[Larrymc]

So did I, but at open aperture only with a KAF4 lens.

What stopped your from buying another camera???

[TER-OR]

If he dumped ten’s of thousands of dollars into a Canon FD system, he had a choice between dumping ten’s of thousand dollars once into a EF-system or dumping ten’s of thousands dollars into another manufacturer’s screw-drive system, and he would have still had a screw-drive system with mechanical aperture control - he would had to throw even money at the manufacturer to get electronic aperture control and even more to get lenses with in-lens AF motors, and this still has nothing to do with delaying the K-3iii.

That's not an investment, that's a sunken cost. It's still a valid concern, though. We all have a lot of money in this system.

And yes, microchip shortages have shuttered major auto manufacturing plants. Like profitable lines such as F-150 trucks.

[tibbitts]

What stopped your from buying another camera???

I felt the K200 was a good upgrade from the K100, so I bought that. I felt the K-5 was a massive upgrade from the K200, so I bought that. I wanted a second body (the K200 wasn't even good enough for that once I got the first K-5), so I bought a K-5ii. The K-3whatever was a big snore for me, and based on the frequency of then-"flagship" releases, it only made sense to wait a couple of years (ha!) for the next one. The KP got a pretty lukewarm reaction here on PF until all of sudden it became the only semi-serious crop body Pentax offered. Only now are we seeing the love, and posts like "well, it turns out I didn't really want that top LCD after all!" and "well, you can always carry more batteries!" or "hey I hardly notice that grip on there at all, just makes it easier to hold!" Seriously, I don't think the day-one reaction to the KP was anything like the reaction to the K-5. And the K-3... well that got a mixed reaction compared to the K-5 at its introduction too: there was more whining about lack of moving the AF needle. Yes, there were a few initial K-5 AF gripes too (and definitely after the tungsten issue came out!), but not so much right away. And despite most of the technologies being long-in-the-tooth by the time it was introduced, the K5iis... wow what a love fest that was (never really saw that myself, but whatever.)

But also significantly, I've also been reluctant to spend a lot on a new body because while all this was happening, third-party lens producers were officially dropping Pentax. I wanted to acquire better lenses. I broke down and bought two new Pentax lenses in 2016, but overall I was hoping to see more updates to the APS-C lenses. As it turns out I got some updates, just not all of them in lenses I both wanted and could actually use on my bodies. I might have spent for newer lenses I wanted alone, but newer lenses plus newer bodies - the latter frankly not necessarily having upgrades important to me - would have been a bigger leap of faith that I haven't been willing to take. Now of course we've had the pandemic for a year; it's likely to be with us and prevent me from doing most of the photography I'd planned on for at least the rest of 2021, so unfortunately I can afford to wait and see what the market looks like in 2022.

[Larrymc]

I felt the K200 was a good upgrade from the K100, so I bought that. I felt the K-5 was a massive upgrade from the K200, so I bought that. I wanted a second body (the K200 wasn't even good enough for that once I got the first K-5), so I bought a K-5ii. The K-3whatever was a big snore for me, and based on the frequency of then-"flagship" releases, it only made sense to wait a couple of years (ha!) for the next one. The KP got a pretty lukewarm reaction here on PF until all of sudden it became the only semi-serious crop body Pentax offered. Only now are we seeing the love, and posts like "well, it turns out I didn't really want that top LCD after all!" and "well, you can always carry more batteries!" or "hey I hardly notice that grip on there at all, just makes it easier to hold!" Seriously, I don't think the day-one reaction to the KP was anything like the reaction to the K-5. And the K-3... well that got a mixed reaction compared to the K-5 at its introduction too: there was more whining about lack of moving the AF needle. Yes, there were a few initial K-5 AF gripes too (and definitely after the tungsten issue came out!), but not so much right away. And despite most of the technologies being long-in-the-tooth by the time it was introduced, the K5iis... wow what a love fest that was (never really saw that myself, but whatever.)

But also significantly, I've also been reluctant to spend a lot on a new body because while all this was happening, third-party lens producers were officially dropping Pentax. I wanted to acquire better lenses. I broke down and bought two new Pentax lenses in 2016, but overall I was hoping to see more updates to the APS-C lenses. As it turns out I got some updates, just not all of them in lenses I both wanted and could actually use on my bodies. I might have spent for newer lenses I wanted alone, but newer lenses plus newer bodies - the latter frankly not necessarily having upgrades important to me - would have been a bigger leap of faith that I haven't been willing to take. Now of course we've had the pandemic for a year; it's likely to be with us and prevent me from doing most of the photography I'd planned on for at least the rest of 2021, so unfortunately I can afford to wait and see what the market looks like in 2022.

You completely lost me with this explanation?? It sounds like you'll always be not buying but waiting on something better. Good luck with that!

[tibbitts]

You completely lost me with this explanation?? It sounds like you'll always be not buying but waiting on something better. Good luck with that!

You must have missed the part about me buying the K100, K200, K-5, and K-5ii. I wouldn't say that qualifies as "always be not buying." But yes, I think everybody on the forum waits on something better, and only buys when they find something significantly enough better for their needs to justify the cost (or maybe because they lost/broke whatever they had had before.) It seems like a very easy-to-understand thought process to me.

[SimplyCreativePhotography]

You must have missed the part about me buying the K100, K200, K-5, and K-5ii. I wouldn't say that qualifies as "always be not buying." But yes, I think everybody on the forum waits on something better, and only buys when they find something significantly enough better for their needs to justify the cost (or maybe because they lost/broke whatever they had had before.) It seems like a very easy-to-understand thought process to me.

You can put me in this camp. My digital path was K10D, K20D, K-7, K-5. Nothing since has been worth the additional "investment" for what seemed like incremental improvements, and eventually, I just became content that my K-5 was meeting most of my needs. But after 10 years it's showing its age and the K3iii really looks like the camera that is worth upgrading to. Not perfect but will be enough of an improvement that the $-to-upgrade ratio feels about right.

I actually had about $3.5K in studio strobes and equipment I just wasn't using much so sold it in December to free up some cash for this purchase. So yes, I may very well be the demographic that Pentax is targeting and I am ready to press the Buy Now button when it finally gets released. A few months won't kill me, but I sure would like to have it this year.

[clackers]

A few months won't kill me, but I sure would like to have it this year.

(Laughs) If you've waited ten years, I reckon eleven is no sweat for you, SCP.

[Larrymc]

You must have missed the part about me buying the K100, K200, K-5, and K-5ii. I wouldn't say that qualifies as "always be not buying." But yes, I think everybody on the forum waits on something better, and only buys when they find something significantly enough better for their needs to justify the cost (or maybe because they lost/broke whatever they had had before.) It seems like a very easy-to-understand thought process to me.

I didn't miss your almost 10 year old purchases, I hope they last you until you decide you "need" an upgrade.

I wouldn't say everybody, a significant portion of people wait as you described, but some do buy each new Pentax DSLR that comes out. I didn't start out with Pentax until 2013 with a K-50, which still works fine today, but I soon realized that I wanted, not needed, a better camera which was at the time the K-3 it is still serving me well after almost seven years. I don't "need" a new camera but I want the K-3 MkIII which I plan to buy simply because it seems to be a very significant improvement over the K-3 as well as the KP and from the features and other things I've seen so far it will give the K-1 a good run for image quality.

As I said good luck waiting for the "next big thing" to hit the market from Pentax.

[Breakfastographer]

On top of that there have been specs out by ricoh that refer it being BSI sensor.

Unless you have a source for that, I'll assume that this is just circulated research that I and presumably others have done based on the fact that it's the only market-available 26 megapixel CMOS sensor. Ricoh's various spec sheets refer to it as "CMOS". This leads some people to assume it is not a BSI sensor, which of course is nonsense but may be the reason why we're having this debate.

[tibbitts]

I didn't miss your almost 10 year old purchases, I hope they last you until you decide you "need" an upgrade.

I wouldn't say everybody, a significant portion of people wait as you described, but some do buy each new Pentax DSLR that comes out. I didn't start out with Pentax until 2013 with a K-50, which still works fine today, but I soon realized that I wanted, not needed, a better camera which was at the time the K-3 it is still serving me well after almost seven years. I don't "need" a new camera but I want the K-3 MkIII which I plan to buy simply because it seems to be a very significant improvement over the K-3 as well as the KP and from the features and other things I've seen so far it will give the K-1 a good run for image quality.

As I said good luck waiting for the "next big thing" to hit the market from Pentax.

I do agree about at least a minority of people buying every upgrade almost without regard for benefit.

Partly for that very reason,I was expecting a K-3iii a few years ago, with some of the higher ISO capability of the KP (or even the K-70), a flip screen, and maybe just a little faster and more refined (maybe better tethering and app functionality) processing overall. AF? Well, it could still have been a Pentax. :-) But not a huge price increase over the existing K-3s when they were new. I think the K-3(and ii) for me was sort of like the K-7, which I also skipped: the sensor just seemed a little behind from the beginning. Of course at the time I don't think most or any of us knew about the K-3's future KAF4 compatibility advantage over the K-5.

[MMVIII]

Unless you have a source for that, I'll assume that this is just circulated research that I and presumably others have done based on the fact that it's the only market-available 26 megapixel CMOS sensor. Ricoh's various spec sheets refer to it as "CMOS". This leads some people to assume it is not a BSI sensor, which of course is nonsense but may be the reason why we're having this debate.

This is a translation by google lens of the respective slide from the latest video by Ricoh on K-3III.

[Mistral75]

On a similar topic (delays in announcements and deliveries), good news from another manufacturer, Canon:

Canon production issues to be resolved by the end of March

I have spoken to multiple retailers in Canada, Europe and the United States and it appears that Canon has been informing them that camera and lens inventory issues will likely be resolved by the end of March.

No one went into great detail, as I’m sure Canon didn’t either. We can just assume that the supply chain is going to improve to normal levels following the Chinese New Year and quarantine regulations for factories.

Source: Canon production issues to be resolved by the end of March | Canon Rumors

[mbukal]

On a similar topic (delays in announcements and deliveries), good news from another manufacturer, Canon:



Source: Canon production issues to be resolved by the end of March | Canon Rumors

it's OK, collegial behavior, deliberately dodging, canon wants to have serious opposition he sees in pentax

[reh321]

Until this post, I was hoping for an announcement today.

I am happy with my KP - but I am sorry that others of you have to wait somewhat longer.

[Kunzite]

If the HD FAs are the multiple products OoKU was hinting at... I'm disappointed.
No new product (so far), no new product in development besides what we already knew...