Originally posted by Kunzite That's ridiculous. If they would tell me I'd have to buy an adapter to be able to use my lenses (and be aware that some functionality loss could occur), I'd jump ship.
Keeping your customers, your main source of income - that's a very good reason to continue with the K-mount.
And using the same sensors as the others isn't something new. It happened quite a lot in the past, when all cameras were using the same Fujifilm, Kodak, Agfa... sensors.
Do people actually read posts? I said "SHIP THE ADAPTER WITH THE CAMERA". No, you would not have to buy a separate adapter.
And if you would jump ship over a $300.00 adapter then you must not have much invested in Pentax glass in the first place. The cost of jumping ship would exceed the cost of the adapter.
Keeping customers is important, but attracting new ones is MORE important given Pentax's small marker share. Most of these dedicated K-mount customers already have most of the lenses they need. They are not a significant source of new revenue. New customers have NO K-mount glass and don't care about K-mount compatibility.
If Pentax had the large user base of Canon or Nikon, then yes, supporting a legacy mount would be very important. With Pentax we are talking about less than 3% market share.
The K-mount will live on as the mount for the DSLR. It is not going anywhere. Pentax is not abandoning it. Mirror-less should move to a new mount and support K-mount with an adapter.