Originally posted by Uluru It is most likely that the FF will a fresh start in many ways. So it won't come before the FY 2014, which starts April 2014. I don't doubt for a second that there will be FF next year, but I doubt that any of current Pentax users have any good idea how seriously Pentax engineers are to take and deliver an FF camera.
It will, for sure, be no 'just another FF'. There is a matter of personal pride, so to say, and concern, because Pentax was the company that has defined the 35 mm SLR. And in times of digital SLR, they will undoubtedly try to redefine — or at least refine — the experience of a 35mm DSLR as well. If others have stretched the FF concept in different directions that border to total user-unfriedliness, they will undoubtedly come to resolve many incongruences others are happy to live with.
Thus I would not say "Why it takes them so long?", but I'd rather say, "Why others take so little time to seriously think about their products, and therefore release model after model without any serious thought or concern for their users?"
You know, I sympathize with your view, and in a way I like Pentax for wanting to get it right now, after the way they were left on a dead end with Hoya's ownership. I like the K3 release, it is not for me (I have the K5IIs), but the camera is inspiring as a crop sensor body.
But in another way I sympathize with Sony's approach: bring FF to the people. I have always felt an affinity with 35mm, but the portability and pricing of Apsc was attractive. In the film days a 35mm camera was portable ánd affordable. With digital photography, FF has become a luxury, a niche almost due to the high price of FF sensors. This may be attractive to some who maybe see it as a "pro" feature, but to me it is completely against my instincts. 35mm shoúld be mainstream, like it always was in the film days. Crop sensor just doesn't have the way of rendering 35mm has with the lenses, it feels (stíll feels) unnatural to me. It may be wonderful for others as a system, but I greatly prefer FF. Sony has the approach to sell móre FF sensors to bring the price down, and some may view this as cheap, but just consider the price of an Olympus OM film camera body and compare that with the price of a Canon 5DIII. I know with digital you don't have to spend on film and developing anymore, and it is a lame comparison, but I still feel FF should become mainstream: reasonably portable, and affordable in the coming years. I hope Sony succeeds in this, even when it puts an apparent strain on other camera makers.
In other words: I'm not in the market for a future high end special FF camera that costs a lot, I just want affordable FF IQ that's within reach and in the foreseeable future. So I hope that before Pentax starts thinking about conquering the FF market with a long term project that tries to redefine the FF shooting experience, they will first just grab the K3 body, stuff a 24mp Sony FF sensor in it and bring it to market at a competitive price. I can understand the reasons why, if that will not happen, but then I will just rather go with Sony...
Chris