Originally posted by AyeYo The KP might be good from an IQ standpoint, but to summarize everything you're saying... it's not a professional level camera. It lacks dual SDs, adequate burst, adequate buffer, adequate battery life, comfortable ergonomics (for long shooting hours, not for carrying around downtown), adequate shutter assembly life, etc.
I'd love to talk to someone in Pentax's marketing department and ask them for a profile of their target buyer in general and also the KP's target buyer. If their APS-C target buyer is someone looking for slim body portability and light weight, they're barking up the wrong tree and have dire times ahead. A KP and even KPii isn't going to compete with an A6xxx in those areas - not even close. Casual and street shooters are going mirrorless if they want slim and light. Professional shooters' needs haven't changed and they aren't going to downgrade to KP level specs just because the RAW files have nicely baked in noise reduction. The KP is a really confusing camera that must have an absurdly specific (and thus tiny) target market I just can't wrap my mind around a profile for. Discontinuing the only pro level APS-C camera without a replacement is even more confusing. The K70 is such a solid entry-level offering... why not duplicate that high value model up the chain?
The "slim" profile markets been stolen by M43 and Sony's mirrorless as you said. APS-C lenses are still big. That used to be a Pentax advantage a while ago. I agree, they are toast going after that.
APS-C needs to be a very strong marriage of performance (high iso/resolution vs iphone/M43) and value. Otherwise FF is very attractive as it's not much different in size for a DSLR.
KP and whatever K3xxx need to best the 7dii/D500/7500's out there which have really high performance. The sensor in the KP is really good, they just need AF and overall speed to back that up. Maybe grab some tricks that Olympis uses like Livebulb and Livecomp, Focus stacking in camera etc, as those are killer features on that platform.
Its a bit late for me as I already started to jump to Nikon but had a K3iii with near equivalent AF to a 7500/750 with KP sensor hit the market I would probably Stay in the Pentax ecosystem other than long telephoto's. They really are waiting too long and not giving current users some light at the end of the tunnel.
---------- Post added 02-13-2018 at 02:51 PM ----------
Originally posted by Doundounba Personally, I think if you stay with the same image format (APS-C), you can't just compare bodies, weight-wise, to see how much weight you'd save by going from Pentax to another brand. The lenses for the other brand will often be as heavy or even heavier than the Pentax equivalents, except for some corner cases (like people shooting with just a single prime near the registration distance of the lens mount they pick). You really need to compare for your specific use-case to see how things turn out. For example, you need a ~100mm 1:1 macro in your kit? In E-mount: Sony 90mm is 602g, Sigma 105mm is 726g and Samyang 100mm is 730g. The D-FA 100mm WR? 340g! That weight difference (262-290g) is about the same as the difference between a K-70 and an a6300 (284g). BTW, the trend in mirrorless has been towards heavier and heavier bodies, at least at the high end (a6000 < a6300 < a6500; X-T1 < X-T2 < X-H1; E-M5 < E-M1 < E-M1ii). Of course, there might be other reasons than weight to switch...
Nevertheless, I think for really significant weight savings, you need to go down a step in image format (APS-C -> m4/3s). But again check your particular use-case, including all lenses. Sometimes the existence of a particular lens might swing things one way or another...
Yes, and with M43 the "pro" lenses and EM1 line are nearly as big as APS-C. If you stick to EM10/5 and the lighter plastic lenses (which are excellent) it's a massive size/weight savings at not a huge expense in image quality.
Competing with M43 for compact size is a losing battle for anything in APS-C, the sensors are really good as are the lens lineup.
Pentax needs to be the muscle car brand for image quality, keep dropping the sensors in of camera's costing twice as much to attract people who will make the compromise of having less lenses to pick and AF-C not being as high performance. That 1000-2000 dollar price point the K3ii was in now is flooded with FF options and very high performance APS-C so that's harder then ever.