Originally posted by hcarvalhoalves Nah... the K-5 is at $ 1000 now.
Besides, that's not the point, people who want a K-5 can just buy a K-5. The point is that they released a camera that, performance-wise, is just as good as the K-5, but is crippled since it just takes away features (VF, WR) without adding anything back.
How good is a body $ 300 cheaper if you can't even use it? Not to mention that it featuring a K-mout is close to useless. Using it with anything other than AF primes will be an lesson in bad ergonomics, since you have to hold it at arms-length. Double-failure.
I would anticipate the price to fall to around $550-600 after a couple of months (at least i hope so)
I love that it has the k-mount. For me, it makes a great backup or travel camera, as I dont have to purchase new lenses. For new customers, its a great purchase because you can easily upgrade the camera to a semi-pro k-5 (and hopefully an even higher spec camera to be announced soon) while keeping all your lenses. My wife will like it because she's anyway used to a P&S, this way she'll get much better pics in small, light package.
As for not being able to use anything but primes, first of all, the primes I have produce gorgeous pictures. If i the k-01 gives me anything like what i'm seeing from my k7 with primes, i'll be quite happy. Pentax does make some very light zooms that should fit this camera nicely. But youre right, mounting a DA* 50-135mm 2.8 on this would be quite silly. I doubt this camera is targeted to people who shoot with that lens all the time.
For pentax, this should hopefully bring in people to the pentax world, and get them hooked on the amazing pentax glass thats out there. I would not be surprised if this sold well to people upgrading from a P&S, and I think thats the target market for this camera. I hope it does very well.
I cant/wont judge the ergonomics of the camera until i've held one. I've seen lots of things that look clumsy be quite intuitive to use and things that look great be an absolute pain to use.
I really like this camera. I'm excited to see some reviews and would love to get my hands on one. I'm even considering pre-ordering it.