[H. Sapiens]

I walk around with the small grip on my KP and it fits my hand perfectly - but I wear 'medium' gloves and use the strap they package with the camera. I guess they made the KP for me; I hope they make one for you also.

No worries. I can make the K3II work for me - I just have to be more careful with focusing that I thought would be necessary at this time - the AF in my Sony smartphone is much more intelligent than the one in my expensive camera.

[reh321]

the AF in my Sony smartphone is much more intelligent than the one in my expensive camera.

They also have much more computing power than the Lunar Lander did.

[H. Sapiens]

You are fortunate to have access to a B&M store. I also have a K-1 and I think that camera is perfect in my hand. The K-1 full grip is nice. I use the medium grip on KP and a long strap cross-body. That’s just how I do it. If the camera isn’t comfortable for you you should do something else, as you have.

No, on the contrary. I had to go halfway around the world, to Japan, to buy a camera :-) I am from Denmark and if there is a store with a good selection of Pentax cameras, I don't know it.


Yes, the K-1 is also a lovely camera - I tried it. But I could not afford it now and for my use the APS-C files should be plenty. My photos are for web use and prints in A4 size. Actually, my K5 already satisfied my needs in that regard.

[mee]

OK. I'll explain what was said about the high-end APS-C on the Ricoh stage, but please consider that this is my recollection of a something I heard in Japanese (understood at least 80%) and rendered two days later in my own English. There is no sense in overanalyzing the specific words I choose.

The interview with Kimio Tanaka was with Iwasaki-san, but when he started talking about the APS-C, he called up Shigeru Wakashiro from the crowd and shoved the mic in his hand. This was completely to Wakashiro-san's surprise, but he played along and spoke for a few minutes. Wakashiro-san is responsible for developing the forthcoming high-end APS-C.

He mentioned that the K-7, K-5, K-3 progression cameras were considered high-end APS-C cameras, but when compared to other companies’ models, they were at the lower end of the segment. Now that the KP has taken the line in one direction, that leaves them to really make a top-class APS-C camera. If I understood correctly, it’s going to have a new processor, sensor with a different resolution - so no "KP tech in a K-3 body".

Having said that, the size will be the same as the K-3, and the body will be very familiar to K-3 owners. Obviously Tanaka-san knows about this camera more than he is letting on, and he told the audience that he had urged them to show a model or even just a silhouette at the show. However, they had told him that even showing a silhouette would reveal something about the camera they are not ready to reveal.

In terms of timeline, they were very unclear, but it seems like it is not coming in the next few months. Maybe right at the end of the year of early next.

My own interpretation of this is that it's part of a long-term strategy to place the KP in the middle-range position of the APS-C line-up (it was announced as such) and to pave the way for a true high-end APS-C camera. As you can imagine from the technology in current Pentax cameras, it will take a lot of improvements to do that, so it is taking a long time.

Since we have at least 6 months if not closer to 10 we have plenty of time to work the specs up into unachievable dreams.


Where are those Samsung NX1 guys at?

[reh321]

Since we have at least 6 months if not closer to 10 we have plenty of time to work the specs up into unachievable dreams.

@Adam may bring other news back with him, but the most precise information we've heard at CP+ indicated at least 10 months {2020}

Judging by the series of tweets he posted in the afternoon, Kimio Tanaka wasn't exactly pleased with the outcome of his on-stage interview and the answers he received today.
The successor to K-3 II is still said to be under development. It's expected to be released next year. It's said to be worth waiting for.

[surfar]

Since we have at least 6 months if not closer to 10 we have plenty of time to work the specs up into unachievable dreams.


Where are those Samsung NX1 guys at?

I'll guess they are in Korea,but they could be anywhere in the Galaxy!

[mee]

I'll guess they are in Korea,but they could be anywhere in the Galaxy!

Haha oh.. I didn't mean the engineers, but the Pentax fans that were dreaming the Ricoh had bought out the tech and rights to the NX1 and were going to incorporate it into a new Pentax body. You don't remember those posts?

That said the sensor it used was incredible.. even in low light it looked closer to full frame than crop imo.

[surfar]

It's still incredible,though it's 5 years old.

[lesmore49]

Thx for the report. Informative. As an aside I like the vintage Triumph motorcycle in one of the OP pics.

[sbh]

OK. I'll explain what was said about the high-end APS-C on the Ricoh stage, but please consider that this is my recollection of a something I heard in Japanese (understood at least 80%) and rendered two days later in my own English. There is no sense in overanalyzing the specific words I choose.

The interview with Kimio Tanaka was with Iwasaki-san, but when he started talking about the APS-C, he called up Shigeru Wakashiro from the crowd and shoved the mic in his hand. This was completely to Wakashiro-san's surprise, but he played along and spoke for a few minutes. Wakashiro-san is responsible for developing the forthcoming high-end APS-C.

He mentioned that the K-7, K-5, K-3 progression cameras were considered high-end APS-C cameras, but when compared to other companies’ models, they were at the lower end of the segment. Now that the KP has taken the line in one direction, that leaves them to really make a top-class APS-C camera. If I understood correctly, it’s going to have a new processor, sensor with a different resolution - so no "KP tech in a K-3 body".

Having said that, the size will be the same as the K-3, and the body will be very familiar to K-3 owners. Obviously Tanaka-san knows about this camera more than he is letting on, and he told the audience that he had urged them to show a model or even just a silhouette at the show. However, they had told him that even showing a silhouette would reveal something about the camera they are not ready to reveal.

In terms of timeline, they were very unclear, but it seems like it is not coming in the next few months. Maybe right at the end of the year of early next.

My own interpretation of this is that it's part of a long-term strategy to place the KP in the middle-range position of the APS-C line-up (it was announced as such) and to pave the way for a true high-end APS-C camera. As you can imagine from the technology in current Pentax cameras, it will take a lot of improvements to do that, so it is taking a long time.

This matches roughly the hint from the Photokina-interview saying that the new APSC camera won't be an incremental update but rather a lot of new tech.

[biz-engineer]

This matches roughly the hint from the Photokina-interview saying that the new APSC camera won't be an incremental update but rather a lot of new tech.

Nowadays, the baseline for full frame is often 42 to 47 Mpixels with around 9 frames per second, and most new models feature 4K, Canon already talking about 8K vid. Most likely now Ricoh need to start with a new image processing plateform to cope with next generation video (4K, 8K), megapixels (50+ mega pixels) and frame rate (such as 10 FPS @ 50Mpixels to 20 FPS @ 25Mpixels frames). A couple of years ago, someone (beholder3, I think) had posted the tech inheritance path on Pentax camera models, basically, there was a new tech plateform out of which Pentax release a number of camera models. I would assume that Ricoh squeezed the most they could out of the old processing platform (milbau or something) and for the next level of performance & all working on a new processing platform requires a lot more engineering and testing than refactoring of new camera models based on the old image processing platform.

[beachgardener]

My own interpretation of this is that it's part of a long-term strategy to place the KP in the middle-range position of the APS-C line-up (it was announced as such) and to pave the way for a true high-end APS-C camera. As you can imagine from the technology in current Pentax cameras, it will take a lot of improvements to do that, so it is taking a long time.

No problem, I am willing to wait, I think it will be a fantastic camera

[Mountain Vision]

As @mee indicates above, it's important to those of us who are invested in, and sticking with, APS-C bodies and glass. There's certainly more than enough interest in these forums alone, so I believe the demand for a high end APS-C camera is there. I'd venture to say more demand than exists for the more specialised medium format digital... but that's just my perception...

Pentax is a way deeper APS-C company than a 24X36 company. Expecting people to toss their crop systems with the release of the K-1 just wasn't going to happen. Especially not with the size disparity between the DA and DFA lens systems.

There's definitely enough interest for APS-C and 24X36 to co-exist, whether there is enough demand for the 645 system remains to be seen. I think if one system needs to go, the 645 is the likely cast-off.

Clearly there is a segment of photographers that feels 24X36 is the holy grail of formats, but there also seems to be a fairly sizable base that feels APS-C is not only good enough, but perhaps ideal.



---------- Post added 03-03-2019 at 09:06 AM ----------

Pentax has been selling APS-C cameras and lenses for going on 16 years now. For the first 12 or 13 years they didn't offer a FF option, so everyone was buying APS-C stuff. A substantial percentage of their current user base (yes, me included) never had old FF film-era glass. We bought into the system when APS-C was the only thing they were producing. They can't have expected all of the people who invested in APS-C systems since 2003 to just drop everything and go to FF. For the people like me going full frame isn't terribly different than switching brands or mounts, and a mostly bigger and much more expensive switch at that. Most of my frequently used lenses aren't FF, I would have to find replacements for most of my glass along with buying a body that's more than twice as expensive.


I understand higher profit margins and better ISO from larger pixel sites and "proper" field of view for old lenses... but I think it's a very poor decision (if that's what happened) to sell only APS-C stuff for over a decade then suddenly say "hey, if you want a top-of-the-line camera you can just start over with a new FF system!"


That's why there are many of us who want a K-3 replacement.

Exactly what I was thinking and saying.

[biz-engineer]

Clearly there is a segment of photographers that feels 24X36 is the holy grail of formats, but there also seems to be a fairly sizable base that feels APS-C is not only good enough, but perhaps ideal.

Interestingly, apsc is the ideal format for everything that doesn't require enlargement beyond A2 or A1 max (so for magazines and home prints, apsc is enough) , full frame gets to A1 or A0 max enlargements, and medium format deliver commercial/ads size posters. So the former approach of Pentax apsc + meidum format and the approach of Fuji are the right approaches. But there is more money business to be made in full frame, so full frame gets the most R&D investments and technology improvements, and medium format is underdeveloped and overpriced IMO. Full frame makes perfect sense for sport photography where fast shutter speed needs high iso and still high frame rates, so , in essence only 1Dx / D5 types of cameras should be full frame.

[Mistral75]

(... ) Now begins the speculation about what showing the silhouette will reveal. (...)

A great time to introduce the camera would be on the anniversary date of Asahi Optical.

Showing the silhouette would reveal that the forthcoming high-end APS-C camera is a long-nosed K-mount mirrorless camera.

The anniversary date would be the perfect occasion to show the mock-up of such a camera: past and future brought together.