Originally posted by WMBP I'm not following this line of thought at all.
You seem to be assuming that a full frame body is a requirement, something Pentax MUST produce. Isn't that precisely the question being asked?
The K20D was an upgrade to the K10D. The K-7 is an upgrade to the K20D. Neither of the last two high-end Pentax bodies were "a different class of camera." Yet the K20D and the K-7 have both sold well (as far as I can tell) and certainly got lots of awards and good reviews.
I think the first and most important purpose of new models is simply to be new models, new products, or in a word, news. You need to have your cameras get reviewed once a year in the major review locations. All a new camera absolutely needs to be, is a little bit better than its predecessor. Look at software, or movies, or cars. The main virtue of the latest model is that it's the latest model. It's "New" and "Improved." And new is more important. It doesn't need to be improved a lot.
I continue to say that I don't want a FF camera from Pentax. I would like a better APS-C camera, one that has better autofocus, better low-light/high-ISO performance, and a whole bunch of other things. There's a lot of room for improvement in the current line.
The main problem with Pentax right now (it seems to me) is that it isn't do anything very innovative. It's not that I'm crazy about innovation for its own sake. But innovation gets headlines. I'm seeing more mentions of Samsung's NX10 (Samsung!) than of anything from Pentax. I fear that simply making really good, conventional aps-c cameras, may not cut it over the long term.
But making a FF camera in itself isn't innovative. It's more conventional thinking. It's Pentax saying, "Me, too!"
Will
Here I have to disagree with you. ;-)
Sure K7 is just an upgrade of K20D that was just an upgrade of K10D. And I bet like you than the next K8 (or whatever will be it's name) will be an upgrade of K7. And K7 is certainly a great camera. I don't think that Pentax is lacking of innovation. Every Pentax camera if full of innovations. Never an entry level camera have been able to compete with advanced camera on IQ before Kx.
Never an advance camera were so compact (and still kept an awesome ergonomics) than the K7 with so many features.
Pentax is innovations, since the beginning. Just we don't notice it since we are used of that from pentax.
Then, we can think K8 can be a very good camera (for exeample a K7 with the new 14Mpixels sensors from Sony a550). But still it is an upgrade, nothing to compare with the professional* camera in a class "above of k7" the Pentax representative was talking about a few weeks ago (and he was not talking about 645D). So then, to get a higher class camera, 2 possibilities:
- a camera with high frame rate and high performance autofocus, to compete with D300s and 7D
- a FF camera, to compete with 5D mark II, D700 and alpha 850/900.
To get a pro APS-C can be difficult for Pentax, since they are very late compared to Canon and Nikon on AF possibilities, and also on flash functions (that's what I heard, I don't know anything about flash). The new AF module (SAFOX IX+) is already installed in 645D and doesn't seems so much different from SAFOX VIII+. And final point, an PAS-C pro camera, for normal public, looks like another APS-C camera. Difficult to highlight these possibilities.
To get gears for FF is not a problem for Pentax, since they already still have a lot in production (even old new ones recently as the 50mm f/1.2), and a few years ago they were producing a full line up of them (some are still sold under the Tokina brand). Then a FF camera is very different from APS-C. You are sure to have a big improvement on IQ (much higher iso, DR) that no APS-C sensor can get with today's technology, and for Pentax the way to look different from other brands will be to make it small (let say not bigger than the K20D). That can be as noisy than the 645D, a real winner for marketing.
Finally, to get a FF is not only the way for Pentax to say "Me, too!" but also to get more coverage from media, to keep their enthusiast users that want FF (there is!) and to attract new comers that want to start slowly with APS-C but think that maybe someday they could be interested by a "pro" camera. ;-P
*I guess from Pentax that a "professional camera" means a big step forward, not a heavy bulky camera like D3 or 1D