"The price point is key here. We have seen high end DSLR selling for 7000-8000 US$ capture a significant part of the traditional MF market and this tells us that people would be willing to spend that much for a suitable solution."
Yup. Plenty of guys out there who, for the type of shooting they do, still find a D3X or 1D Mk III limiting in terms of resolution, especially for the size.
"...we already recorded 15 firm orders in one single retail store in Tokyo the very day of the announcement, that is before any of these photographers had the opportunity to lay their hands on a body."
A very, very nice sign, but not surprising
.
"Another aspect is that we managed to commonalize some components with DSLRs already in production and could also re-use many of the IP and technologies we developed for them. The weather sealing I mentioned already is a very good example coming from the Pentax K-7. The new 11 points AF system also comes from existing DSLR technologies. "
Yup, as expected. Maybe that's why Mamiya and Hassy are so expensive, as they have limited products on which to make back the costs of R&D. It also means consistency across the range, in terms of features and ease-of-use. And it will make repairing easier.
"Many of our existing 645 film users use them to shoot landscape in various harsh outdoor conditions. "
Exactly. That's been my take on current MF DSLRs: they're delicated, with interchangeable backs, and combined with their price, make people wary of using them as field cameras.
"It is possible for instance to shoot raw and convert the raw file to a jpg within the camera without having to use a PC or a Mac."
Oh, dear. The Bullshit Internet Pros are going to have seizures over that.
"We intend to sell the 645D outside Japan at a certain point in time but I cannot give you a firm date today. We believe that such a high end body has to be sold on top of a suitable support infrastructure."
Good. Strongly implies Pentax will overhaul their service all around the world, which will benefit all. (Anyone here still willing to bet Hoya still wants to kill of the imaging division? Anyone?)
"Most of them are already at the right level quality wise but we are frankly speaking not totally happy about the wide end.
"Therefore we plan to release soon a new wide high-end lens that will complement our existing wide lineup and be able to fully realize the image quality potential of the sensor for wide applications. It is also going to restore some of the wide capability that we have lost because of the smaller size of the sensor used in the 645D compared to 645 film."
Aye. That's what I've been hearing from a lot of 645 users - there wasn't a lot on the wide end, even for the film 645 frame. If Pentax can pull off a rectilinear ~24mm, boy, will this thing sell.
And Ken Rockwell will shit himself.