentax die hards will search out a K-7 in some cases, but I can't recommend the K-x to the other sports parents, when they don't see Pentax as having any pressence in the market.
I think these new cameras can have more than niche appeal. All of those "avid shoppers" like Ned can't see them though in the US. I guess the question is whether the Pentax goal is to just be a niche company. I hope not.
I had a dream the other night. I saw a digital LX with an EVF, nice clean lines not pocketable but easy to carry that was perfect for the DA Limited lenses. Can dreams become reality? ;-)
Hi,
I have been a Pentax user since I got a Pentax S1a in 1964.
I also collect them and have about 30 including 3 Asahiflexes and an original Pentax (OP?).
Currently I am using a K10D. I am retired so updating to a K7 is not easy.
I am sorry my K10 does not have the flash connection that my istD has.
I would like the camera to be able to enter the GPS coordinates into the EXIF data.
Live viewing is not a priority but if it is available I would like it to be hinged - I am getting too old to lie down to take a low level photo. (My alternate viewfinders on my LX were great.)
Ian.
Would it not be possible to attach some kind of mirror housing to the live view screen? Maybe the image wold appear upside down or something but we elderly photographers would appreciate the possibility to compose the closeups from above.
Larseric, Sweden
I enjoyed the article. It's nice to see that a person who enjoys photography so much is in such a position to influence manufacturing.
I wanted to remark that from a personal perspective and as a shooter of many different film cameras from 35mm to 4x5, that I have been researching lately a future purchase of a more Pro/Am (meaning under $1500) style digital SLR then the P&S that I now own. This purchase will be in response to a need I have to speed up my work flow that now includes scanning, a laborious chore that is eating up too much of my time. In the course of my research looking at various bodies, lenses etc, I have looked at Pentax, read alot of test articles in various magazines and on the internet over the last year, (outside of my recent needs), and researched the opinions of the lenses. In truth I must remark that of what I have read, the Pentax offerings, and speaking outside of the lens base, always seems to lag behind it's competition in the 35mm style genre. I would truly love to buy into the name, especially what with the interesting prime lenses you have, but it seems that your sensors are just not at the top of "the" game. I do not say this to argue with the loyal customer base, but to let you know what I have found in research.
As a more professional then amateur shooter I need a fewer frills hot rod shooter that can kick out top class image files. I need to do minimum processing and the colors must be right in order to get me to invest my hard earned money into a new lens collection. If your going to win converts to your brand, especially us older shooters, skip the colors, make the bodies "easily" holdable no matter the size and produce a sensor that gets out to Iso 1600 without a bunch of noise. Btw, my fist Slr ever was a Spotmatic F and my last Pentax was a K1000. I would love to see Pentax succeed and challenge Nikon and Canon so I can invest again.
