[ogl]

Indeed; there is a very plausible rumour stating that the K-3 was delayed because the 24MP sensor did not perform to Pentax's satisfaction.


Patience, Ogl, patience.

I'm confident we'll receive some good news later this year.

"Enjoy waiting" again....

I don't care cameras....Where are new cool new limited and star primes???????

[climbertrev]

Strange progress. It's tweaks and upgrade. Not progress.

That's exactly what they are aiming to do
(I was going to add "you dozy bat", but thought it might be considered insulting! )

Tweak and upgrade what they currently do well (WR, sensor performance, size and weight)
While still working on improvements behind the backdrop to other factors they lack on

To gain a presence and recognition

K500, K50 announcements and recent rapid Sigma releases in K mount are very exciting in my opinion
btw Where did that famous Pentax lens designer (forget his name) go? - Was it Sigma?

More to come?
Hope so
But hopefully not neglecting what they do well

I don't think they'll go FF (sorry I swore!)

I think they are after "The Best APSC Cameras" title
I suggest that, even for pros, the gap between FF and APSC is rapidly narrowing (as did MF and 35mm years ago!)

Trevor

[noser]

I absolutely despise having to sit down and develop my own images. I want to drop off a card at a digital lab, come back in a few days and have the same card loaded with Photoshop-style images developed by someone who knows what he is doing. I want thumbnails like a contact sheet. I want to choose two or three images (or none) to print and keep the rest for web viewing.

shootdotedit.com - it's targeted at wedding pros, but that's basically what they do. It's possible to automate the entire post-to-prod workflow so all you need to be doing is shooting, assuming the clients are choosing images and approving album layouts (ie they can link to albumexposure). It would be slightly different for non-event shooting, of course. The fundamental thing is they hook you up with someone who stylistically matches your desired end product.

(And as was mentioned before, Photographers Edit, similar thing).

[jatrax]

Where are new cool new limited and star primes???????

Where is the market for these? Too small at this time. You would buy, I would buy, but not enough new people would know or care. Must build the foundation first. Increase market share first then add items that have a limited audience even from current owners of the brand.

[monochrome]

The one my wife uses is called Photographer's Edit.

shootdotedit.com - it's targeted at wedding pros, but that's basically what they do. It's possible to automate the entire post-to-prod workflow so all you need to be doing is shooting, assuming the clients are choosing images and approving album layouts (ie they can link to albumexposure). It would be slightly different for non-event shooting, of course. The fundamental thing is they hook you up with someone who stylistically matches your desired end product.

(And as was mentioned before, Photographers Edit, similar thing).

Thanks - that's the direction I'm looking, though since I'm not a wedding pro I'm not so sure I'd be a great account.

Many years ago my wife and daughter (and I somewhat less) used a pro art lab here called Silver Image. They did everything from MF Studio printing through the volume commercial stuff to copy work of some 100-year-old portraits my wife inherited. She and my daughter had "their" technician who would discuss their contacts and print vision, paper choice, exposure mods, make suggestions (sometimes "winning," sometimes not) - the whole classic creative workflow.

Maybe I'm old, or sentimental, or just dodgy - but - in every archival print hanging around our house there is someone else's work (art) embedded. I lament the loss of that romance. Even my daughter (who really is a good landscape photographer) will admit that the best archival prints of her work came out of the lab and not her darkroom.

I'm sort of feeling around for a local person to develop that sort of relationship with. There is a small analog art printing community emerging here - they probably can point me in a direction (but I'm really not good enough for that).

[Digitalis]

I lament the loss of that romance. Even my daughter (who really is a good landscape photographer) will admit that the best archival prints of her work came out of the lab and not her darkroom.

Some people are great photographers, but poor printers - and things go the other way around as well. I consider my printing to be of a high quality, though I have a fair amount of inherent talent coming from a family of photographers. But being the only platinum printer here in Adelaide puts me in a unique situation, I have done platinum prints for other photographers. it always puts a smile on my face when they bring in a scanned film image inkjet printed from *another pro lab* and they compare it to a hand made print I have produced from the original negative on platinum. Don't get me wrong, inkjet prints are marvellous. But they can't really compete with continuous tone prints - especially when large portions of the image contain smooth gradients and deep rich blacks.

[Uluru]

Strange progress. It's tweaks and upgrade. Not progress.

Better steady evolution in good incremental steps than October Revolution every now and then.
One reason we all stick with Pentax but fail to acknowledge is that persistence and silent, continuous innovation around the K-mount. That is evolution. Only like that we can see some sense in things around us and be focused on photography and creativity, not be gear-minded alone like the rest of the industry. Has this ever occurred to anyone?

On the other hand, "revolutionaries" like Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, no thank you. I wouldn't be surprised if in 2 years Oly and Sony come up with a new format, lenses and new mounts because they got sick of the current ones.

[romeck]

I wouldn't be surprised if in 2 years Oly and Sony come up with a new format, lenses and new mounts

!
Why not?
Digital market: sensors, formats (aps, 4/3) ect. is stil in "baby" age. (Or - teenage, so-foolish-age )

[IchabodCrane]

Strange progress. It's tweaks and upgrade. Not progress.

The next significant technical advancement by Pentax/Ricoh will almost certainly first appear in their top of the line camera and then trickle down to the other models afterward.

[Ash]

!
Why not?
Digital market: sensors, formats (aps, 4/3) ect. is stil in "baby" age. (Or - teenage, so-foolish-age )

Because the mount is not the problem. Technology can improve an existing mount, and historical compatibility does actually matter to a good proportion of users. Digital age can accommodate any mount, but the mount has be able to accommodate the light passing through it.

[Sinister]

I'd be much in favour of being reliefed from the entire postprocessing. Just recently I bought a Ricoh GR IV and really try to use it with JPEGs and no pp'ing...

[Aristophanes]

I'd be much in favour of being reliefed from the entire postprocessing. Just recently I bought a Ricoh GR IV and really try to use it with JPEGs and no pp'ing...

Just a few years ago the P&S prosumer crowd were begging for RAW. the market obliged despite the overhead.

I sense output demand is bifurcating with the hands-on RAW control ceding ground to JPEG-share-now ethos. RAW will be more special occasion because of the time commitment.

[mamethot]

Please elaborate on that.

Overhead for the user for the PP part or overhead in camera to save RAW? Or overhead in the camera for compression of the raw file in a jpeg?

[eurostar]

The next significant technical advancement by Pentax/Ricoh will almost certainly first appear in their top of the line camera and then trickle down to the other models afterward.

On the contrary, it was K-7 tech that went into the (still) top of the line Pentax camera, the 645D.

[konraDarnok]

Because the mount is not the problem. Technology can improve an existing mount, and historical compatibility does actually matter to a good proportion of users. Digital age can accommodate any mount, but the mount has be able to accommodate the light passing through it.

I kinda disagree with that. Canon could have updated their FD mount, but I don't think they'd be the industry leader if they had. It was a clean slate, and they ditched a lot of legacy requirements. Who knows how much money Pentax could save if they simply didn't have stop down linkage in every body -- clearly they already ditched the metering linkage for the same reason.

It took both Nikon and Pentax several years to a decade to catch up with what Canon did in 1987, and I've argued before it's because they maintained backwards compatibility with inferior technologies. Moving away from any analog/mechanical technology is a pretty safe bet -- both in terms of materials and support.