Originally posted by biz-engineer - if entry level camera means the price is low, there may not be enough market to make a profit, and this has nothing to do with image quality. Good example is the price of latest Olympus models, $3000 for a micro4/3 sensor, it means they can't turn a profit at low camera prices, camera features may be those of entry level the price still has to be high enough for the camera company to make a profit out of it. That's probably why the Pentax K3 III is packed with features and is priced high.
“Entry camera” to me means camera which is entry point. Punct. Entry point for Leica is not inexpensive, and Pentax has similar aspirations. K-70 is “APS-C” entry point for them right now; I had thought KP might be, but that is clearly not true, so I expect a K-70 follow up with
some of the K-3iii features - the processor would be an obvious step; 4K video and better use of vintage lenses are firmware, so they would be basically free at this point. I believe the prism would add too much to the cost, so only the focusing would be uncertain. I may purchase it if they include the K-3iii focusing - just as I purchased the KP
because of the graceful use of high ISO values - if they can keep the price down around $1K. They have already shown that build quality is not a requirement for their “entry level”, and I believe that they don’t need to use a K-3iii level prism to show off the concept ….. K-70 prism is adequate at this point.
added: at one point, I thought they would develop a 24mp "FF" camera by combining firmware from their "APS-C" line with K-1 hardware + new sensor, but such did not turn out to be the case.
I expect a K-1iii - which will be priced too high to be a starting point for most, so they might follow the 'Sony' path and continue selling the K-1ii; they have probably paid off development costs by now, so they might even allow the price to droop. This would be superior to using the K-70 as introduction to the entire line, because they cannot depend on having nice camera-store folk point out to buyers that DFA lenses would make sense for someone thinking of 'moving up'. I
have intentionally collected several old 35mm lenses for my K-30. allowing me to control aperture at the lens now, with the thought that they would initially be usable on a K-1 if I decided to move in that direction.