[Rondec]

The K-01 was too divisive visually and the lack of a mirror didnt really come with many obvious advantages.

Pentax's best bet would be to try to make it look as much like an MX or an LX as possible. But shrinking it as small as possible whilst maintaining the K-mount is a non-trivial technical challenge.

Without obvious size benefits from mirrorless other advantages would need to be promoted. Meaning things like EVFs would have to be extremely good, fps would have to take advantage of no mirror etc.

---------- Post added 08-29-18 at 05:42 PM ----------

As Rondec said, the technical things (EVF, PDAF on sensor etc) are not Pentax's strong points.

The biggest problem with the K-01 was its launch price. I think Monochrome pre-ordered it and I want to say it was around 850 dollars? That combined with somewhat if-y specs (bad buffer, slow auto focus, no tracking auto focus at all, and no EVF) made it an initial target of hatred. Pentax thought they had some kind of boutique camera on their hands that fashionistas would want to buy at exorbitant prices. When that didn't work out, the prices fell like a stone. I bought mine for 260.

But by then, the damage had been done and Pentax never went down that road again.

I agree. It's just Pentax shows their ability to take old-ish sensor and make it sing (K-1 sensor for example). I guess designing a new sensor would be an overkill for the niche (but dreamers can dream )

If you want a low megapixel sensor, you would do worse than get the 12 megapixel one that is in the A7s. The whole reason for 12 megapixels was to allow better quality of 4K video. Probably not terribly important to Pentaxians, but that sensor does look like it has pretty high quality high iso performance (although not exceptional dynamic range or resolution at low isos).

[Tarf_Gnams]

Cock-a-doodle-doo Goonbags. Tarf here, late to the game but early to rise. Looking forward to devouring as much info as possible and learning the Pentaxian way. Cha! The G is silent, but I’m not.

[RonHendriks1966]

The biggest problem with the K-01 was its launch price. I think Monochrome pre-ordered it and I want to say it was around 850 dollars? That combined with somewhat if-y specs (bad buffer, slow auto focus, no tracking auto focus at all, and no EVF) made it an initial target of hatred. Pentax thought they had some kind of boutique camera on their hands that fashionistas would want to buy at exorbitant prices. When that didn't work out, the prices fell like a stone. I bought mine for 260.

But by then, the damage had been done and Pentax never went down that road again.

And then two years later they made the same mistake with the introduction of the K-S1 with the led lights and the to high price for what it was.

[reh321]

Rather than being the future of photography, it's likely to be what will allow camera companies to influence people to replace their current camera that is working just fine.

While I was in Best Buy this morning purchasing an external drive so I could make yet another copy of all my files, I looked at their Canon M-50. Other than size, it was almost indistinguishable from the Rebels it is related to. If I were still using Canon, if I hadn't switched to a K-30 39 months ago, I couldn't think of any reason to purchase another Rebel instead of the M-50. In fact forty months ago, I was shopping K-30/50 instead of related K-01 only because the K-01 doesn't have EVF.

[biz-engineer]

I was at Canon regional stand, they had all products on demo. I was interested in the size of the M5 and M6, I tired them, it felt plastic cheaply built, tiny dials for my fingers, evf flickering, AF about as fast as my Pentax LV mode, I took a few shots with the M5, image quality was so..so, my reaction was mixed. Before I tried I was thinking of getting an M5 for travel, after I tried it I decided not to buy it.

[Pål Jensen]

Pentax is the slr manufacturer. If anything they have been increasingly concentrating on their core values. Dont expect a mirrorless camera anytime soon if ever....

[enoeske]

Pentax is the slr manufacturer. If anything they have been increasingly concentrating on their core values. Dont expect a mirrorless camera anytime soon if ever....

Pentax is a brand name owned by Ricoh

[reh321]

I was at Canon regional stand, they had all products on demo. I was interested in the size of the M5 and M6, I tired them, it felt plastic cheaply built, tiny dials for my fingers, evf flickering, AF about as fast as my Pentax LV mode, I took a few shots with the M5, image quality was so..so, my reaction was mixed. Before I tried I was thinking of getting an M5 for travel, after I tried it I decided not to buy it.

Pentax and Nikon users always seem to react to "plastic". Canon has been using space age materials for many years now, and it doesn't faze their users any. I used Canon "plastics" for over twenty years, including some heavily used lenses with "plastic" mount, and the only issues I had was with the electronics inside.

[Pål Jensen]

Pentax is a brand name owned by Ricoh

It is more than that. It is Pentax camera division, the engineers, factories, patents and traditions. Under Ricoh, Pentax has been more focused than ever...

[MikeyBugs95]

I for one would love to see a, APS-C and FF mirrorless offering from Pentax. As much as I hate the idea, I think mirrorless is the future of of photography, just as long as it has an adapter to use K-mount lenses I'm good with it.

I too would like to see a new Pentax mirrorless even if just to see what they can do. But I would say that they should make a new mount. A new mount with a shorter flange distance to get the slimness benefits of mirrorless. But instead of then making a new lens line, provide a K-whatever adapter with full lens control capabilities with the camera instead of requiring it to be a separate purchase. That way users of the new camera can fully utilize their existing lenses on this new mount. In the future, a new lens line can be added.

[Pål Jensen]

The last thing Pentax needs now is to launch a new lens line/mount....

[biz-engineer]

Pentax and Nikon users always seem to react to "plastic". Canon has been using space age materials for many years now, and it doesn't faze their users any. I used Canon "plastics" for over twenty years, including some heavily used lenses with "plastic" mount, and the only issues I had was with the electronics inside.

Should I conclude that you selected a Pentax product by mistake?

[reh321]

Should I conclude that you selected a Pentax product by mistake?

No, Canon has some strengths, and Pentax has some strengths

[reh321]

I was at Canon regional stand, they had all products on demo. I was interested in the size of the M5 and M6, I tired them, it felt plastic cheaply built, tiny dials for my fingers, evf flickering, AF about as fast as my Pentax LV mode, I took a few shots with the M5, image quality was so..so, my reaction was mixed. Before I tried I was thinking of getting an M5 for travel, after I tried it I decided not to buy it.

Were you inside, under fluorescent lighting?

[biz-engineer]

No, Canon has some strengths, and Pentax has some strengths

Ah Ok. So if Canon build quality is good. Then I guess if the strong point of Pentax camera is not build quality , it must be something like autofocus, video or the selection of lenses?