Originally posted by Lord Lucan The primary reason given is that it allows the body to be thinner and lighter.
To be fair to the Pentax article, it emphasizes "compact" and "sturdy," but I don't see weight or mass being mentioned explicitly (did I miss something?). I would agree, however, that omitting certain components would likely reduce the weight.
Originally posted by Lord Lucan Another is that it allows a projecting eyepiece, but they could have done that anyway,
To assess the possibilities for the eyepiece, I think we would need to examine the design and its trade-offs, which we can't do at the moment. I would think that it's not a matter of simply projecting the eyepiece without regard for the other elements of the viewfinder. To put it another way, yes, the eyepiece could have been extended in a 'flippy screen' design but probably with negative impact on other aspects of the viewfinder.
In any case, I'm looking forward to a relatively long
eye relief distance, because I wear eyeglasses when I shoot. For me, every millimetre helps.
- Craig