Originally posted by Winder What I said was that people who are serious about videography should look to other brands that offer better support. If you want to make home movies your kids running though sprinklers then Pentax if fine. But if you are serious about audio/video then Pentax is not the best brand to start with or use. Pentax had an EXCELLENT opportunity to build 4K or excellent HD codec into the 645z. They could have made huge waves in the HD video industry, but instead they through some pretty average HD video specifications into it. They did just enough so they could advertise HD on the spec sheet.
Look at it this way. If you wanted to get into underwater photography, I would probably tell you to look at a brand other than Pentax. There is not enough support in the industry for underwater housings and equipment. You will have a better experience and get better results with other brands of equipment.
I could care less if they add 4K. Still photography is benefitting from the hardware advancements that 4K brings and that is great. I own a Sony A7II which has excellent HD video capabilities, or so the review sites say.
Ricoh buys its hardware from Sony and Fujitsu. Both of those companies are building video into their hardware and Ricoh is going to evolve with that hardware, but I don't see Ricoh putting a lot of focus on 4K in the near future simply because they don't have the ecosystem for it. Maybe that will change. Its a pity they didn't put serious HD or 4K capabilities on the 645z. That would have been a game changer.
The issue with video in the 645z is line skipping, at 1080p the line skipping is going to be very visible regardless of the codec and bitrate. If they went up to 4k they could dramatically reduce this issue, but then throughput becomes so high that they need a completely new processing engine. Suddenly the 645z is 15% bigger and significantly heavier, not to mention more costly. If Pentax wants to get into the video market they need to take a cue from Black Magic. Make a camera thats built from the ground up to provide the highest data throughput, and the best video oriented sensor. However, this would go completely against their existing legacy and user base. If Pentax wants to fight in this market they can, but it will mean starting from nearly scratch with very little support from their current market. It can be done, and Black Magic has proved that, but I don't know if it makes sense.
For years I hoped Pentax would make a good video mode in their dslr's, when it got worse instead of better I went out and bought a BMPCC. I was amazed at how different the camera operates and how much better the video quality was than any dslr I'd seen. I can still use my Pentax lenses, and its small enough to be hardly noticeable in the camera bag. This is a better solution. If you care about the quality of the video you need a camera designed for video, as well as a host of accessories like mics, steadycam, follow focus, etc. The convergence of the two is a fad driven by amateurs. I'm not saying its going away, just that if you're serious then you want a precision tool, not an amalgam of mismatched technologies.