[ogl]

It's just future plans now....

By the way, Ricoh will offer K-mount adapter for GXR (from Ricoh's interview)

[rvannatta]

I think overall the comments give too much emphasis to the early evasive answers to heavily leading questions, and pay too little attention the the later
comments about the direction of the industry.

When Mr. K speculates on the direction of the industry, you can assume that Pentax is going to follow that direction.

that speculation is also consistent with common sense: i.e that you are in the future likely to see smaller physical bodies with fewer mechanical moving parts.

to me the most earthshaking disclosure there is the potential which I had never considered for electronic shake reduction. Competitively this blows those competitors with SR in the lens out of the water. Pentax can implement that when it becomes available simply with a sensor change, and have immediate cost savings and instant benefits through out it's line. Meanwhile, the boys with HSM in the lenses have to reinvent their lens line, and either support two lens lines or strand their customers with the old bodies. This is astounding news, and a good reason to stay with a manufacturer who doesn't use in lens stabilization.

Similarly, I suspect the early dance about FF is just a dance. It's contrary to the industry trend (probably) of smaller, with fewer moving parts.
I see the gossip about touch and feel of mechanical parts still being important --- pointing toward the 'high end' implying that the 'no moving part' all electronic
camera will first appear on the low end. ---so you end up with an "ipad' with SR and a K mount on the back of it.--- well, not right away---but headed that way as the replacement for the KR.

For nostalgic reasons, the high end moves that way more slowly implying that it is less radically redesigned. probably staying much as it is for the time being.

Now that is my take on what I see here.

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

For those not familiar with the Japanese language/society: the term 検討する (to consider/examine) has about as much real meaning as your father's "I'll think about it" when you were six and asked him for a pony.

You would be surprised by how many six years old kids who get that pony around here

[senn]

Thanks v5planet, .. great job, indeed.
Noting clear comes out from this "chatting" :-)) about the future of Pentax K-mount DSLRs lineup, .. however the main subject puzzling the majority of photographers attending this site. Once more, Pentax co prove indifferent even insensitive to the expectations arising from hundreds of thousands Pentax owners throughout the world. Note taken then .. As for me, .. I'll wait and see till next Photokina before deciding to leave definitely or not the brand.

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

"ー絞りについても昔から偏光フィルターを使って絞りの役目をするとかって話がありました。
- Even in regards to the aperture, there has been talk about using old-school polarizing filters to fill the same role. [does anyone know what he's talking about? that seems pretty interesting to me]"

Put two polarizing filters in place of the shutter. Rotating them 90 degrees back and forth will shift you from maximum light transfer to zero light transfer, so it could be used as a shutter. But even maximum light transfer would lead to some light loss, how much depending on the polarization of the incoming light. It should work, but I don't really see the advantage over a traditional shutter. Replacing the aperture with polarized filters makes less sense in my opinion. Sure it could be used to gradually decrease the light transfer. However, the mechanical aperture doesn't only reduce the amount of light when it close down, but also select only the center light rays, which is an important property. And even with polarizing filters replacing shutter or aperture, one of the filters will have to rotate, so you have got moving parts anyway.

[Mace]

No not smaller. Im already struggling with my K7. Its just not big enough for my hands and its hard to deal with all those small buttons. I would prefer a slightly larger semi-pro-body.
BTW I really miss the back wheel from my old Canon D5. That was so much more convenient.

[lectrolink]

I'm sure there is a massive Canikon waiting for those who want a bigger camera. For someone like me who travels a lot and expects to have a camera on my shoulder all day, a smaller, lighter camera would be GREAT! Perfect complement to my collection of tiny Limited lenses.

[kff]

IBM's predictions are about via using thinking to controll devices untill 5 Years ....

but better communication posibiilities, more internal memory include changing philosophy its using etc.,
it would help to make a bettter camera, I think ... like ethernet, wi-fi, BT4 etc.

Why we need changes? These changes which are direct to better using of camera ...

As when I am taking picture and I see features which would add
as I know that all changes need some time ....

[Nu Day Photo]

I feel this is a lot of wishful leading questions from a hopeful interveiwer that did not glean valuable solid information. However K did not flatly dispute anything he also sounded like he was anticipating certain changes also. We'll just have to continue to wait and see. I am surprised at the notion of electronic shutter, no mirror slap at all!

[Mareket]

I'm sure there is a massive Canikon waiting for those who want a bigger camera. For someone like me who travels a lot and expects to have a camera on my shoulder all day, a smaller, lighter camera would be GREAT! Perfect complement to my collection of tiny Limited lenses.

THIS. Pentax need to differentiate themselves if they want to succeed. Making cameras like the D700 or 5D will not get them anywhere. Why buy the Pentax when you could buy a Canon/Nikon like all the pros? But if they made a substantially different camera that provided excellent FF image quality in a tiny body then I'm fairly sure it'd be a hit. Personally I think the Q is wonderful, in terms of ergonomics. But then I have very small hands. But it does show Pentax can make an ergonomically pleasing camera even in the tiniest of dimensions (the same can't be said of Nikon *COUGH*V1/J1*COUGH*). Ergonomics, sturdy build and easy access to controls are the most important thing for a professional quality body IMHO. And there, Pentax can deliver tenfold.

[Mace]

I actually do travel quite a lot too and less weight would be great. But in terms of ergonomics, I think that the K-7,K-5 are definitely at the lower limit of the size, unless a major ergonomic redesign will be included in the top line DSLRs. And my hands aren't even that big.
My main argument for buying a pentax was the robustness and the k-mount and I think pentax should definitely stick to both as a niche criteria. Thus I fully agree with the previous post. Just that not all people have tiny Japanese hands. I feel that as an average sized european person, the K-7 ergonicmics are already uncomfortable for me. The main reason why I might change back to canikon.

[Pablom]

nice interview. not saying much, but I like the last answer a lot.

[eddie1960]

Second hint - "Kitazawa: That's very true -- they (slrs) can surely be made smaller."

Digital MX anyone

[Pål Jensen]

I'm going to agree with this statement. Kitazawa never actually say 'we're doing xyz and you will see a full frame mirrorless in July 2012', but he clearly states two things:

1) that Ricoh's management is giving them more room to stretch;
2) and that mirrorless cameras are an inevitability for the industry and something he wants to see Pentax do at the FF and MF level

Now, granted, the interviewer was leading him quite strongly throughout, but one does not have to work very hard to see the obvious writing between the lines, which is that Pentax knows the trajectory it wants to take. The only thing we don't know is the timing.

I don't think so. It says that mirrorless is not something Pentax will necessarily make effords in. Mirrorless is nothing new; they have been around since day one of photography. Pentax is primarily a mirror camera company. Seeing mirrorless as a SLR replacement is wrong. Todays crop of mirrorless are simply P&S cameras with removable lenses.

[Pål Jensen]

I feel this is a lot of wishful leading questions from a hopeful interveiwer that did not glean valuable solid information.

True. The only solid information was that Pentax will continue to make small DSLR's. All the mirrorless babble was from the interviewer and all Pentax said was that they would not neccesarily go in that direction...