[c.a.m]

Then any and all French-speaking customers will laugh their a☆☆es off since KC in French has the same pronunciation (ka-say) as 'cassé', which means broken.

I had exactly the same thought.

Of course, the Ricoh folks would need to be familiar or aware of pronunciations and meanings in various languages. I wonder whether camera companies consider the implications of their naming conventions.

- Craig

[Kunzite]

Then any and all French-speaking customers will laugh their a☆☆es off since KC in French has the same pronunciation (ka-say) as 'cassé', which means broken.

We can always find an obscure language* in which a camera's name would sounds like something. Unless they'd go McLaren - how about Pentax KP4-12c?

* as Lt. Cmdr. Data would say

[ffking]

Here's my 2 cents: What if the name of the model is "KC" as in: C=100 in Roman numbers. They did the same for the LX if im not wrong.

Logically, that would mean it was called the C, not the KC - as I said elsewhere, they never used t be stuck on the mount - time to break out again!

[reh321]

there are lots of people, enough to listen to, that would pass on this model if it didn't have an articulating screen.

Are these the same people who won't get a KP because it has wrong battery, lacks two card slots, lacks LCD on top????
They cannot expect any company to make camera exactly for them!!!

[Rondec]

This debate about mock-ups vs. prototypes seems to be a battle between the optimists who say the camera is half finished and the pessimists who claim it is half unfinished.

The bigger point is that the camera is coming!

Moreover, this new camera clearly in a much more advanced state of development that when they showed the K-1 as an obvious 3-D printed mockup 12 months before the camera came out. In contrast to the printed K-1 mockup, the new camera clearly has all the internal optical tidbits, buttons, displays, painted markings, etc that were missing in the earliest K-1 teaser. It seems a lot more finished than not.

I think it is clear they are pretty far along in the development process. That said, if Mistral75 is right and the camera is not to be released until the beginning of 2020, that means there are four to five months till its release. There certainly could be a couple of different versions out in testing now. It also could be completely ready to go and Pentax just doesn't want to release it for a few months for some reason.

I just don't think it is quite as far along in the development cycle as what some think. Yes, this is more than a block of plastic, but I just think if everything was set except for some final tweaks on the firmware, this would be out the door by Christmas time. To me that would be a more ideal time to release a camera than February or March, but unlike most of the others posting here, I have no experience in engineering, so definitely take everything I say with a pound of salt.

Edit: I do think fixed screen is likely, but not set in stone.

[Kunzite]

Maybe they're undergoing more rigorous testing - particularly of that new AF system (one can only hope...).

[stevebrot]

Are these the same people who won't get a KP because it has wrong battery, lacks two card slots, lacks LCD on top????
They cannot expect any company to make camera exactly for them!!!

The list is quite a bit longer, but yes, probably the same people. Lack of an articulating screen is not a deal breaker for me, but it is something I would use. Presence of a hybrid viewfinder might give me reason to pause unless it were proven to not impact the usability of the optical system. I doubt I would use it due to issues with the EVF on mirrorless cameras. Lack of GPS is also not a deal breaker since I have no reasons, business or personal, to record the exact location for every shot and no desire to geotag images for the Web. FWIW, GPS is not common in this market segment though tilting or articulated display are.

Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 09-27-2019 at 11:33 AM.

[Larrymc]

Are these the same people who won't get a KP because it has wrong battery, lacks two card slots, lacks LCD on top????
They cannot expect any company to make camera exactly for them!!!

Oh but, My Friend, yes they can its done daily here in the "Pentax News and Rumors" section.

[Larrymc]

Maybe they're undergoing more rigorous testing - particularly of that new AF system (one can only hope...).

I'll buy that!

[gaweidert]

Dream on, this is not a model. Why do you persist in thinking its an engineering model other than you used to test engineering models back in the days of pen and ink mechanical drawings? Why would there be tape over the model number, why not leave that feature off in an engineering model? Please point out with more precision exactly where the crack in the body is, there is a separation line between the bottom plate and the body.

Sorry to have offended you. Since this is the first time I have mentioned it I didn't realize that I was persisting. I have no idea how much this camera looks like the final version. For what it's worth, the first experience I had with 3D printing was in the mid 1980's. It has been around since the late 1970's. Pen and ink mechanical drawings were already on the way out when I joined Kodak in 1974. Too bad too. I was really good at it.


CAD is not a new concept. I think that Tamron was the first company to use CAD and put in their advertisements that they did use it It saved man years of labor doing monotonous calculations by hand. Greatly lowered the cost of the lens and made good zoom lenses affordable for the masses.


As to the crack, there is a highly magnified photo above showing the lower right of the screen. Post # 1179. There is an interesting little dip in the channel there in the area that people have been arguing over. If you look closely you can see what looks like a crack in the main body of the camera on the inside of the curve where the gap between the screen and the camera body changes from horizontal to vertical. Somebody must have dropped the camera.

[Kunzite]

There is no crack.

[Paul the Sunman]

Ricoh/Pentax has a mixed history of releasing new cameras and lenses with and without prior warning. This new APS-C flagship now fits in the former category. Perhaps the most hyped example of this strategy was the 645Z, where there was even a fancy countdown clock on the web, and a pre-release gallery of images taken with it. I doubt this level of hoopla will precede the new APS-C camera, but it will be interesting to see what little hints are dropped along the way to its final release.

And speaking of the 645Z, it must be nearly time ...

[timautin]

I wonder whether camera companies consider the implications of their naming conventions.

Audi named their new electric cars e-tron. Pronounced in French it's the same as "étron" - feel free to use an online translator
KC is really not that bad.

[alfa75ts]

The Alfa 164 was rebadged as the 168 for the Hong Kong and Malaysian markets, as the number "164" had a very negative connotation (路死 — a Chinese homophone meaning "all the way to death"), and "168" has quite the opposite (路發 — meaning "all the way to prosperity").

[TwoUptons]

The Alfa 164 was rebadged as the 168 for the Hong Kong and Malaysian markets, as the number "164" had a very negative connotation (路死 — a Chinese homophone meaning "all the way to death"), and "168" has quite the opposite (路發 — meaning "all the way to prosperity").

I think the China-market Mercedes C280 from a few years ago has the same 2.5l engine as the C250 sold everywhere else for the same reason...

But I can’t think of any good examples in English. The language must just be too much of a mutt to allow that...

Otherwise, it would be a little fun to take photos with a Nikon Catastrophe or a Canon Pathetic...

Closest I can think of was the Minolta Maxxum (Dynax) with fuzzy logic in the autofocus system. Does anyone want fuzzy anything in the autofocus system?

-Eric