Actually, they definitely were thinking "selfies" although I don't think their marketing stuff uses that term.
The vari-angle screen is just that and is not indicative of selfies per se. However, the fact that the wi-fi button becomes a secondary shutter button, which lights up the the main shutter button and falls more naturally and securely in hand when the camera is held in the reverse position in the left hand, is definitely an indication that they were thinking selfies a lot and quite deliberately. You can see it in use in the Adorama video:
As established in the CP+ 2015 interview, Japan is the major market for Pentax. Based on what I saw when I was in Japan around New Year's, selfies are a big thing there, quite often with a smartphone on a selfie-stick (telescoping monopod).
As for the design of the K-S1 being aimed at gadget users, it may not have been successful, but they definitely had a certain logic in mind for the interface. It is touched on briefly in this interview:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/16-pentax-news-rumors/285067-pentax-inter...-business.html Originally posted by Marktax I don't think Pentax designers were thinking selfies, not even a little. Samsung (or someone) recently produced a compact with a flip UP screen that was marketed to "selfie-shooters," but all of that marketing language is just . . . marketing language. The original marketing language for the K-S1, as we all saw, was ostensibly directed towards helping cell-phone users get into DSLRs. Following that logic, K-S1 would have had a touch screen, but it didn't. So I think the marketing idea they decided to put into ink on paper came after the design. Just like the names of color groupings ("nature" "sweets," "fabric"), it's all arbitrary. It's like calling an off-white interior room paint "misty morning" to have a sales angle. No one is actually going to say that their blue K-S1 is "denim" colored. So the articulated screen of the K-S2 is not there because Pentaxians, or anyone, demanded selfie appurtenances, it's there because of market competition against other articulated/tilt screen competitors, which, more than selfies, is feeding the demand for low-angle/high-angle shooting, which in my view is a very imprecise way to frame a serious shot anyway. It'll do in a pinch, of course, and so has some value. I don't mind it being there, but it is not there because Pentax designers suddenly woke up and said "Dang! We forgot to put a twisty screen on the K-S1 for selfies!" K-S2 was no doubt on the drawing board at the same time as the K-S1, as a K-50 replacement, not a K-S1 upgrade. I don't think for a minute that they threw such a well-specified model as the K-S2 together -- and actually got it into limited production -- after second thoughts and a mere 6 months after release the K-S1. (But they are darned good at rush work if they did.)
---------- Post added 02-14-15 at 08:31 PM ----------
Hate to sound like a broken record, but it looks like you've been vindicated yet again Ken. No misunderstanding -- here's a shot of the body armour for the K-S2:
This is taken from the CP+ 2015 coverage on TheVerge.com:
The most important camera gear at Japan's biggest photo show | The Verge
Just a photo though, it doesn't say anything about the body armour.
Originally posted by kenspo Ok, maybe i just missunderstood what they said
I thought it was optional gear you could attach..