Originally posted by noser I bet you could say the same thing about FF - it seems to be the elephant in the room for a lot of these interviews... but it strikes me that they were talking in terms of mounts, and not sensor sizes; maybe there was no need to talk in terms of FF as it's just assumed to be an eventuality once they settle on how to apply the overall mission statement to a FF device that isn't either a Fuji/Leica or CaNikon.
I have thought Hoya liquidated at 'low cost' the inventory of FF lenses, then Ricoh instituted MAP to restore pricing control, reposition the brand upscale and better 'manage' the drawdown of inventory. I have thought one element of the 645 + APSc - FF calculus might be a decent existing inventory of 645 and APSc lenses to sell and comparatively few FF lenses left.
I noted he seems to have said there are only 5 FF lenses right now (D-FA and FA) - that would be the 2 D-FA macros and the FA Limiteds. While we speculate on the usability of DA lenses with FF coverage, he doesn't seem to think so.
Insisting on the Zen of the image seems very Japanese - a hard concept for a Westerner to embrace and a hard sell for Pentax here. Personally, I like that, I would buy Pentax JUST FOR THAT DISTINCTION if it was actually true and if that was the understood Pentax reputation. It certainly adds to the ergonomics and menus argument for Pentax - the user experience argument. The question, of course, is how to make the product actually deliver a quantifiably better image consistently.
I conclude that a FF won't happen until it will not just meet, but add to that corporate ethic; until there is a broader lens catalog IN PLACE; and until a FF can be profitably made that is a leapfrog device like the K-3 was.
SO, aside from using the dual processor and dual bus idea from the 645Z (a FAST FF) - my bet is, the FF will be the first Pentax camera with an EVF (or an OVF with some kind of overlay on the focusing screen for focus peaking and/or histogram type information) and it
could be the first with a truly functional OLED viewfinder. It
could have a different form factor than a traditional dSLR (645Z form? - 645Z-mini? - Hassy form?). It
could have a different base ISO and ISO emulation protocol than anything before it; it
could have
fewer megapixels than the consumer cameras - in short, a different picture-taking experience and truly superior image output.