Originally posted by Steve.Ledger Well, it looks like they plan to improve video as one of the reasons people will have to upgrade to new cameras..
Of course that also means zero motivation to improve current models via firmware upgrades..
Now that explains why the K-3 is worse for video than the K-5!
But really, they aren't Canon. If they keep neglecting video for another 2 years until the K-3 successor is out people will have moved on to other brands, and they won't be coming back. Olympus offers in body stabilization that's even better than what Pentax could offer, Canon (unwillingly) offers raw. Nikon offers superior video quality. Panasonic offers vastly superior video quality. Pentax offers... er... nothing. A me too product that ticks the checkboxes on the packaging, cause they have to, but does not excel at anything. At most it is enough to keep existing Pentaxians with the brand.
In terms of FF I read the interview more as a "there is a FF camera that we're tinkering with, but we're not going to put it into production at the moment cause quite frankly it doesn't make any business sense to release it. But if we get to that point, yes, you'll get FF". I don't think FF will make financial sense for Pentax, and they know it. Can they compete on price? No, cause there's no way they'll sell enough of them to bring down production costs. Can they compete on features, quality? I doubt that too. Can they compete in terms of lens selection? Nah. Making a camera for the few Pentaxians that want FF (a small subset of a small subset of the market) is, well, they could probably hand build it when ordered, just like supercars and hypercars. It makes little sense, especially since that also means a higher price tag, not because it is a superior product, but because they produce so few of them. Which means the number of Pentaxians who will buy it is even smaller, because who would buy a camera that costs significantly more than the camera from another brand, though they are essentially the same or the other brand's camera is even better. Or Pentax makes a camera + system that will make Canon and Nikon shooters switch brands. Yeah right.
Oh and yes, I prefer this interview too. The questions and answers are simply more interesting.
@RonHendriks1966: There is a reason to replace the K-3 sooner. At the time it was launched it was a meeeeeh camera for video that could just keep up with cameras launched years ago. Since photographers have to shoot video too (unless you're only doing it as a hobby) it is just not a good tool. It is usable under certain conditions, but the competitors are already ahead, and will be much further ahead in a year or two. The only reason to use a K-3 is because you already have Pentax lenses, but you can simply use an adapter to use those on better cameras. Now, Pentax COULD fix the K-3 to a certain extend through firmware, but... will they do it?
Anyway, this obsession with FF is stupid IMHO. Should that be all that Canikon do they will lose a lot of customers to Panasonic and Olympus, and perhaps Pentax. Not everyone wants to have health issues because of these stupid massive cameras. And sensors are getting better and better, to a point where there really is no point in FF except for very shallow DoF. Yes, they may still be a bit better, but at some point mFT will be so good that an improvement will not matter anymore. Not everyone wants to carry a heavy, massive camera plus heavy, massive lenses. Look at how much I can get in a mFT system, in a small bag, and how much bigger the equivalent gear would be if it were FF. The K-5 is the absolute limit for me. Any bigger/heavier and it is completely out of the question.
So I agree with Uluru, Pentax should simply say no to FF (there's no way they could add anything meaningful to the FF world, and it would divert their attention from where they can actually make a difference). APS-C and MF is where Pentax should be at. Maybe do Super 35 too, and extend to the rather profitable video market (look at the prices Canon sells their Cinema EOS line at).
@Uluru: The point is that people will not buy a Pentax APS-C camera but a Canikon APS-C camera because they want to be able to move to FF in future, if they want to. Pentax APS-C is a dead end at this point. And while I agree that there are such users, they may also ignore Pentax because it isn't used by working photographers in the field (at least as far as they can tell, usually you see pros using Canikon, except for in high end studios perhaps). I see many working photographers (for example at weddings) using APS-C DSLRs, and they are also shooting video at the same time. Good luck doing that with a K-3.
I think for Pentax a FF camera would be a bit of a halo product, produced at a loss in tiny numbers to show what they can do, a product buyers can aspire to. But they already have the 645D. If I were Pentax, I might release a competitive FF camera, at a competitive price, but only produce/sell 1 per day, because it would have to be sold at a loss, and that is to be kept to a minimum.