[monochrome]

Dunno, but firmware upgrades for non-"flagship" DSLRs have historically not included any major features.

Jim said Pentax have adopted the Ricoh policy of updating Firmware regularly for all cameras in the catalog as a customer-binding policy that doesn't cost much.He specifically said about twice a year Pentax would offer major Firmware Updates.

What has Ricoh's historical practice been regarding updating features on discontinued models? The impression given in the interview was Pentax would be much more positive and proactive with thier FW Updates and feature additions.

[tclausen]

1. Support GPS unit O-GPS1. I like to take star pictures.

2. When in Play mode, I zoom in a lot to check the image. The problem is I cannot go to next picture without pressing delete button on top. Once I press delete button, zoom is gone and I can go to next picture. For me, it is annoying. I like to navigate pictures while it is in zoom and I hope this zoom stay for next picture, too.

3. Switch green button to red and red to green. I like to do metering with red button.

Ad 1), geotagging is already supported with the O-GPS1 - but Pentax /owes/ us a firmware update for astrotracing, I agree (I think that /owes/ is right, astrotracing was listed in marketing material for the K-01, initially)

Ad 3), I would go one step further and say: consider the red and green buttons as just that, buttons. Make any function assignable to either. I never understand why the menus offered a different set of configurations for red and for green.

Oh, and give us an update to the Q firmware that makes use of the front dial to something other than jpeg-shooters

[PiDicus Rex]

Found another,...

Busy doing some test shooting, found a wrinkle between my K-M and K-A glass.
K-A, I can control the exposure manually from the dial when the lens is set to A, but with the M glass, the ISO ramps up and down to keep the image balanced between light and dark (trying not to say 'correctly exposed' ) when I move the iris on the lens. It's behaviour similar to Auto Gain Control on Video Cameras

So another option I'd like, is to be able to fix or turn off the auto ramping of the ISO.

[PiDicus Rex]

Annnnnd,.. it does the same in the K-A glass when the iris is moved away from A.

[RonHendriks1966]

Most of this will make sense to Videographers and Film Makers,..
Feel free to add suggestions, with any luck the Pentax engineers will have a read and take up the challenge.

And that's about it.
I expected I'd get good photo's from my brand spanking new K-01, and so far the video is good, Rolling Shutter Skew on tripod is no better or worse then any other DSLR. It's got the potential to be, well, close to perfect, especially if the data rate could be lifted.
I can't praise the Pentax engineers enough, having had a P30n for the last 22 years, and getting a value-priced K-01 to use classic manual lenses on short films and music videos.

Well I would love to have a better performing video-mode on the K-01 (or the K-02). I'm afraid that most off your requests would be out off the league off the PRIME M engine inside the K-01, otherway I don't know why they would have put in such a capable processor and not using it's futures.

[PiDicus Rex]

I disagree,..

A higher data rate for the MP4 CoDec means the processor is doing less compression, that frees up CPU time.
With the previous firmware updates allowing for use of a wider range of SD cards, and with most cheaper SD cards having less reliable maximum performance levels, I would not be surprised if the data rate has been held artificially low to allow for more reliability with any SD card, rather then performance with good SD Cards.

A higher data rate with better quality cards should not be a difficult proposition, I'll point to the success of Magic Lantern and C.H.D.K. as examples of what can be achieved with fixed hardware.

I for one, would happily choose to trade away wide SD Card compatibility, in return for higher performance with better cards.

With that reduced workload, other areas can take advantage of the Processor, like bumping the audio sample rate higher.

A lot of the updates I'll be hoping for (with the exception of HDMI out during recording) are little more then parameter alterations. Being able to choose your focus peaking colour will not use more resources when it comes to drawing the focus peaking on the screen in the current colour. Focus peaking during recording may.

Same goes for Click on, Click off for the exposure preview, or the shallow DoF when focus peaking is on during photo modes. In fact, I'd argue that turning off the ISO Ramping (AGC) for video shooting would free up quite a lot of processor time, again freeing resources for other uses.

Being able to insert a 'custom' image processing style, rather then editing the presets, would add no more processor overhead then applying one of the presets, but it would add some code to the firmware size, and hence to the amount of space in the memory buffer the firmware uses when it loads.

Alternative options for button assignment is not a big deal either.

Rob's suggestion of using the SR to drive a Tilt-Shift effect is interesting, and it may use more processor power, it's one that I'd suggest could be implemented for photos but not video.

I don't use Slave Flash equipment, so I'll leave that one alone. The GPS integration is about better code, not more code.

Regor's suggestion of WYSIWYG preview is the same as what I called 'Click on, Click off', and while active we're talking about switching off that ISO Ramping again, so back to reducing the processor workload.

One more thing I'd like to see, is Audio level meters on the display, not a huge change, a little extra load in the display overlay, but that could be traded by switching off other overlay items during recording.
This would be a huge plus on top of the K-01 already having adjustable audio input levels.

Now, as for the HDMI,.
And again I'll use the 'Canon' method, where in the 5D2 etc, only one video output display is available at a time, either the LCD, AV, or HDMI, well, I'd live with that if it's HDMI, as I could hook up an external recorder, so long as the output is a clean feed during recording, yes it's another bit of kit to buy, but it's on my shopping list anyway.

I don't have the USB-AV cable to see if there is analog video output during record modes, but if there is, and it's active while the LCD is, then the processing engine inside the K-01 is a lot more capable then a lot of the competition.

I really do hope the Engineers at Pentax do read these forums, I'm sure they'll have a few smiles about what K-01 owners have achieved, what I've seen of the images posted shows the camera really an underestimated piece of equipment.
All of the suggestion people are making so far would just turn it from being a 'good' camera, to an amazing one.

[bossa]

I'd like to be able to adjust EV when MANUAL and AUTO ISO are in use together as well as the option for the histogram to display the predicted exposure result.

[Doundounba]

I would like focus magnification (currently on the OK button) to be assignable to the Red/Green buttons. That would really improve the experience of focusing older (MF) glass...

But I agree that it's fairly unlikely that we'll see Pentax release new features, rather than just bug fixes...

[lytrytyr]

Oh, and give us an update to the Q firmware that makes use of the front dial to something other than jpeg-shooters

That's a separate thread (worth starting), but: +1

[monochrome]

I would like focus magnification (currently on the OK button) to be assignable to the Red/Green buttons. That would really improve the experience of focusing older (MF) glass...

But I agree that it's fairly unlikely that we'll see Pentax release new features, rather than just bug fixes...

Look to Ricoh's historical practices for a guide to what Pentax might do in the future. I understand Pentax has recently adopted Ricoh's Firmware update philosophy (look at the discontinued Q FW update 1.11 / 1.12).

[PiDicus Rex]

I'd like to be able to adjust EV when MANUAL and AUTO ISO are in use together as well as the option for the histogram to display the predicted exposure result.

That fit's in with Live Preview, Click on, Click off and ISO Ramping, but maybe described better
I had figured the Histogram would display which ever information was going to the screen - That's how I noticed the ramping was happening in the first place.
It would be most useful when using full manual lenses.

Yes, bug fixes happen in most product lines from most companies, but there's no reason why a team of software engineers can't add in different options on how to use the product, so long as the hardware is capable of it - It's the sort of thing that keeps consumers wanting to show their brand loyalty on the following purchases, which is why more companies are starting to do it.
Having a strong 'repeat customer' base is how large companies weather the financial storms.

[JJJPhoto]

I agree that I would like to see more color options for focus peaking (similar to what Sony does) to make it easier to see the focus peaking effect in different situations.

Also, I'd love to see even more AF tweaks to improve AF speed/accuracy in low light with various lenses. Some lenses are almost always quick to grab focus on the K-01 and others hunt for a while before getting a focus lock. I'd also like Pentax to figure out the "secret sauce" that Olympus uses to get lightning quick/accurate AF in low light without the AF-assist light on the OM-D E-M5.

I would happily sell my Olympus gear if Pentax improved AF on the K-01 and offered a better flash system including wireless flash capability on the K-01 (the new AF360FGZ II that was previewed earlier this year might be a step in the right direction).

[ibk]

...

I don't have the USB-AV cable to see if there is analog video output during record modes, but if there is, and it's active while the LCD is, then the processing engine inside the K-01 is a lot more capable then a lot of the competition.
...

I have one and there is analog output while recording video. The LCD screen works at the same time too. PAL resolution but it's usable for just monitoring.

[Rob22315]

I have one and there is analog output while recording video. The LCD screen works at the same time too. PAL resolution but it's usable for just monitoring.

I have the AV cable - it gives composite output. It works during still picture taking but I haven't tried video yet. I'll give it a shot but I'm betting composite output works just fine with video too.

[slocant]

Well, the K-01 is discontinued These features might make it in to the next DSLR model, though Pentax doesn't seem to be very focused on improving video-related features.

Didn't the original Q get focus peaking when it was discontinued?

Cheers,