[MMVIII]

If this specs leak is true, then someone in the Ricoh marketing team did a very poor job. I hope it is joke.

This is not an incremental update one might expect from release after 2+ years. I am a senior lead engineer in a technology-based company in SV, and we do releases once per 6-9 months. Updating one component by taking it from an already released product is now what we call even an incremental update.
An incremental update is a set of minor improvements in most aspects of the product. A major update is if there is some new big feature or a new huge improvement.

As for the marketing - the main goal of marketing is not to make ads but to listen to the market and decide what product to put on the shelf so people would buy it. And now what Ricoh is doing?
- Pentax is known for its AF system to be lagging behind the competition and having bad press. Ricoh answer: No AF improvements. Not even improved software.
- Poor buffer clearing speed, burst speed on the low-end, compared to competiotion. Ricoh answer: No hardware improvements in this area at all.
- No USB 3.0: Again no improvements at all.
- K1 is known for its outstanding IQ and great sensor beating the competition even in the 2x-3x higher price range. What Ricoh does? They add some software mambo-jumbo chip to improve ISO / IQ even further to ridiculous levels. Are you crazy, Ricoh? Are they gonna be shooting in complete darkness? High ISO makes sense only if you're shooting sports in poor light conditions. But without a decent AF and burst rates, this is pointless - there are better cameras for this.

Sure, I didn't expect miracles in this release. Only incremental update - the same sensor, but faster processor, modernized faster interface for accessing memory cards to increase continuous shooting speed, improved AF (maybe more points of the same kind), improved AF tracking software (or at least some additional marketing effort to show to everybody they were wrong and AF is decent).

That's 2018: a company is increasing the quality of the image output of a well regarded digital camera even further: crazy/insane/choose your derogatory term.
Haha, that's the beauty of this kind of fora...

[Zygonyx]

And btw, DSLRs are not smartphones

[ogl]

Very boring news...:0 )

[fotomarc]

Deeper buffer? According to these, the buffer is now 17 raw files at 4.4 fps continuous shooting. I don't think it is quite that deep on the current K-1.

Actually, that is the same as the current K-1.

[DeadJohn]

To everyone wishing for 42mp: Going from 36 to 42 is an imperceptibly tiny upgrade. K-1 sensor is 7360x4912. Sony 42mp is 7952 x 5304. You only gain 8% more pixels in each direction going from 36mp to 42mp.

If you adhere to 300 dpi printing, your 24.5" print can now be 26.5". You get a similarly small improvement for telephoto cropping. 8% might help at a few edge cases. If you really need that 26.5" print today, you can print from the K-1 at 278 dpi and no one will notice.

*If* a K-1 mark2 is coming out I hope there's more to it than a few more pixels and raw noise reduction. No, it doesn't hurt to have a 42mp, but other than for specification sheets it's not better than 36mp. Ricoh has shown little interest in fighting specification wars.

We'll know when Ricoh talks.

[MadMathMind]

3 weeks ago nobody heard of a updated K1 and now people are disappointed because it's not a NEW FF (News sensor, new AF system etc) but a upgrade from original K1.
I dont get it !

The K1 is an excellent camera, we all know that, and for about the same price they replace it for an even better camera IQ wise, I think that's great !
I can't wait to see the result in high ISO with this MkII

Im not saying this is perfect, the first thing that comes to mind is the lack of an updated Buffer / UHS II system, but with no increase in price I still think the K1 MkII is a hell of a deal.

I've got high expectations for the next FF camera from Pentax though, but I think Ill need to be patient as I dont think it's around the corner.

The point is that they took the time to release a new product...that offers almost nothing new. Sometimes nothing is better than a half-ass answer. This is insulting, really.

Think of all the other products that we have not gotten.... a wide-angle prime (~35mm), a modern 50mm, a modern 85mm. Instead, we got a marginal update to an existing product after 2 years. Are there any engineers in their company left? That's my question. I don't know how they can go so long releasing so few products. It's like the team is one or two guys with no help. The time they spent on the K-1 Mk II could have been spent on any of those items.

[MMVIII]

The point is that they took the time to release a new product...that offers almost nothing new. Sometimes nothing is better than a half-ass answer. This is insulting, really.

Think of all the other products that we have not gotten.... a wide-angle prime (~35mm), a modern 50mm, a modern 85mm. Instead, we got a marginal update to an existing product after 2 years. Are there any engineers in their company left? That's my question. I don't know how they can go so long releasing so few products. It's like the team is one or two guys with no help. The time they spent on the K-1 Mk II could have been spent on any of those items.

I think this is ridiculous. You are aware that you are talking about "releases" in relation to an event that is going to be in some days and all the information you have are unsubstantiated rumours?
Give them a break, take a break, whatever.

[aurele]

Instead, we got a marginal update to an existing product after 2 years.

The time they spent on the K-1 Mk II could have been spent on any of those items.

The reason beyond this update has pretty much to do with fabrication process and using same components trough various product. Pretty much the K5ii case here !

I don't know how they can go so long releasing so few products.

maybe because they have very few money flowing hence few people hence few new product.

Think of all the other products that we have not gotten

Grass is always greener elsewhere, just saying

[photoptimist]

The point is that they took the time to release a new product...that offers almost nothing new. Sometimes nothing is better than a half-ass answer. This is insulting, really.

Think of all the other products that we have not gotten.... a wide-angle prime (~35mm), a modern 50mm, a modern 85mm. Instead, we got a marginal update to an existing product after 2 years. Are there any engineers in their company left? That's my question. I don't know how they can go so long releasing so few products. It's like the team is one or two guys with no help. The time they spent on the K-1 Mk II could have been spent on any of those items.

Good grief! How can anyone be insulted by a new camera?

Pentax has done what they've always done at the 2-year juncture of a body. Pentax mark II bodies have never been major upgrades.

It's silly people on the internet who got carried away by their fanciful dreams of more megapixels and the inclusion of sensor & system performance from cameras that are 50% to 100% more expensive than the K-1.

Rather than be insulted by the K-1ii, people should be embarrassed that they got hooked by the hype from armchair camera designers.

[jatrax]

This is starting to get ludicrous. People insulted by cameras, people ready to jump off bridges because the rumor is not the rumor they wanted it to be, people arguing over things that cannot be proven in a rational manner, people making up facts or repeating rumors as facts. Insanity.


Oh, wait................... this is on the internet. Never mind.

[LensBeginner]

Great. T is for Turducken?

Hey if it's edible, it's good... :-P
I reckon one can find a bad word for each letter of the alphabet, if one tried hard enough...

A is for Posterior
B is for Sandra Bullock
C is for Cult of Can't
D is for Dick Tracy
E is for Eff...ect
F is for Fokker
G is for Damit ist alles gesagt
H is for Rudder Hardover
I is for Be in Chile
J is for Jackoff all Trades
K is for... you get the idea

[MadMathMind]

I think this is ridiculous. You are aware that you are talking about "releases" in relation to an event that is going to be in some days and all the information you have are unsubstantiated rumours?

No, the releases we haven't gotten in the past two years. We haven't gotten a single new full frame lens since May 2016. That's not a rumor. That's what's happened already.

---------- Post added 02-14-18 at 07:53 PM ----------

Grass is always greener elsewhere, just saying

That's because it's actually growing elsewhere. Pentax hasn't bothered to fertilize or water the lawn. Of course it looks a bit brown.

---------- Post added 02-14-18 at 07:55 PM ----------

maybe because they have very few money flowing hence few people hence few new product.

That might well be the case. But it's a chicken and the egg problem. If no one buys the products, there's no cash to make more. If there's no cash to make more, there's no products for people to buy. More generally, people don't buy into the system because there's not much in it. But then there's not much in it because people haven't bought into it. It's basically a Nash equilibrium that we're kinda stuck in the middle of.

[caliscouser]

Pentax has done what they've always done at the 2-year juncture of a body. Pentax mark II bodies have never been major upgrades

K-5 - > K-5ii(s)
- SAFOX 9i to SAFOX 10 including -3EV AF
- New gapless LCD
- Removal of AA filter (for the s)

K-3 -> K-3ii
- GPS
- Pixel-shift
- improved SR (3.5 to 4.5 stops)

The K-5 and K-3 updates had upgrades that seem significant enough to make people think about upgrading.

Maybe we don't have all the facts yet, but the K-1ii doesn't give anyone a reason to upgrade over a K-1. I really hope I'm wrong on this.

[MadMathMind]

It's silly people on the internet who got carried away by their fanciful dreams of more megapixels and the inclusion of sensor & system performance from cameras that are 50% to 100% more expensive than the K-1.

I didn't expect a 42MP sensor. I didn't expect a ton of upgrade. But how about autofocus that works as well as cameras released in 2014? How about lenses that every other system has had for nearly a decade. I guess that is my problem. I expected anything. It seems around here, it is best to expect nothing.

[jatrax]

I guess that is my problem. I expected anything. It seems around here, it is best to expect nothing.

Wise words.