Originally posted by Fogel70 I don't think the size will be small enough compared to DSLR. The only difference in size compared to a DSLR is that the EVIL with K-mount do not need the prisma housing. If you want a EVF on your EVIL this difference in size is gone.
When the competitors has come with a few more lenses an EVIL with k-mount will only have disadvantages compared to the competition for the majority of EVIL camera buyers. After all the main reason why EVIL sell well is that you can get a big sensor camera in a small package.
Sooner or later Pentax has to make an EVIL with a new mount to keep up with the competitors, and the longer they wait the more they will lose on it. An EVIL with K-mount can at most only be a short term solution.
And that's why Pentax should have been in this market a while ago.
Pentax already makes lots of primes and pancakes. Pentax shooters like primes/pancakes. Panny/Oly/Sony/Samsung is stuck on the idea of a small cam as a step up for P&S users, so they sell the kits with zooms, which artificially makes them larger. Pentax can make a cam that's a step down/sideways for SLR shooters. A trimmed down K-x body - lose the prism, some of the grip depth, some of the LCD depth if possible - and it isn't tons larger than a GF1, especially with something like the DA 40mm mounted. Actually, give me a 28mm/1.4 pancake kit, and I'm good. And unlike every other miniature system, it offers a growth path.
You're right, sooner or later competitors will flesh out their lens lineups. But
right now it would be a unique advantage. And down the road Pentax would still have an advantage in having a range of bodies, from EVIL to semi-pro DSLR, that share a common mount, full function with no adapters. That reinforces the value proposition of buying into Pentax. If you buy a m43/Nex/Samsung system you have to understand that there's a built-in upper limit to where you can go, before you need to invest in new glass/bodies. If you're Pentax you hammer that point to drive your EVIL and get new shooters invested in K mount glass. And if that works, invest the profits in R&D and a couple of years down the line, you introduce micro-K bodies/lenses, with the coupled K adapter.
The biggest asset of Pentax at this second is the installed base of K mount glass. They have to leverage that. Attempting a completely new, first gen camera and lens line (or at minimum something that didn't provide more interoperability with K mount lens than current adapters on the other mini-mounts) would be suicide.