Originally posted by monochrome Everything else I've tried is just too small and light for me to effectively control. For snapshots I just go all the way and use a Q7. I really, truly do not understand the cargo cult fetishism about mirrorless.
It's all relative. I've heard many people praise Pentax for making compact DSLRs, as compared with Canikon. That may be true, but... I just recently got a K-5 II here. It's substantially bigger than my K-01. It's bigger and much heavier than my Pentax ZX-5n. It's bigger than my Ricoh XR-7. It's way bigger than my Olympus OM-D E-M5 (which I'd actually prefer to be a little bigger, but not everyone has hands as big as mine). Basically if you're familiar with anything that's
not a modern DSLR, the K-5 II seems like a boat anchor.
Also, I've got to say the tilt screen and EVF on the Olympus are very nice to work with. The pentaprism OVF also has its not-entirely-logical cult following, that seems to prevent some people from perceiving the advantages of an EVF. EVFs are only getting better, and the one in my E-M5 is already outdated. Prisms are not getting better. It's not hard to see which way the technology is leading.
---------- Post added 11-03-14 at 07:54 PM ----------
Originally posted by THoog All of the other analog mechanical linkages between the body and lenses - aperture control, screw drive, A-series lens parameter coding - and a big empty box of air where the mirror used to be. If the analog viewfinder makes DLSRs dinosaurs, why not the other decades-old analog technology?
I understand your argument here, and I think most of the other camera makers that have gone to their own all-new mirrorless lens mounts did the right thing -- for them. Pentax has several factors that tilt the balance in a different direction, IMHO.
Unlike Olympus or Fujifilm or Samsung or Sony, Pentax has a strong, established line of DSLRs and lenses to support, and I'm sure they expect to continue making DSLRs well into the future. They can't casually scrap K-mount and replace it with a mirrorless counterpart. It would have to be in addition to K-mount. However, Pentax is already supporting Q, K and 645 mounts. That covers a lot of territory, from the very small to the very big, and it requires a lot of resources. Adding a fourth standard to the lineup would be quite a stretch.
And of course, Pentax already does have a fully modern mirrorless lens system, which is the Q. Even though people gripe about the small sensor, there's still a lot of sensor R&D in the works, and future generations of Q cameras will only become more and more capable. Pentax is ahead of the curve in this respect.