Well there is this wonderfull oppertunity to bring up the subject to a camera with K-mount and an APS-H sized sensor. Since you probably all know that I'm in favor for such a camera, it shouldn't surprise you that I bring new "material".
It has also been discussed in my meeting with two people from Pentax last week:
ricoh-imaging-europe-s-s-report-meeting
So the thing I brought up there was the question of who (outside of Pentax) would buy that wonderfull Full Frame camera offering from Pentax when it would sport the same 24 megapixel sensor that is also in the Nikon and Sony camera's? True it would still serve demand from current owners off the Pentax K-mount system who maybe have some or a lot off lenses that are ready to use on that Full Frame sensor. I'm actually one off them since I have a nice range off lenses that are made for Full Frame: FA31mm, DA*55mm, FA*85mm, DA*300mm and Sigma 70-200mm.
There are some nice advantages for a sensor sized APS-H. So it will be better delivering on Image Quality then APS-C (and that's maybe the main target). Probably more current lenses from Pentax can perform well on this sensor while not working to the max on Full Frame (I know there stiil have to be made new lenses for the wide-angle). It is an unique offering from Pentax and thus may attrack customers from outside the current K-mount system. It will give an advantage to photographers who want to do telework with long lenses like in sports- or wildlifephotography (in the end a system is more then just the camera) because off the little crop still offered over a Full Frame system.
So one off the things Always mentioned is that there is no sensor made for this purpose. That it is to expensive to make it on special order for Pentax. But now we do have a new sensor in CMOS for camera's like Hasselblad and Phase One (and who knows maybe in the future for Pentax 645D). It's a 44x33mm sized sensor with 50 megapixel with pixels sized 5,314 micron (or about that size). If Sony can cut larger sensors from that wafer then I guess that they can make it with a new APS-H sized format.
So why not use that same wafer to cut off a new Full Frame sensor? Well offcourse that is also an option. That would give Pentax a sensor with around 30,6 megapixel and that would give an excellent new sensor I think. A sensor that I even would prefer over using the same 24 megapixel sensor that is used by the competition. One other problem coming in is that such a sensor the pixelamount is getting so hi that files are getting more and more huge. Not everyone is waiting for enourmous files for every picture you take. Especialy not when you want to take a lot off images with Hi-framerate continuous shooting like in sports and wildlife.
Our friend Kai actually talks about that in his view on the 16 megapixel sensor in de D4 and Df:
So a >20 megapixel APS-H sized sensor inside a K-3 styled (or that body when possible) that has the electronics from the K-3 (metering, AF, fast framerate etc.) and can use the same grip as the K-3, the D-BG5 can make an excellent camera that serves a lot off options. Bring better IQ to the K-mount system while attracting new users to the K-mount by offering a new top off the line camera that fills in a position not catered by others.
For sports there is still a need for a fast long lens. So that could be filled with the coming off the Sigma 120-300mm/f2.8 lens in K-mount or a new and fast long lens in the range 300-500mm that has a fast aperture to go with that for modern sportsphotography (f2.8-f4).
The cropfactor for such a camera would be around 1,22 and thus giving just over 20 megapixel.
Any thoughts on this? Anyone thinking that the sensor that will be in future MF camera's wouldn't be good enough for such a camera? Or anything else?