[ManuH]

I'll take the bet. 2012 is premature. Looking at sensor supply I'm nit even sure Sony has the capacity to make more FF sensors than what Nikon and Sony currently demand. To get a 2012 FF release Pentax engineers would almost certainly need to be involved now, if not 6 months ago. Which is about the time Pentax said no FF in the future.

Nikon reps were saying the same thing in 2006. Then you know what happened in 2007... Pentax would be stupid to announce any FF now.

Camera sales are not veering towards FF. Demand is actually weakening. It's a slow turnover product line.

Obviously because the "affordable" FF bodies are now getting old and APS-C has progressed since. Personally the K-5 has much reduced my desire for FF at this point. But better newer FF bodies may swing again the desire in favor of FF.

[falconeye]

A far likelier outcome is APS-C mirrorless and a new mount with modest DSLR revisions.

That's happening anyway.
But will it create enough profit?

One problem is that people who invested in Pentax glass can go any road to mirrorless. K mount adapters exist for any system. So, why Pentax? The ones who are loyal to the brand (aka Pentaxians) want more than just another mirrorless. They want a credible roadmap for the K mount. At least, I think they do.

[jsherman999]

...

One problem is that people who invested in Pentax glass can go any road to mirrorless. K mount adapters exist for any system. So, why Pentax? The ones who are loyal to the brand (aka Pentaxians) want more than just another mirrorless. They want a credible roadmap for the K mount. At least, I think they do.

Bingo.


.

[Emacs]

Almost anything Pentax-FF makes me salivate, I'll admit. If it doesn't mount the FA limiteds, though, what's the point? Might as well buy any FF mirrorless or SLT solution from anyone, then, even Sony
.

FF mirroless + mount adapter with the screwdrive and SDM controller? I would definitely prefer this (combined with the 67 size high definition EVF + peaking-like focusing tool) to bulky DSKR.

[uccemebug]

Guys, rather than making bets about when Pentax will or won't release an FF camera, why not let Pentax know what you want directly?

Fine suggestion.

Ricoh, if I'm ever to buy another Pentax dSLR it must have:
a) manual control for exposure compensation
b) native/full support for my K glass (no green button ffs)

I will make a $1500 camera purchase in the next year.

[falconeye]

b) native/full support for my K glass (no green button ffs)

In German, we actually have a term for this, Blesator (wikipedia offers no translation).

IMHO, the feature request would be much easier to communicate if it had a name. Pentax Germany for sure knows the term inside out

[ManuH]

One problem is that people who invested in Pentax glass can go any road to mirrorless. K mount adapters exist for any system. So, why Pentax? The ones who are loyal to the brand (aka Pentaxians) want more than just another mirrorless. They want a credible roadmap for the K mount. At least, I think they do.

That's only true if the Pentax adapter is a dumb one with no AE, AF and SDM coupling. The Nex-7 does interest me but I'm not sure I want to fiddle all the time with dumb adapters. So my hope is on a Pentax version of the Nex-7 with all the necessary backward compatibility with K mount. I'm sure Pentax is not stupid and they will want to leverage their user base no matter how small it is.

[falconeye]

That's only true if the Pentax adapter is a dumb one with no AE, AF and SDM coupling. The Nex-7 does interest me but I'm not sure I want to fiddle all the time with dumb adapters. So my hope is on a Pentax version of the Nex-7 with all the necessary backward compatibility with K mount. I'm sure Pentax is not stupid and they will want to leverage their user base no matter how small it is.

I thought the same. But then I saw Oly, Samsung, Sony all release their mirrorless with dumb adapters. I fear Pentax to behave the same.

It's only recently improving with Oly and Sony's announced LA-EA2 which I consider to be first decent SLR lens adapter. I fear adapters don't get the management awareness they require in a mirrorless roadmap. They almost look like an afterthought.

Like managers only see the new market and not how they loose their home base.

[Aristophanes]

That's only true if the Pentax adapter is a dumb one with no AE, AF and SDM coupling. The Nex-7 does interest me but I'm not sure I want to fiddle all the time with dumb adapters. So my hope is on a Pentax version of the Nex-7 with all the necessary backward compatibility with K mount. I'm sure Pentax is not stupid and they will want to leverage their user base no matter how small it is.

The register distance makes that impossible, which is why Sony has an all new mirrorless (and video) E-mount alongside the Alpha mount, and an adapter.

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=105...rtNumber=LAEA1

Sony's dilemma is to lose a big chunk of their high-margin FF base if they abandon the OVF for an SLT system. I think they'll retool the A900 to keep the traditionalist base. Sony will blood the FF mirrorless market in 2013 (preview at Photokina 2012), but will intro an SLT FF A99 early 2012. Sony has become the most watched camera company now because they own a sensor roadmap.

In this thread the demands are as mixed as Pentax's options. Some want FF mirrorless, some demand an old school OVF. There's no consensus here and none in the market, which looks increasingly fractured. My opinion is that any Pentax FF of any design would sell too few units to generate a return given the shrinking profile of the DSLR format within aggregate sales. The numbers are simply not there extrapolating from the current Pentax sell-through.

[Class A]

In German, we actually have a term for this, Blesator (wikipedia offers no translation).

Blesator = stop-down coupler (aka aperture coupler)
That's as good an English name as you'll get.

[jogiba]

That's happening anyway.
But will it create enough profit?

One problem is that people who invested in Pentax glass can go any road to mirrorless. K mount adapters exist for any system. So, why Pentax? The ones who are loyal to the brand (aka Pentaxians) want more than just another mirrorless. They want a credible roadmap for the K mount. At least, I think they do.

Pentax K mount lenses work great on the Gh2.

[ManuH]

Pentax K mount lenses work great on the Gh2.

I won't tolerate another crop so for me m4/3 is dead out of the gate even if to be honest it's the most complete mirrorless system at this moment. If only Samsung could improve their sensors...

[Aristophanes]

Again, ahem.

AVI is a "proprietary" container originally designed by Microsoft (Windows media player).

MOV is a "proprietary" container originally designed by Apple (Quicktime).

Neither of these two formats have anything to do with HTML5, and both pre-date HTML5 by a good few years.

AVCHD on the other hand uses M2TS is which an "open" container.

I'm not sure why you think M2TS will make "integrated H.264 encode/decode designs inapplicable" - MPEG Transport Stream is just about one of the most widely supported distribution containers out there - used in DVB broadcasts all over the world. It is supported on just about anything I know, and inbuilt into most GPUs and video processors.

AVCHD support and transcoding is a recent phenom in editing and GPU support. The M2T stream is a Blu-Ray concoction, adopted by MPEG and ISO by Sony strong-arming, not industry consensus. FCP and CS4 relied on hacked external transcoding to edit AVCHD because good old Sony wanted to have all editing loop back to their devices, not more flexible, internet-friendly containers such as AVI or MOV where both MS and Apple actually made the license buy-in part of their developer system. Sony OTOH had no such "openness"
and actually denied licensing, even to Adobe. As such AVCHD is not natively supported at the OS level.

Both MS (AVI) and Apple (MOV) are dedicated to HTML5 and their containers being part of that. Sony won't even sit at the table. They fear the web eating Blu-Ray (duh) and so the concern is that Sony formats will once again be at the whim of Sony paranoia. It's not that AVCHD per se is a bad implementation (really the first with AVC) but that Sony tech is a licensing crapshoot. Sony wants you to transcode and playback on a Sony device. AVCHD not native on a major OS means it should not be native on a camera OS, especially for consumers. That's my take.

[ManuH]

I thought the same. But then I saw Oly, Samsung, Sony all release their mirrorless with dumb adapters. I fear Pentax to behave the same..

If that's the case I'd prefer they go with the E-mount or the NX instead of creating yet another mount. The m43 mount has the advantage of having 2 players and that's part of the reason why they have already around 20 native lenses for the system, unmatched by NX and even less by Nex.

[johnmflores]

It must be a fun time to be a camera designer/engineer at Sony right now. All blue ocean stuff right now . For every new idea that comes to market there are probably five that didn't. I suspect that their strategy is to bring as many horses as they can to the Kentucky Derby.