[Class A]

• Are there plans to add further acceleration sensors so that image stabilisation works in macro situations as well? Olympous calls this "5-axis image stabilization".
• Could they please look into supporting a "Apodisation Simulator"?
• Any chance that a future Pentax DSLR will have a conventional AA-filter again? The AA-simulator is a cool idea but it doesn't work beyond 1/1000s and its effect is not homogenous across the sensor.
• What happened when they designed the D-BG button layout to be different to that of the K-3's back?
• When will Ricoh finally fix the terrible New Zealand Pentax distributor problem? They are the laughing stock of the industry round here and are killing sales in more than one way. A change is long overdue.
• Are there plans to support tethered shooting (e.g., collaborating with Adobe to get Lightroom support)? The K-3 has a USB3 port and it seems a waste not to use it for tethering. WiFi image transfer is cool, but cable-based USB3 transfer should be a lot quicker.
• Are there plans to bring back sensor-based SR back to the video mode? Seems a waste to not use this unique capability of Pentax DSLRs.

[mikemike]

How is their progress in re-establishing a US retail presence? #of stores carrying pentax when Ricoh bought and how many carry it now? How many major metro areas have at least one shop that stocks pentax brand DSLRs and lenses?

RE: fast primes, how about DA* wide angle, normal, and 135.

[munch008]

Tethering support beyond the flucard. Do they plan to eventually have SDK to allow third-party software (i.e. Lightroom) to support Pentax camera for tethering?

Ruggiex has a great point big bump for him. Also do they have any plan for sports shooters. I would really like to see a Pentax version of a 70-200 F 2.8. The Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Zoom Lens minus the VC and with a WR label + a serrious housing like the Cannon and Nikon would be a good starting point.

I need a quality converter. x1,5 or x2

[aurele]

What does Pentax think of their current lens linue-up ? is it in adequacy of their vision of what Pentax is heading toward in the future ?

[bobmaxja]

They will never answer 95% of all the questions you are requesting. Rarely Japanese companies will divulgue what they work on. Better have a low expectation

[aurele]

i know, hence the "do you think what you have fit your vision" to know if they will keep going this path or changing.

Anyway, Adam will do great as always

[kadajawi]

• Are there plans to add further acceleration sensors so that image stabilisation works in macro situations as well? Olympous calls this "5-axis image stabilization".
• Could they please look into supporting a "Apodisation Simulator"?
• Any chance that a future Pentax DSLR will have a conventional AA-filter again? The AA-simulator is a cool idea but it doesn't work beyond 1/1000s and its effect is not homogenous across the sensor.
• What happened when they designed the D-BG button layout to be different to that of the K-3's back?
• When will Ricoh finally fix the terrible New Zealand Pentax distributor problem? They are the laughing stock of the industry round here and are killing sales in more than one way. A change is long overdue.
• Are there plans to support tethered shooting (e.g., collaborating with Adobe to get Lightroom support)? The K-3 has a USB3 port and it seems a waste not to use it for tethering. WiFi image transfer is cool, but cable-based USB3 transfer should be a lot quicker.
• Are there plans to bring back sensor-based SR back to the video mode? Seems a waste to not use this unique capability of Pentax DSLRs.

I thought 5 axis means it has, well, 5 axis instead of just 3 as in the Pentax. It's more about the motors inside. Besides shifting around the sensor you can also tilt the sensor in the Olympus... (which btw. is awesome. Every lens is a tilt+shift lens instead of "just" a shift lens!)

My main question is really why they killed the mechanical SR for video in the K-30, K-50 and K-3. Have they tried their electronic substitute, cause if they have, how could they have thought "mh, that'll do". 20 seconds with it is enough to know that it's rubbish. Even in theory it is useless.

[Weevil]

A feature I would like to see on all DSLR's is the dedicated switch or button, (like that on the back of my K200D), which turns SR on and off. This is such a boon for wildlife and action photographers using telephoto lenses, having the ability to quickly switch between SR on for stationary subjects and SR off when panning subjects in motion. The feature could also be implemented via a secondary function of a programmable button.

I will 2nd these 4 questions.

From a wildlife/birder`s pov:

The K3 seems a really good step in the right direction but now the existing line of lenses is becoming a bottleneck in terms of speed.
- Plans on in-lens focus motors (e.g. update SDM, ditch it in favour of DC, upgrade on speed, etc)
- With the K3 there has been a significant leap in AF performance, esp in the tracking department. Right now there is a huge gap between the DA*300 and the HD DA560, are there any plans to fill this up? (DA400 F5.6 or a revamp of the FA* 300 F2.8 for instance)
- With the above in mind, when is that darn TC gonna come out? Oh, and when it does make sure the DA* 300 is updated with a faster an more reliable AFmotor

Sync speed, sync speed, sync speed) Can it be done via firmware or we have to wait for new camera?? Just tell them to alowe flash to fire above 1/180 and we'll crop curtain left overs in frame.And of course FF...will it have SR? Recent patents are not promising in that area...

Will they be rebranding the Tamron 150-600 as a Pentax long zoom?
Date for the Pentax Teleconverter?

Update on expected delivery of 16-85ish, teleconverter and 120-380ish zoom.

Will there ever be 400mm or 600mm primes again?

Do they feel 24mp is the limit for aps-c?

Are they considering a revamped flash technology allowing more control of flash settings from the camera?

Update on the flu-card.

How do they see the Q line? Where are they going with it?

Will we ever see a successor to the k-01?

full frame ! ! !

1) Any plan to fill the gap between 300mm and 560 mm with a DA* lens (e.g. a DA*400/5.6 or a DA*100-400 or longer zoom)
2) any plan to revamp all the DA* lens with the new HD coatings and the DC motor instead of the SDM
3) date for the TC release

+1
Add another vote for all these ones!

[Class A]

I thought 5 axis means it has, well, 5 axis instead of just 3 as in the Pentax. It's more about the motors inside. Besides shifting around the sensor you can also tilt the sensor in the Olympus... (which btw. is awesome. Every lens is a tilt+shift lens instead of "just" a shift lens!)

No, the "five axis stabilisation" is not about tilting the sensor.

Watch this video illustrating the "five axis stabilisation":

You Tube

You Tube

You'll see that what Pentax needs to add are acceleration sensors for translational movement. Two more sensors would be enough. The hardware that moves the sensor can already perform the translational shift.

[kadajawi]

No, the "five axis stabilisation" is not about tilting the sensor.

Watch this video illustrating the "five axis stabilisation":

"Five Axis Stabilisation"

You'll see that what Pentax needs to add are acceleration sensors for translational movement. Two more sensors would be enough. The hardware that moves the sensor can already perform the translational shift.

Not sure what you mean by translational shift.

Not sure at what point there is a misunderstanding here... using the terms in the video, the Pentax can definitely do vertical and horizontal shifting and camera roll. What it can't do is tilting and turning. Why would adding 2 sensors be enough? It needs a gyroscope, yes, but it might already have one, not sure. And even if, that's only one of the parts that are needed, unless Pentax is using the same stabilizing hardware off the shelf as Olympus is, and they just haven't made use of the tilting and turning function. If that's what you mean by translational movement hardware, then ok. I wasn't aware of that.

[Kunzite]

Class A is correct - watch the video carefully, it's quite revealing.
The 5 axis are not the axis on which the sensor is being moved; they're the axis of the camera movements that can be compensated by the stabilization system. Indeed, those are:
+ camera tilting (Pentax can do that)
+ camera turning (Pentax can do that)
+ vertical camera shift
+ horizontal camera shift
+ camera roll on the optical axis (Pentax can do that)
The sensor's plane always is fixed relative to the camera; there is no sensor tilt in that video.

Camera shift starts being an issue on close distances, otherwise it's pretty much insignificant; but for normal shooting, it's camera tilting/turning that must be corrected for.

[kadajawi]

Class A is correct - watch the video carefully, it's quite revealing.
The 5 axis are not the axis on which the sensor is being moved; they're the axis of the camera movements that can be compensated by the stabilization system. Indeed, those are:
+ camera tilting (Pentax can do that)
+ camera turning (Pentax can do that)
+ vertical camera shift
+ horizontal camera shift
+ camera roll on the optical axis (Pentax can do that)
The sensor's plane always is fixed relative to the camera; there is no sensor tilt in that video.

Camera shift starts being an issue on close distances, otherwise it's pretty much insignificant; but for normal shooting, it's camera tilting/turning that must be corrected for.

The video shows the sensor stationary... But the camera moves. So in relation to the camera the sensor does move, in order to balance out the camera movement. The sensors are probably already all there.

Please show me where Pentax can correct tilting and turning. When using the composition adjustment you can change the position of the sensor. The options are up, down, left and right. I haven't noticed the focus plane change, so it should really be the sensor moving around.

Pentax is using this shifting around (which is probably a lot easier to do than to tilt and turn the sensor) to compensate for tilting and turning as well as shifting the camera around. At long distances just shifting around the sensor is good enough. That is also why the camera needs to know the focal length of the lens in order to correct properly...

Please go here (sorry for the massive link... On my phone, and it's a PDF):
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fc758710.r10.cf2.rackcdn.com%2Ffiles%2Fsupport%2Fmanual%2F1327548737_All_Bodies_Shake_Reduction_012208.pdf&ei=xaXbUpCxLYeJrgeukoCQBA&usg=AFQjCNGoOLtkkDNrxiixRWpfoTT0x9H2hg&sig2=UBSNMZ3ozB9fPZFIHTtMEQ

It's some material from Pentax showing the actual SR system. They have magnets around the sensor, which is mounted in a sort of floating way, and the sensor can be moved left, right, up and down.

Now I can understand the confusion, Olympus says most 2 axis SR systems correct for pitch/tilt and yaw/turning, but that is simply not the way Pentax is doing it. Unless I'm really very wrong here, but I haven't seen anything to make me think so.
http://asia.olympus-imaging.com/products/dslr/em5/feature/04/

Btw. I like to use the SR for video, and there you can see how the SR is struggling. The center can stay stable while the left and right is distorting... simply because the sensor is only shifted around, but you mostly tilt and turn while walking.

[Kunzite]

I don't think the sensor being stationary in that video (when the camera is tilted/turbed) is more than an inaccurate representation of their system working. As if the camera would carefully tilt/turn precisely around it's central axis... that video is marketing.

Pentax SR compensates for camera tilting/turning by shifting the sensor in a fixed plane (relative to the camera); this works (that's a fact), and is acknowledged in Olympus' literature (the so-called 2-axis stabilisation). In addition, we know it also compensates for rotation around the optical axis; so it's actually a "3-axis" SR. Again: Pentax SR can compensate for all angular movements.
In-lens stabilization works in a somewhat similar manner; an image shifting element is moved perpendicularly to the optical axis. This is enough to correct for "2-axis" movements, i.e. camera tilt/turn.

Obviously, the SR platform can support camera shift corrections; but the system has to detect them - which requires a different type of sensors than for angular movements.

[Class A]

Now I can understand the confusion, Olympus says most 2 axis SR systems correct for pitch/tilt and yaw/turning, but that is simply not the way Pentax is doing it. Unless I'm really very wrong here, but I haven't seen anything to make me think so.

Translational shake, i.e., the camera changing its position in space without rotating, is an insignificant source for image blur in normal photography. Even small angular motion (rotation) can cause a lot of blur, the more the further away the subject.

Therefore, as any other camera brand, Pentax DSLRs measure rotational movement. Unlike lens-based stabilisation systems that can only address pitch and yaw rotations, most Pentax DSLRs can also account for roll because they can rotate the sensor.

While shifting the sensor around in a 2D plane is strictly speaking not the correct compensation for pitch and yaw rotations of the camera, it is a good enough approximation for small angular motions.

All that Pentax DSLRs need to also compensate for translational camera shake are the respective sensors. The hardware to shift the sensor is already there. Granted, this compensation is only needed for close distances, but would it not be great to have dedicated image stabilisation in close-focusing and macro situations where shake is more of an issue than usually?