Originally posted by falconeye I just added a good $1000 to the price of the RX1 to accomodate for the 11mm or 5/4 larger sensor diagonal (68% larger surface). In terms of area, the steps from APSC to FF and from FF to 645Z are about the same (about 500 sq.mm). So, a $1000 price increment may be adequate.
MF camera prices are mostly arbitrary anyway. After all, it is Pentax offering a better camera for 1/3 the price of its peers. So, I totally ignored the 645Z price in my consideration.
The 645Z is worth its price because it makes you look so much more professional vis a vis your clients. Not because it is this expensive to make. Let's be honest here.
It is all feasible. It is the same thing I have heard from some sources: that
the 645Z is not a single whistle in using that new MF sensor by Pentax.
They are able to release a 645Z with such a price ($8500, and still make a good profit!) not only because of relatively lower sensor cost than before possible by Sony, but because of the inside economy of their own camera development. All grouping and reorganising they have accomplished during the 2012 and finished in early 2013 was aimed towards that goal. Ricoh's US marketing told that although ideas for 645Z started in 2010, the development of the 645Z took some 1.5 years, which places its beginning to early 2013. Bingo! Exactly as suspected.
645Z has, practically, the whole innards of the K-3, even including the new mirror mechanism adapted for it. And the derivatives of the K-3 in lower-end DSLR bodies will share same that tech as well. Similarly, the 645 mirrorless fixed lens camera(s) will have all the innards of the GR, plus more, because the classic 28mm GR is now expanding further within the APS-C derivatives.
I suspect two: (1) a fixed focal length 645 mirrorless at f2.8 (hard to guess which focal length, but something close to 40mm I presume), and (2) a 28-60-ish / f4 zoom are all highly possible. Nothing more is needed because, well,
just imagine cropping possible with such MF cameras!
Less than 30% of that sensor area gives you the full resolution of the D4, X-T1, X100s and the K-5! Even with a single focal length lens, one practically has all the virtual lenses and usable cropped sizes all up to 135 mm, even more.
The 28-60-ish zoom enables practically same, at much lower cost than making a far more complex, longer, heavier and far more expensive zoom for a 24MP FF. So why bother with 24 MP FF at all (and even 36 MP, which is already verging with unstable)?
It's unbelievable what a game changer that would be. And from what I have heard, the price should be a real surprise, that will allow users pondering a D800 plus a lens think twice — and even the RX1 prospective users too.In other words, why beg for an FF sensor when they are able to give you
much better than that?