Originally posted by thibs Yep but probably no more advanced video than on the K-3 (although they might have
slightly crippled the K-3 Video capabilities to let room for Z).
If they still use (I except them to) the same chipset as the K-3, it will have the same limitations.
Strangely the two late to the party for video (Nikon and Pentax) both use the same chipset
I think you are too much into speculation.
The K-3's announcement was determined long ago, and could not be delayed any further. Pentax was already late in development, they had serious transition and integration issues, and postponing the entire project until the new chipset is officially ready and software up to its full potential, iron all bugs and tweak details would require delay of extra several months. At least 6 months.
The new 645 will be released when the K-3 should have been released if everything was fully implemented. But would you wait for the K-3 until April 2014? They knew users were crazily impatient and would certainly write them off. The K-3's specs were capped in order to meet the October 2013 deadline. That was the only way.
The entire internal clock of the Ricoh Imaging runs backwards by 6-9 months. Even the GR would not have been released in April 2013, but together with the K-3 in October and with the new engine if there wasn't a constant peer pressure and internal delay — belated GR would mean giving up its entire market niche to Fuji and Nikon. A hard and unacceptable sacrifice.
Nikon really nudged them hard, before they were ready, thus the GR with specs from the "plan B" was released and luckily, Nikon also did not have the new engine in it (Fujitsu provides for both). The GR had to be released in April with as best specs as possible. Similarly, the K-3 with capped specs had to be released and available before Christmas 2013 no matter what.