Originally posted by RobA_Oz ..I really doubt IBIS is a show-stopper for a 35FF Pentax DSLR, but designing an economical, efficient and effective system may require some extra effort. On the other hand, the benefits of such a design would likely flow down to the APS-C bodies as well, maybe even the GR.
?!?
Why not then start from the 645D, implement IBIS and scale it all down to GR?
Nah, but it
must be FF, right, or otherwise it's not worthwhile?
At this stage, any our idea about IBIS implemented in larger than crop sensor bodies is a shot in the dark.
I am not at all certain Ricoh Imaging wants to bother with the FF in the first place. All we can see are splendid improvements in the Crop sensor IBIS, so it seems their efforts are focused there.
They have completely ruled it out for the 645D, so it seems that what they want to do with IBIS, is not worthwhile doing in 645D. I would not be surprised if it's not worth doing even in a theoretical FF. Pentax surely does
not want another A850 on the market.
So far we see that Pentax focuses on IBIS in their mainstream range of cameras, the Q system and the Crop sized K-mount cameras. IBIS is one of their core technologies and trademarks, and may be the one of reasons Pentax does not want to bother with FF at all; not because it is hard to do, but because efforts exceed the benefits.
It is simple: if Nikon can achieve 3-4 stops of IS using in lens IS, and Pentax can achieve 3.5 stops of IS using IBIS, it makes sense to invest in it. But if IBIS in FF can only yield in some 1.5-2.5 stops gain, what's the point? It starts lower than Nikon's system in the first place. On the other hand, if Sony implemented it and they were able to squeeze something out if it, it doesn't mean much and proves nothing as Sony's strategy and RI's strategy in the FF will most likely be totally opposite.