Originally posted by Clavius However, there's a market wide open, and NOBODY is currently looking ater that. People who want FF, but can't because the prices are just to high. Not the pro's, but the prosumers. That will pull a lot of people away from Canikon. People that are now forced to stay with aps-c, because of the high prices.
Introducting a affordable Pentax FF, with a new FF lenslineup now will start people going to Pentax again. It may even get some attention from starting pro's. Later, next year, Pentax could release a second, superior, FF body.
Pentax sources sensors from Sony. they're the only game in town. An FF sensor in a small run probably sits at $6-800 per unit.
Build on that an to get a camera under $2,000 (as Sony tried with the A850) and you'll need to drop features:
- No 100% OVF. Go to 92%.
- Slow FPS.
- Last generation AF because the PDAF array is more expensive if it is larger and has more x points.
- 1 SD card slot. And a last gen, slower processor.
- No WR. Adds to assembly and material costs, and warranty expectations.
- No video.
- Fewer dedicated "pro" controls. Every control interface adds assembly and sourcing costs.
- No top LCD.
And so on.
And the price will still be about $1,500, sitting across from an APS-C K-5 successor at about the same cost.
Which one will the consumer purchase?
All a D700 is is a D300 with an FF sensor. The moment people can afford to spend $1,500 on a body two things happen. One, they want all the pro features for that price point. And two, they are much more willing (and often able) to spend a premium on a D700 at $2,400. That's the FF premium.
This market philosophy applies to most consumer categories, like Dyson vacuums, Apple MacBook Airs, and so on. Once a certain threshold is reached, it's all in or nothing for most consumers willing to part with a significant amount of discretionary spending on a consumer product. A stripped down FF with far fewer features than a similar priced APS-C would gather dust on store shelves and kill Pentax. Sony tried with the A850 and it was in production less than a year.
And Sony owns the FF sensor fab!