[Kunzite]

Astrotracer can't work unless a GPS device integrating an electronic compass is firmly attached - in a precise location and with a precise orientation - to the camera.
Geolocation (without direction information though) is OK; after all it doesn't matter much if the phone providing location data through its GPS is 10m away.

Well, perhaps Astrotracer could theoretically work with geolocation taken from a smartphone and an electronic compass in the camera. I don't think I like this idea though (smartphone with battery hog GPS + battery hog WiFi + power saving features disabled, camera with battery hog WiFi activated...)

[JimmyDranox]

It's not about pleasing me (or anybody else); simply "I know (for a fact) that" is different from "I have been told that".

For instance "the K-3 II press release will be published at 08:00 Oslo time" is different from "I have been told that the K-3 II press release should be published at 08:00 Oslo time", in particular when said press release is actually published at 00:00: in the first case, your credibility is harmed, in the second it's that of your sources.

People here trust you; you might consider not disappointing them in endorsing as your personal knowledge statements you have heard other persons make, persons who might not be as reliable or sincere as yourself.

I think that's too much.

Did Kenspo has a contract with us, or with you, to give informations, in a very precise matter, or in any matter what so ever? No. No, in anyway.

It would be better if he doesn't say anything? For him, probably.

[monochrome]

For the GPS I don't get why it need to take the space of that flash.

Because they essentially used the electronics from the O-GPS1, which are large. There's a shot on one of the threads where a Norwegian Pentax Forum member opened an O-GPS1 showing the circuit boards and antenna.

C'mon - it's $1,099 release price US. It is a continuation K-3. They didn't re-engineer the main board to include a GPS module. This is a dSLR - a small one at that - not a 600,000,000 unit cell phone.

[Zygonyx]

+1 with jimmy : let's make life easy and fun, stay the way you are kenspo and asahiman !
Life is so boring with people taking themselves too seriously !

@Nicolas06 : don't forget the electronics, the antena and the compas's sensor....

[Rondec]

For the GPS I don't get why it need to take the space of that flash. There are GPS in very small phones or sport watches. And even this is not the GPS that take most of the place but more the screen, processor etc. This can be really tiny. They could have made the bump of the pentaprism a bit bigger too if really necessary.

I think the removal of the flash was either because they rushed it or because they wanted to try to see how the reaction of the market would be to remove flash support.

As a side note, with wifi you have access to phone geolocalization so you could have geotag and astro tracer support through a device the photographer is likely to already have. They could have bundled it with a star map, stars descriptions and so own.

I think we can safely say a couple of things.

First, the astro tracer takes up more space than a simple GPS. If they just wanted to tag photos, that would have been pretty simple to do. They didn't want to do that, they wanted the astro tracer functionality and that had a bigger space requirement.

Second, they weren't going to redo the K3 camera body. It is what it is. They called it a K3 II because it wasn't a large upgrade -- new sensor, new body, etc, it is a relatively minor upgrade in the whole scheme of things. The problem is that there are a lot of folks out there who actually want a feature or two of the K3 II and can't make a decision whether or not it is worth it.

The final thing is that you aren't really someone who is the target of the K3 II. I just don't think that the majority of people who own a K3 will be moving up to a K3 II, although when people starting posting photos from it, that could always change. I think the majority of people who will get a K3 II will be people who currently own a K7 or a K5 or even a K5 II and were thinking about upgrade for awhile, but the K3 didn't fit what they were looking for.

[Stavri]

Yes, same sensor, but some changes in the tweaking. I can't tell about the DR yet. Will do when i have the finished product in hand. I can't tell about the kitlense. Never used one

That i didn't ask about. Dont know which lenses they tested with. All i know of specs, is that the AF module inside has been improved.

It will be great to hear your own perspective on the K3ii when it arrives....Looking forward to it.

[kenspo]

It will be great to hear your own perspective on the K3ii when it arrives....Looking forward to it.

have picked a few shows in may to test the Mark II's properly. Will give a full feedback then, since it will be with the finished product

[Mistral75]

I think that's too much.

Did Kenspo has a contract with us, or with you, to give informations, in a very precise matter, or in any matter what so ever? No. No, in anyway.

It would be better if he doesn't say anything? For him, probably.

Guys, you misread me or, more probably, I didn't made myself clear. After all, being French, both British English and American English are second languages to me .

Or I'm biased by the fact that part of my job is gathering pieces of information and assessing their credibility.

Like all of you, I presume, I'm very interested in what kenspo is telling us. I have never written, nor do I think, that it would be better for us if he didn't say anything.

I simply regret that he puts on an equal footing (presenting them as his personal knowledge) things he knows (because he experienced them or knows them for a fact), the credibility of which is equal to his own, and things he was told, the credibility of which is linked to that of his own source, the potential miscomprehension that may have taken place between the two of them and so on and is therefore lower.

In doing so kenspo takes the risk of undermining his credibility and the impact/interest of the news/rumours he is conveying, at least to me and may be to some others. And I think this is unfortunate but, again, I might be biased.

On a side note: the schedule of the press release is only one silly example I used. I might have made a reference to the "new" sensor in K-3 II as well, I chose not to, because I didn't want to appear as aggressive or trying to undermine kenspo's work on this forum.

Judging by the reactions from some of you, I failed miserably so I will state the following loud and clear: kenspo, please keep on spreading your good words!

(you might envisage being more specific here and there )

[Stavri]

Guys, you misread me or, more probably, I didn't made myself clear. After all, being French, both British English and American English are second languages to me .

Or I'm biased by the fact that part of my job is gathering pieces of information and assessing their credibility.

Like all of you, I presume, I'm very interested in what kenspo is telling us. I have never written, nor do I think, that it would be better for us if he didn't say anything.

I simply regret that he puts on an equal footing (presenting them as his personal knowledge) things he knows (because he experienced them or knows them for a fact), the credibility of which is equal to his own, and things he was told, the credibility of which is linked to that of his own source, the potential miscomprehension that may have taken place between the two of them and so on and is therefore lower.

In doing so kenspo takes the risk of undermining his credibility and the impact/interest of the news/rumours he is conveying, at least to me and may be to some others. And I think this is unfortunate but, again, I might be biased.
(you might envisage being more specific here and there )

I don't doubt anyone's appreciation for Kenneth's contribution here in the forum. I also understand that one might have some issues with his efforts to scrutinize the details of his correspondence with Ricoh which fuels our discussions here at the forum. I think you'd agree that one's cognitive ability (and sensibility) to recognize and extract tangible information from flux is tied to their own innate abilities and personality. I think its wrong to actively or inadvertently hold people to one's established standards of performance because we're all operate on different levels. We need to respect and accept each and everyone's individual contribution.

Kenneth, as a busy professional with his active participation is donating his time and energies and we're all appreciative....

[IchabodCrane]

Guys, you misread me or, more probably, I didn't made myself clear. After all, being French, both British English and American English are second languages to me .

Or I'm biased by the fact that part of my job is gathering pieces of information and assessing their credibility.

Like all of you, I presume, I'm very interested in what kenspo is telling us. I have never written, nor do I think, that it would be better for us if he didn't say anything.

I simply regret that he puts on an equal footing (presenting them as his personal knowledge) things he knows (because he experienced them or knows them for a fact), the credibility of which is equal to his own, and things he was told, the credibility of which is linked to that of his own source, the potential miscomprehension that may have taken place between the two of them and so on and is therefore lower.

In doing so kenspo takes the risk of undermining his credibility and the impact/interest of the news/rumours he is conveying, at least to me and may be to some others. And I think this is unfortunate but, again, I might be biased.

On a side note: the schedule of the press release is only one silly example I used. I might have made a reference to the "new" sensor in K-3 II as well, I chose not to, because I didn't want to appear as aggressive or trying to undermine kenspo's work on this forum.

Judging by the reactions from some of you, I failed miserably so I will state the following loud and clear: kenspo, please keep on spreading your good words!

(you might envisage being more specific here and there )

Mistral, your point and post are fine. Perhaps to boil it down into a very simple statement, I think the request is for whomever is making a post please don't co-mingle the words "know" and "hear". It just helps us readers understand better which I'm sure was the the intent all along.

[rawr]

+1 for kenspo and asahiman.

[insert this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things.jpg]

On the subject of flash removal, GPS addition etc, the K-3 II experience is reminding me of the KS-1. KS-1 was a nice solid camera, but a PR mess, with the flashing lights, unconventional body, the 'big hands' Photoshop fail etc. It must have had an impact on sales and marketing. So VERY shortly after introduction, the KS-1 is dropped, then comes the KS-2, which abandons the flashing lights, adopts conventional body design, adds flippy screen, bundles WiFi, and is overall a much more refined product. Pentax quickly absorbed all of the lessons of the KS-1 experience and tried again.

Maybe they will do that again with a K-3 IIs, with flash and WiFi included, but maybe not GPS ...

[Nicolas06]

+1 for kenspo and asahiman.

[insert this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things.jpg]

On the subject of flash removal, GPS addition etc, the K-3 II experience is reminding me of the KS-1. KS-1 was a nice solid camera, but a PR mess, with the flashing lights, unconventional body, the 'big hands' Photoshop fail etc. It must have had an impact on sales and marketing. So VERY shortly after introduction, the KS-1 is dropped, then comes the KS-2, which abandons the flashing lights, adopts conventional body design, adds flippy screen, bundles WiFi, and is overall a much more refined product. Pentax quickly absorbed all of the lessons of the KS-1 experience and tried again.

Maybe they will do that again with a K-3 IIs, with flash and WiFi included, but maybe not GPS ...

Depending of the sales, it really well could be ! I hope anyway that future model will have a flash... and more an improved model that can bounce on ceilling rather than to remove it entirely.

[jaad75]

So VERY shortly after introduction, the KS-1 is dropped, then comes the KS-2, which abandons the flashing lights, adopts conventional body design, adds flippy screen, bundles WiFi, and is overall a much more refined product. Pentax quickly absorbed all of the lessons of the KS-1 experience and tried again.

The K-S1 is not "dropped" and the K-S2 is not its successor. The K-S2 is a parallel product a class above the K-S1.

[reh321]

Depending of the sales, it really well could be ! I hope anyway that future model will have a flash... and more an improved model that can bounce on ceiling rather than to remove it entirely.

I would think that a flash capable of bouncing enough light off a ceiling to do any good would have to put out more light than a built-in flash normally does; the output of the usual built-in flash is just plain pathetic.

[reytor]

I'm a bit scared of the talks that there was no room for wifi or nfc in K-3II.
The FF body seems to be not much bigger and we were going to get a pro body, so if there's no wifi (for remote control and tethering, I could care less about uploading to web) or they drop out the GPS & tracker, will it be interesting enough to sell the quantity it needs to, to keep bring Pentax in the serious pro club?