Originally posted by snake Pentax has put little effort in that area.
Even in the K-30 and K-01, with the latter the better video cam, it hasn't compromised still performance.
I'm not saying that in a particular camera the existing video function is somehow "hurting" the still function in the same camera, but whatever R&D they do on the video is R&D they aren't doing somewhere else (or it is more money they are spending and therefore charging). So you can't *know* in what way it may or may not be "hurting" the still side of things -- it isn't something tangible you pick up a camera and look at.
IF they decided to spruce up the video processing and in order to do that they de-prioritized making a better AF system (sooner) then it did in fact "hurt" the still function, but you can't pick up a K-30 and tell that. Or maybe they didn't make any serious sacrifice for one thing over the another and there were reasonable resources to go around (although there are always choices of priority when allocating resources as they are never unlimited), but then you're still paying for something you don't necessarily care about. If you want it to be a great video camera, and let's say they do that, and then in the next model the video stuff isn't much better but it has a built-in GPS and sophisticated navigation system and bluetooth communication and can do all this cool stuff with apps, etc -- none of which you care about. And now it costs $300 more than if it didn't have all that crap. Are you gonna wanna pay for that? It doesn't "hurt" the video mode, after all. Or they realize they can't get away with that extra cost, so they DON'T upgrade the sensor, and DON'T upgrade the processor, etc. So it is compromising things in an invisible way simply because the upgrades are absent.
It's a balancing act, I know -- I just hope they have their priorities straight like someone else said above and the primary resources should be allocated for the primary function, and I don't want to pay lots of extra $$$ for features I don't need.
Last edited by vonBaloney; 01-05-2013 at 10:49 AM.