Originally posted by Rondec I'd just say three things: (a) there is still a decent chance there will be a flippy screen on this camera, even though the prototypes don't show it, (b) the "Absolutely need flippy screen" folks are very vocal, but the reality is that the number of situations where you "should" use a flippy screen is fairly small and limited to situations where you are shooting in odd positions, hopefully stabilized on a tripod. (c) Pentax is typically building to a price point. We saw this with a K-1 and with other cameras as well. If they put premium everything in a camera it may end up being to rich for any of us to afford. Not saying this means the camera will not have a flippy screen, but if it doesn't my guess is they thought it would just be too expensive a camera with one of those in addition to everything else they are putting into it.
Regarding (a) I tend to think the same.
Regarding (b), the reality is that there are barely any cameras in the last... four or five years that didn't add any sort of moveable screen. Releasing a camera without it in 2020 is questionable at best.
And as for (c), I am sure that the cost of adding a movable screen (really not that much, it's basically no extra material and assembly is almost the same) is largely irrelevant, much more so on a flagship.
---------- Post added 10-23-19 at 06:25 AM ----------
Originally posted by ffking At the risk of going round in another great loop, my experience of the K-1 is thtI don't use the flippy screen much, but there are circumstances when I do use it, and in those circumstances I really glad to have it - sometines i's to do with the carmer too low (or too high) to confortably get your eye to, sometimes it'suseful as a waist-level finder, sometimes it's useful to reduce reflections in bright light - in fact, as I think about it, I don't use Live View much, but when I do, I usually pull the screen out. With a touch screen, I might use live view more, and that begs the question as to whether I'd want a screen that flipped. The only real disadvantages of a flip screen (or one that turns off when not using live view, anyway) are thickness of body, weight, cost, and something more to break - but those also are real considerations.
My thoughts exactly. I don't use the screen for more than, say, 5-10% (or even less) of the pictures I take. But any time I'm holding the camera out at a weird angle the screen is out at a similarly weird angle. I do that relatively often on hikes when I want a different perspective but moving around is impractical or dangerous because of the terrain. This also goes for low-level shots (kneeling with a full backpack is more of a hassle than it looks like), architecture holding the camera overhead*, and as you said for bright light. I also agree that being able to comfortably point the camera at the setting sun without going blind(er) is very, very welcome
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All in all, after having used the K-1's screen, I don't think I will ever buy a fixed screen camera if I can avoid it...