Originally posted by MMVIII This might be the speed/action/wildlife body. I would appreciate a new K-P now with GPS and astrotracer with sealing and flipscreen for travel, landscape, macro and astro work in APS-C.
To be fair, the KP is probably designated as the "street" and travel all-rounder, and for that fill flash is probably more important than GPS. Ricoh seems to have decided that they cannot maintain too many platforms at the same time, and landscape/macro/astro seems to be K-1 territory to them.
-Entry level is entry level, with APS-C format (lower cost, small "kit" lenses with good IQ for general photography). The K-70 packs a lot of features, it's enough camera for 99% of people who are starting out.
-Street/travel is served by the KP, with its compact high-quality body. Pop-up flash is more important for portraits of family/friends/street shots than a GPS, tilt screen makes it more all terrain and allows it to be more discreet as you can shoot from the waist.
-The K-1 is the field camera. I would argue that its name and features make it the intended successor to the K-3ii in terms of being
the generalist camera that focuses on incredible IQ and outdoors-oriented features. However, it took a solid hit to the speed, which left a lot of action shooters orphaned for years (and the KP wasn't what they needed). Which leads us to...
-K-New is the "flagship" APS-C as it will have the best performance, but truly it will be, as you say, the speed/action/wildlife platform as opposed to the K-1 being the landscape camera and the KP being the street camera. The K-7/5/3 were generalists (the K-3 has a decent frame rate and buffer) but were focused more on being rugged field cameras with good IQ because there was no K-1. I doubt we'll see a huge IQ increase here (let's be serious - there aren't any APS-C sensors that would show a lot of improvement over the K-3 and if one wants monster IQ the K-1 is right there) but they can focus on making a true specialist speed demon. I hope it matches or even bests the D500/7Dii, although "just" getting within spitting distance of those two in AF/FPS/Buffer while having Pentax IQ/features/ergonomics and a monster OVF would be plenty for most people, I'm sure.