[SimplyCreativePhotography]

This camera is made for me.

I got sucked into the Pentax family in the early 80's when I couldn't afford a brand name camera so the sales guy suggested I buy a Cosina because it had a K mount and could use Pentax lenses.

Then I upgraded to an MZ-7 which met my needs quite nicely until film became obsolete. A few P&S digital cameras later, I finally came back to a "proper" camera. Could only afford the body but once again the K mount meant my old lenses (mostly crappy ones) could still be used.

So then, K10D > K20D > K-7 > K-5. I upgraded regularly because my stock photography hobby was making it possible. I stopped at the K-5 because it was doing what I needed and there were enough rumours of a FF that I thought I'd wait. By the time the K1 came out, my hobby could no longer justify a new camera...

But I'm old enough now that the kids are out of the house ( sadly I had to look up who Candice Swanepoel was... ) so that finally leaves a little extra money to buy something for me. This camera will check a lot of boxes.

Would I buy a Pentax if I was starting from scratch? Hard to say but I've always been drawn to more niche brands so possibly. I do suspect there are a lot of people like me who quit upgrading for a period of time who might now be in a position to do so. If they are sitting on old Pentax glass and want to make sure they get good pictures of the grandkids playing soccer, they won't be happy with their cell phones so this might just be the camera for them. (and me.)

[bobmaxja]

Sony is doing great financially so is Fuji.
Fu.

Sony Camera business is not going great .
Sales down more than 50 % in 1st quarter


And this started before the Covid, here from their financial report

Sales and profit from digital cameras are being significantly impacted by a substantial slowdown in demand around the world.

Also Sony spinoff their Cammera business. You dont Spinoff a business when business is great.
Also just release for Japan Market. for full frame MILC

Meanwhile, Sony has seen its market share drop from roughly 60% back in May to now just 43.9%, only 9% ahead of Canon who, at the start of the year, had just 15% of the market share. Sigma, too, has seen its market share drop to just 2.6% after once being ahead of both Nikon and Panasonic back in May when the FP sales were hot.

[clackers]

Sony is doing great financially so is Fuji.

?

Sony's profits have tumbled and as a result of an activist investor the disappointing camera division has been put into a separate consumer electronics unit that he can agitate to get sold off like Olympus did.

Fuji are probably kept alive by their Instax film products, which are of course a fad. It's lasted some years now, but it's a fad, Lee.

I mean look at the current prices for entry full frame, that doesn't strike me as low volume high price strategy like Leica.

And that's the flaw I already mentioned ... price cutting premium products is *contradictory*. There are at least six manufacturers now doing FF MILCs and the financial bleeding from each other will be savage. It makes no sense to be the seventh. At least until some corpses are carried out of the cage.

[Serkevan]

When was the last time anyone else improved their Optical Viewfinder?

Canon and Nikon made it 1.0x for the 7D and D500, which was better than their previous APS-C models (the "typical" 100%, 0.95x OVF was used for the D7X00 and X0D series), and Canon has a massive 0.76x OVF on the 1D series, but that's kinda it I think.


1.05x as in the K-33 is a new highest in APS-C DSLRs.

[OoKU]

It will be officially released next month.

[normhead]

Canon and Nikon made it 1.0x for the 7D and D500, which was better than their previous APS-C models (the "typical" 100%, 0.95x OVF was used for the D7X00 and X0D series), and Canon has a massive 0.76x OVF on the 1D series, but that's kinda it I think.


1.05x as in the K-33 is a new highest in APS-C DSLRs.

Ah, ask and you shall receive.
Thanks for that.

[Serkevan]

I've made the mistake of checking the comment section of the DPR article... where the only "editor's pick" comment says, brace yourselves, "what's a DSLR". The blatant hatred for anything not-MILC is getting out of hand

Ah, ask and you shall receive.
Thanks for that.

Hah, I just remembered that the "sports" APS-C Canikons had that 1.0x because of the fuzz when Pentax revealed their new one in May.

---------- Post added 10-28-20 at 05:49 PM ----------

It will be officially released next month.

Wait, I'm confused. Wasn't it being launched on CP+? Or are they just going to have the "launch party" then with an earlier release? Is it just pre-orders being open?

I mean, the earlier the better, but the video said they weren't going to manage 2020...

[OoKU]

CP+ when you get it�

[surfar]

Nikon Z5 $1500

Its 1299 u$d just recently.

[dbs]

The K3 111 I think will sell well.... because ...its the new flagship for the new KAF 4 lenses.
K3 11 is discontinued and a K 5 cannot utilise a KAF 4 lens.
I only have a K 5 so I am in the market if I want use / buy the newer lenses .

[Larrymc]

Canon and Nikon have always played copy cat.
Back when, Leica made rangefinders and was pretty much the big cheese in the camera business.
Nikon and Canon made knock-off Leicas for ages.
Then Pentax came around and instead of making knock-offs, they when with the novel idea of a 35mm SLR (quick-return) with a pentaprism viewfinder.
When Pentax started makin' it big, good ol' Canon and Nikon jumped the rangefinder ship and started playin' copy cat again by making SLRs.
Now with Sony making quite the splash with mirrorless, again Canon and Nikon abandon their customer base and force loyal customers to move into their new system.
Canon and Nikon don't care about their users - they care about their bottom line.
Unlike Pentax that states the will be a partner with their customer for life - they know their users love Pentax for a reason, and they aren't going to change that to chase market fads.
Pentax isn't chasin' the mirrorless mania just to appease some shareholder. They are staying true to themselves and what they stand for.

Well put, my Friend!!

[clackers]

Understandable, but given that Sony clearly states on the product manual for the sensor "In addition, individual specification change cannot be supported because this is a standard product" I wouldn't think that Pentax would have the money to throw around to tell Sony to customize their production line.

Well, what happens is that you buy the sensor as is, but you can change the layers on top of it. So the masking, glass layers to filter UV, extra microlenses to compensate for the problems of short flange mirrorless mounts with wide angles, and even the type of array (Bayer or X Trans) are all possible, you just have to pay for it. Fuji uses X-Trans rather than Bayer, for instance.

[someasiancameraguy]

Well, what happens is that you buy the sensor as is, but you can change the layers on top of it. So the masking, glass layers to filter UV, extra microlenses to compensate for the problems of short flange mirrorless mounts with wide angles, and even the type of array (Bayer or X Trans) are all possible, you just have to pay for it. Fuji uses X-Trans rather than Bayer, for instance.

Yeah of course the layers on top can be changed. But given that on sensor PDAF is "on sensor" and the discussion about the sensor IQ coming off the K-3/3, its reasonable to assume without new information that the sensor is unlikely changed and the on sensor PDAF points are still there.

There are indications that some Sony sensors are using a 2x2 microlens design which effectively makes every pixel capable of PDAF and hence solves the banding and loss of IQ issues with older OSPDAF, but that tech is currently applied to mobile based chips and there's no specific mention of this with regards to this specific sensor as so far.

[Raffwal]

Sony Camera business is not going great .
Sales down more than 50 % in 1st quarter

?

Sony's profits have tumbled and as a result of an activist investor the disappointing camera division has been put into a separate consumer electronics unit that he can agitate to get sold off like Olympus did..

I hadn't seen this financial data. A surprise. Somehow I was expecting Canon ja Sony to be the two survivors in this business in the long run.

[RobA_Oz]

Canon and Nikon made it 1.0x for the 7D and D500, which was better than their previous APS-C models (the "typical" 100%, 0.95x OVF was used for the D7X00 and X0D series), and Canon has a massive 0.76x OVF on the 1D series, but that's kinda it I think.


1.05x as in the K-33 is a new highest in APS-C DSLRs.

Ah, ask and you shall receive.
Thanks for that.

Those figures are just magnification values, though. Did they also improve the light transmission, to offset the reduction in luminosity? Genuine question, as I don’t know the answer.