Originally posted by Aku Ankka Pentax did move from the m42-mount to K-mount and retained compability with an adapter. They could (and should) do the same as mirrorless is the future.
If K-mount were to be used in a mirrorless system:
- The camera body would be thicker as the flange focal distance of K-mount is a couple of centimeters more than it would be for mirrorless
- The advantage of smaller (and higher quality) wide- and normal-lenses would be lost
- The current in-lens motors would be semi-useless for contrast detect autofocus - not sure if the regular lenses could handle a stronger in-camer AF-motor either
- If mirrorless is to be APS-C only, K-mount would be oversized
On the other hand if K-mount compability were thrown away:
- Severe lack of lenses on a market with competition being there first
Originally posted by thibs But users would be forced to buy new lenses so money goes Pentax. I doubt though that most people would use that many old lenses.
Standard zooms and a couple small primes would benefit greatly from mirrorless, long teles would be recovered from K mount though.
IMO keeping the K-mount would be a brilliant move, the size of a system is determined by a body + the lens on it. I feel the Sony NEXT very nice, but clunky with lens on it.
Keeping the K-mount while removing the mirror, would allow the lens to recede in behind the mount. A great advantage for designing wide angles (and the reason why Leica have such mythical wide angles)
24mm non-retrofocus anyone? 50mm collapsible Elmar on a digital FF?
Of course that would mean adding a little knob to prevent mounting those lenses on a classic SLR k-mount design.
The current thickness of D-SLR bodies is due to sensor thickness + stabilization/mounting of it + the viewing screen. There is a great potential of miniaturization for each of them especially the screen where it is driven by the cell-phone industry.
IMO keeping the K-mount would be a very good move in the long term, unless we come up with an absolutely revolutionary way of designing lenses, they will keep being the determining factor in the size of a system.