Originally posted by RonHendriks1966 That are a lot of people who would buy a small system, and even a 2,5x crop sensor gives them a huge step forward in image quality.
So if Pentax could make a nice slize of the cake and sell one million that would be a big part of Pentax revenue.
The argument for an even smaller sensor MILC goes like this:
Those upgrading from P&S want marginally more IQ and even more portability. Take a GH2, K-r, A55, and NX10 side-by-side and they all come from the same gene pool. Even with the mirrorless smaller lenses, there's not really a hug amount of compact difference between them. Mass, yes, but one knock against the Panasonic GH's is they feel not very rugged, like plastic toys even. Between the lot of them it's like choosing whether you like beards or moustaches (but not both because that is for FF).
Take an NEX, PEN, GF, or NX100 and they come from a distinctly different but related gene pool although they're not substantially that much smaller as to drive sales from P&S one might think because if that were true, products like the Canon G-series might have sold better, being about the same form factor. These are selling well for their newness, because they've gone all 1970's leatherette retro, and because the guys with $$$ (referenced below) wants/needs a 2nd system, but he's not telling his squeeze he has something on the side.
So if your target is P&S people who want some fashion splash, a small MILC with 2.x crop sensor in pretty colours will fit the bill nicely, because Thom Hogan knows nothing about what sells cameras to teenage girls in Tokyo.
That may be Pentax's angle, given the K-x scored fairly well in a dazzling array of Pantones. Still, the classic DSLR form factor made a lot of them look like lipstick on a pig. A smaller MILC really might turn eensy pancakes into jewel lenses...literally! Let's accessorize!
Now, the serious DSLR guy thinking about mirrorless has a different take. He wants good, usually fast, glass. The GH2 is a dilemma for this guy because it doesn't really offer a huge opportunity cost step up in portability, certainly not at the price of buying into a new, unproven, and software delimited lens mount (you know who I'm talkin' 'bout).
This guy is also worried about backwards compatibility for their f/2.8 "big boy" glass. They care (a lot) about sensor size because size matters and it is, after all, mostly testosterone we are speaking to here as an audience. It's hard to care about sensor size when your mount is micro.
This is the guy who is also going to spend some serious after-market $$$ on glass, flash, tripod, kit bag, and hide the receipts from his significant other who is hiding her receipts from some activity far more worthwhile and productive to society. So the GH2 is a problem for this guy because it is a lot of $$$, doesn't make whoopie with his current lenses, and so on. This guy will possibly wait, might dabble in a smaller sensor pack-along (in manly black or Coast Guard/Old Spice red...unless color blind in which case he'll get yellow and pretend it's a fire engine hue), but he's not there yet and it's not out yet.
And he brings long-term brand loyalty (except on the internet forums), says sweet nothings to his mount every night promising a new prime experience soon honey, soon, and buys a new lens as often as Japanese bonus season allows, even if he is neither Japanese nor earns a bonus. This is the guy no one knowns how to sell mirrorless to but he is critical because he has carried the prosumer industry since it was in Leica-brand diapers. He'll let go his vanity and go mirrorless, but only if he sees someone else do it.
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
Creating a micro-MILC makes market sense if seen in that light, so I respectfully disagree with Thom Hogan precisely because he is not a Japanese schoolgirl. If a company is really going to try an get some of that 23 million person pie coming from P&S, then maybe one needs a MILC closer in size to a P&S! Go figure. The beer can and cigarette pack NEX ain't gonna do it (where does on out one's hands not suggestively?) Maybe Pentax is on to something here, if that here is where we are, which we do not know yet as this is a rumours thread.
OTOH, I very much want to be as influential in photography as Thom Hogan so I will agree with everything else he says because it is a better analysis of the state of the camera industry than anything else out there.