Originally posted by Aristophanes The k-mount is a 135 (FF) mount, so Ricoh isn;t rally starting technically from nothing. The bugbear isn'e the FF tech. It's the price point and the ability to design, make, and sell enough lenses to be viable against Canon and Nikon.
Pentax most certainly has MF competition from Mamiya/Phase One, Hasselbald, and Leica. The company that comes out with the Mamiya 6 or 7 digital will be on to something. The Leica S series is not that kind of camera. All of these brands use hand assembly on small production runs and get a decent $ return from there pro support systems. Alpa is also there, proving that a very small manufacturer can make a go of it in this boutique area, even digitally. The real problem is ramping up production and lens arrays for FF. For the Pentax 645Z, not so much of an issue.
The K-mount is a given, as is a shutter button on the right hand side, and some sort of grip. But pretty much everything else is up for grabs. We don't even know if it'll have a mirror.
I can tell you the Phase One guys don't consider Pentax to be their competition - at least not that they'll admit. The Pentax 645D is in a completely different price range. Pentax can't really compete with the IQ160 or IQ180 backs either. Phase One also has the whole studio tethering setup down, with arguably the industry's best raw processing software (which supports Pentax, but conspicuously not the 645D), and a good reputation with high-end photographers that's spanned a number of generations. OTOH, Hasselblad has a reputation for outstanding lenses and better bodies than Phase One (but not better sensors), so they don't seem to feel the heat from below either - at least, not yet. And Leica doesn't really compete with anyone.
I think Pentax has to step up their game to compete with Phase One and Hasselblad, and they
may intend to do so with the 645Z - or they may intend to simply stay in their own market, or create a new one by innovating in a different direction.
---------- Post added 04-02-14 at 10:21 PM ----------
Originally posted by dfujevec What sense is to make camera that it is more than 3 times heavier, 4 times bigger and has only 1,3 bigger senzor than FF camera (Sony a7). Ricoh lets make this camera mirrorless, that is only thing that can change this camera into something special and interesting.
First of all, the sensor's about 1.7 times bigger. And the lenses are bigger. And these bigger lenses are delivering an image to a bigger sensor, which avoids many of the optical problems or performance penalties that a smaller system suffers from. This increase is almost as much as the increase in going from APS-C to 35mm FF, which some people seem to think is the most amazing upgrade ever. And
that upgrade requires using the same, smaller lenses. As a system, the price per
quality pixel will probably be one of the lowest in the industry. At the same time, it'll still have one of the highest absolute resolutions (pixel count) available in the industry, at any price - and should be the cheapest 50MP+ system ever seen so far. And there's more, but isn't that enough?
Are you familiar with Clyde Butcher?
http://www.clydebutcher.com/ I suppose you might say "what an idiot, lugging that 8 x 10 inch camera through the swamps of the Everglades!" But the first time you see one of his amazing large prints in person (probably the best print I've ever seen),
you'll feel like the idiot - for not being a better photographer!