Originally posted by jezza323 I think an electronically compatible mount with a shorter register distance would be ideal. A simple mount adapter (with AF screw drive transfer) would then allow the use of current K mounts on the "new" mount whilst retaining all AF, AE, SR focal length info etc.
I don't think that a new mount is in the interest of Pentax or in the interest of the customer. As it is now, Pentax does not have to develop anything new and the customer straight away has a choice of plenty of lenses instead of having to wait for new lenses being released one-by-one. It takes away a massive financial burden from Pentax with regards to development. Also with the current solution they don't have to share the production capacity between more different lines of lenses.
If they would have gone the new mount route, the would have been required to develop at least a few lenses for the new mount resulting in development costs and sharing of production capacity. If they don't, they are basically forced to provide an adapter in the box resulting in extra costs for the customer. A good quality 'passive' adapter costs around US$120 (if the price of a Novoflex MD to NX adapter is anything to go by); assuming mass production by Pentax might halve that but still adds costs but adding contacts and a screw drive mechanism will take away that advantage.
So I think that they took the correct decision by sticking to the K-mount for an APSc based camera.
Originally posted by jezza323 Since they are going to release a bunch of new DA-XS lenses anyway, they should have just done them with a shorter register IMO
Somehow I doubt that. There is nothing on the lens roadmap that indicates it. Maybe after 2013?