Originally posted by Winder Maybe Pentax should join M4/3 and keep the 645. The difference between M4/3 and APS-C is the same as the difference between APS-C and FF. Skip both middle formats. What makes ASP-C better than M4/3?
Why would Pentax ditch their APS-C focused lens line up of arguably the best APS-C orientated Prime lenses of Lightweight - (DA/FA Limiteds) and specialist to start a whole new mount.
In terms of K-mount:
They have the basis of an excellent FF Lineup - FA31, FA43 and FA77 Limiteds, along with the D-FA 50mm Macro & D-FA 100 Macro are all in production, today.
The potential of instant D-FA 'Pancake' lenses in the DA40, DA70 even if these were re-released as D-FA versions although seems unlikely due to the recent HD versions of the DA Limiteds.
You also have the legacy FA35 and FA50 lenses that tend to still be in stock so still produced? As well as the FA20-35, FA20 and FA28 which was discontinued in ~2004?
Obviously the FA* lenses are not too old either, so there are 24mm, 85mm and the telephoto prime 200mm and 300mm as well as the FA*28-70mm.
It just seems to make sense that IF it did ever happen, they already have an excellent basis for a FF Lens line up, more so than starting all again from scratch.
The one thing that Pentax have as an advantage is relatively small and lightweight glass, even with a larger K-Mount based body. Whats the point of having a mirror-less thin body like the Sony A7 series if you are going to stick a huge f2.8 24-70mm lens on it. Unless you have a pancake lens (like Pentax has quite a few of already) an extra 20mm saved on the shallow lens mount is negated by a massive lens anyway.
A FF K-Mount with an APS-C crop mode seems the best of both worlds, access to ALL their current K-Mount Line up as well as ALL their legacy K-Mount glass on day one of release.
Now how about getting a de-crippled KAF2 K-Mount like in my MZ-5N........