Hi
leonsroar, first of all : thank you very much for the informations, and the valuable effort
This time i will NOT join the moaners, and other visibly anti-pentax posters, that occasionnally come here to try pissing bad news around.
As already said by a few other people here, i don't think that this kind of "Christmas interview" has any other purpose than to give some positive strokes to us, pentax users. It definitely cannot be the moment for official announces at this time of the year.
Moreover, all that Mr Murano is telling us, do indeed confirm most of the recent "leaks" from our russian friends given on this forum early october, 2013. This is the second positive point, and not the least !
So, i will just go to the few points that seem to carry new pieces of informations :
1- K-mount mirrorless : the concept is not dead, and that is very good news ; since the Ricoh's top management were earlier reported to kind of "hate" the K-01...
2- Regarding FF, even if the specs are not fixed yet, they have clearly choosen - or at least they do prefer - SLR type.
Secondly, they have developped "brief time frame", which means high shutter-speed - and we then can imagine 1/8000s + 1/250s flash-synch, like the PZ-1 serie was able to reach beginning of this century.
Third, they don't intend to release a "cooked egg" FF, with no long term strategy, nor sufficient game products to avoid marketing impasse : this is also imo, a very important clue of Ricoh's serious approach to new product lines, and we have to aplaude !
3- Mr Murano - for the first time in my ears comming from Ricoh's management - , is making strong reference to loyal customers, and don't want to decieve them : that is once again, very good news for Pentax brand, as well as for Pentax users !
4- 645D II (my assumption) : confirmed, and should be released very soon ; cheers !
5- New GR compact bodies : this is very interesting ; the big success of APS-C GR could bring a complete new product-line within a few years. If i could make a wish : 35-40mm /2.8 and 50-65mm/2 equivalent would be winning fl.
6- Cross brand fertilisation : that's also good news. You never are stronger than when you go for team-jobs. In this allegation, we can imagine new areas in cooperation with e.g. Sigma for Foveon sensor, Tamron for K-mount new releases, and so on. See what Sony is doing with it's "new FF A line".
7- Environment care : Bravo, there is always something to be done in this respect. Congratulations Mr Murano ; i am a proud Pentax owner !
All in all, this is a very cosy interview with real and fresh pieces of informations, giving some kind of authentic feedback, calling confidence altogether.
Thank You again Mr Murano.