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06-15-2009, 08:01 AM   #1
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Development Story of the K-7



Ricehigh picked this up:
RiceHigh's Pentax Blog

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I don't read chinese/japanese so I'm affraid I can tell you what it says..

but here's what ricehigh says:


"Some key points as mentioned:-

1. The K-7 is the result of all the latest R&D efforts of Pentax and Genes.

2. The K-7 is designed to be operational under cold temperature of -10 deg. C. (Well, we all know..)

3. The interviewee is Mr. 濱村壽宏, the Designer of the Development Team of the Pentax Imaging Division of the Hoya Corporation.

4. One of the main target was to make a body to match well with the Limited lenses.

5. The K20D is just too large, we wanted to make back an *ist D sized camera.

6. To not make a curved camera body further, but a classical look one with more straight line.

7. A lot of CAD (Computer Aided Design) resources have been utilised during the development.

8. They spent quite some efforts to make the built-in flash far less protruding and can be raised higher.

9. In order to test the weight balance and feel of the new body, various mock-up units were produced.

10. They invited also novices to try and test the mock-ups! Just because novices have no prejudges! (Well, brilliant!)

11. They created the K-7 with the pride of the most famous and successful Pentax bodies in mind, like the LX and MZ-S. A new brand/product image is intended to be re-established with the K-7.

12. The minimization of the K-7 body is done to an extreme and it is achieved to be very small actually.

13. The lines/shape of the Pentaprism part of the K-7 is intentionally made in a way to preamp the Pentaxprism, which is 100% field of view.

14. The body fittness / ergonomics and comfortability of the K-7 was further fine tuned with various clay mock-up models and the gripped hand positions were recorded for reference.

15. So did the position, shape and size of buttons, dials and levels, which were all very carefully designed.

16. Dials are now covered with sturdy rubber so as to further improve comfortability and reliability for operation.

My translations may not be exact and please excuse for the poor translation and I hope you can get the meanings contained! :-)"


06-15-2009, 08:30 AM   #2
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Thanks for passing on the details! Kinda reminds me a bit of Pal Jensen's post a while back about the MZ-1 prototype.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-film-slr-discussion/22338-pentax-mz-1-a.html

Would have loved to see the MZ-1 materialize to continue the LX like they did with K1000 replacement, the MZ-M. Or better yet a digital sensor on that.

Can kinda see a bit of the MZ-1 DNA in the upcoming K-7.
06-15-2009, 10:12 AM   #3
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Thanks, that is an interesting site that I have not seen before. It offers some photo examples, as well as wallpapers with K-7 images.

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06-15-2009, 10:24 AM   #4
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The K-7 is the result of all the latest R&D efforts of Pentax and Genes.
Sorry what does that mean???
We need a japanese speaker for a better translation...

06-15-2009, 10:27 AM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by jeffkrol Quote
The K-7 is the result of all the latest R&D efforts of Pentax and Genes.
Sorry what does that mean???
We need a japanese speaker for a better translation...
It means its the result partly of combining advanced design AND traditional Pentax values. Or maybe Gene's one of the designers
06-15-2009, 10:40 AM   #6
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Well, not really news since that site is up from when the K-7 was announced.
But... grrr... it looks I'll have to learn Japanese after all, as the better Pentax sites are Japanese only, and automated translation is terrible. On pentax.jp, the K-7 is not even mentioned on the English section!
06-15-2009, 10:43 AM   #7
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So ricehigh has left the forum, but still people link to his blog and copy paste his entries?

My brain hurts

06-15-2009, 10:55 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by melander Quote
So ricehigh has left the forum, but still people link to his blog and copy paste his entries?

My brain hurts
All I'm going to say is how many of you were reading his blog before the official specs were out?

Aren't you interested in pentax's future? and how the k-7 came into being?

and yes the site has been up since before the K-7 was released but if you looked properly you'd notice it's been updated with this and a few other things.
06-15-2009, 10:57 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by melander Quote
So ricehigh has left the forum, but still people link to his blog and copy paste his entries?

My brain hurts
It was an issue of self promotion, not just promotion.. Personally I'd always prefer orig sources. I'd find it anyways.
Oddly there are few Japanese posters on western forums (in general) compared to other non-english native language cultures.
dpreview has some pretty good translators. From experience I trust them more to be correct in translating some of the subtleties of the language. I posted the orig link to the article there and awaiting a alternative translation, or more detail....
Sorry forgot link: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
06-15-2009, 03:36 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by dopeytree Quote
All I'm going to say is how many of you were reading his blog before the official specs were out?

Aren't you interested in pentax's future? and how the k-7 came into being?

and yes the site has been up since before the K-7 was released but if you looked properly you'd notice it's been updated with this and a few other things.

*Raises hand
I didnt
and those that did, still goes there and dont need a post on this forum promoting it, do they?
06-15-2009, 04:18 PM   #11
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what's this 'promoting' BS i hear people chirping about
the guy knows stuff, that's really all that matters to me.
jeeze it's like everyone's jelous of him because he gets alot of attention.
06-15-2009, 04:38 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by PNTXFTW12 Quote
the guy knows stuff


QuoteQuote:
jeeze it's like everyone's jelous of him because he gets alot of attention.
He has been banned from dpreview and some of his posts here have been banned for a reason.
06-15-2009, 04:38 PM   #13
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There wasn't anything wrong with the size of the K10D/K20D

I appreciated the bigger body, since I don't have wee little hands; the *istD was a bit small for my taste. I have both an *istD and a K10D, and prefer the K10D in hand by far. Quite frankly, the K7 size reduction compared with the K10D/K20D isn't THAT significant anyway, the biggest dimensional difference being the 1/2" reduction in width. It's even bigger in one dimension (depth) by a smidgeon (technical term lol). The difference is more appearance, since the loss of the "shoulders" around the viewfinder makes it look less bulky. At least they made the (body) grip deeper, which should help it fit bigger hands more comfortably. Like most bodies, I'll only find it tolerable with a winder (showing my age) or battery grip attached.
06-15-2009, 04:42 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by PNTXFTW12 Quote
what's this 'promoting' BS i hear people chirping about
the guy knows stuff, that's really all that matters to me.
jeeze it's like everyone's jelous of him because he gets alot of attention.
The guy starved for attention, this was obvious when he disseminated questionable "information" with a link to his blog all the time. Also, If he had more balanced opinions and stop labelling people that disagree with him he may have achieved more credibility. After having dealt with that kind of people on various forums, I'd say let him go and stop paying attention to him.
06-15-2009, 05:16 PM   #15
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the Pres. of Pentax USA has to post...

The Pres. of Pentax USA has to post a message asking you guys to please stop bashing Ricehigh. And still, you just can't stop.

I bought my first Pentax / first DSLR when Ricehigh's "measure-bating" criticisms on DPReview were at their height. I had just returned a Nikon D40 because it couldn't focus accurately (with a Sigma 30mm 1.4 -- not the Nikon's fault, but that was the only prime lens then available for that class of Nikon cameras) -- And then I bought a Pentax K1000d and a DA 21mm with all of RiceHigh's comments ringing in my ears. I tested the Pentax K100d carefully as soon as it arrived, and kept it. Even at the height of his criticisms his comments were useful to me then. Recently his posts here were certainly of great value in helping me decide to stay with Pentax when I upgraded to a better camera.

Why, can't the bashing stop?

Brian
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