Originally posted by peterjcb just throwing this out there...
I have been hoping for a FF Pentax but now I'm not so sure I'd want one.
Keep in mind that I know what FF is but I've never actually had one in my hands.
A couple of weekeds ago I met a guy with Canon FF complete with his accessories bag. He looked like he was going for a mountain hike!! I introduced myself and took a look at his gear. Man, that stuff is big and heavy! He had a gigantic zoom lens on his body and it weighed a ton. While he was doing a lot of walking & talking I was busy taking shoots with my little GR.
If this is what FF is all about then count me out. There's no way I'd buy a Pentax FF is I had to lug all that around. My FA31 is big enough and I think I'll keep my K-5 or possibly K-3 if I ever decide to upgrade.
I have the same concern, i.e. if i bought a FF, would i end up 6 months later leaving it on a shelf most of the time
Even aps cameras like the k5, k3, if one buys all the f2.8 zooms for it, they become a sizable bag like the 50-135, 60-250, 16-50, etc. So the zoom selection for a FF is a big part of the problem, and a common f2.8 70-200 is not a small item. If one were to select just a normal zoom and the rest were a coupla primes, the bag would be smaller. I think when Canon and Nikon went to lens stabilization, it seemed to increase the volume and weight of the lenses - just a guess on my part.
I think what helped make Sony A7 series popular was the compact size of the camera. If one coupled that with a lot of restraint over lens selection, one could get by with a smaller bag. Birders that i know, at least 2, use luggage on wheel type carts to get their long FF teles and cameras from their car to their shooting area, and their shooting area is never far from their car. Thats why i hope if Pentax makes a FF this year or next, they make it light weight and compact. us older guys would really appreciate it
Plus, Pentax's normal use of IBIS would save weight in the lenses themselves.