[kadajawi]

I'm with you. It's rather odd that people don't talk about this on the forums. Even if by some miracle Sony or whoever doesn't beat Pentax to the specs you want, you have curtailed your spending on Pentax products. I've been on hiatus for about three months. I mean, I confess, I did buy the limited 43, but I also sold three Pentax F primes and one kit lens, and I've spent much more on other gear: a new tripod and tripod head. Oh, and I am keeping my vintage Pentax lenses, which suffer nothing from an adapter, and in fact, to get control of the aperture on an M lens you need an adapter for a new Pentax K mount anyway, ha. I can hear it already: "Pentax won't make any money if you're just using old glass." Well, I'm not. People buy new lenses for their new cameras. The vintage glass is great to have but all manual, and generally more specialty stuff. And, on the flip side, if I'm using my vintage Pentax lenses on a Sony, Pentax is definitely not making money.

Indeed, the K3 video leaves something to be desired, but we're mainly talking about the SR. The K5 only shoots 25p at HD, which is kinda weird. I mean, maybe ok but not exactly a range of options.

The K-3 also suffered from a bad encoder. 25p is an issue, but I can live with that if the actual video is fine and I get good SR.

[johnmflores]

And Cine lenses? They are usually primes that are high quality and super smooth to focus... in other words Limited lenses without AF.

It's more than that. It's near-identical sizing, gears, t-stop markings, no focus breathing, etc… Pentax would really have to commit to video and re-design their Limiteds if they want to do them right.

And we'll just have to wait and see if Olympus enables 4k via firmware and how complete the solution is. I'd imagine that there are issues with power consumption and heat, things that Panasonic baked into the GH4 and Oly appears to be trying to retrofit. Will 5-axis IBS be available when shooting 4k? We'll see...

[kadajawi]

It's more than that. It's near-identical sizing, gears, t-stop markings, no focus breathing, etc… Pentax would really have to commit to video and re-design their Limiteds if they want to do them right.

And we'll just have to wait and see if Olympus enables 4k via firmware and how complete the solution is. I'd imagine that there are issues with power consumption and heat, things that Panasonic baked into the GH4 and Oly appears to be trying to retrofit. Will 5-axis IBS be available when shooting 4k? We'll see...

They are having folks in Hollywood test the firmware, so I guess they are putting in some effort and try to create something competitive. We'll have to see how it will be.

In any case I wouldn't be surprised if there is a contract that limits Pentax in their video functionality.

[philbaum]

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.

[Clavius]

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.

So true... But is the K-3 with lens attached that much smaller? Nope, still big and bulky. If you have to lug around a big heavy camera bag, then it might as wel pack a punch. On the other hand, since I own the A7r, I take my camera along a lot more often then I used to. A wideangle on the camera, the zoom in my jacket pocket and off I go. I don't even carry a bag most of the time, just a leather casing on the camera. Or I just dump it in my laptop case when I go off for work somewhere. Going to a restaurant and taking a camera without looking like a combo of Ansel Adams and a mountaineer is a lot easier now. I still own my Pentax gear, but I only use it when I plan to go photographing.

[Arne Bo]

I´m still new to photography so this might be wishful thinking. I´m happy with my K-3, but a FF at the horizon might be important for future lens purchases.
As a special feature i would love a FF Body with a somehow adatable sensor and a adapterless K-mount so that you can use your normal apsc lenses with a switch to apsc format.
This would make the transition so much easier and sometimes the apsc magnification is really useful.
(i´m no tech guy and i don´t even know if this is doable, but i would love a system like that)

[Tan68]

You may have a little different thing in mind, but some FF cameras do offer a crop mode. It may be enabled when an APS-C lense is mounted but I don't know if it is user selectable or automatic. For instance, the D800 is basically a K5 in crop mode. So, it is like having APS-C built in.

I am not sure, though, how the viewfinder looks in crop mode. Nikon have LCD overlay for the viewfinder so perhaps the view through the finder is cropped as well.

...a FF Body with a somehow adatable sensor and a adapterless K-mount so that you can use your normal apsc lenses with a switch to apsc format. ...

---------- Post added 09-12-14 at 05:55 AM ----------

...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. ...

I am not trying to start a conversation about FF:APS-C equivalence and you may have a reason for f/2.8 lens on the FF as well as APS-C.

However, the Canon 70-200 f/4 isn't very big. I have seen one and was a little surprised. It didn't seem much different from DA 50-135. Same DOF control. I have no idea how a Canon 24-70 f/4 compares to DA 16-50.

Anyway, the 70-200 f/4, at least, would have the same DOF of the Pentax equivalent and then a smaller prime for speed.

[Arne Bo]

You may have a little different thing in mind, but some FF cameras do offer a crop mode. It may be enabled when an APS-C lense is mounted but I don't know if it is user selectable or automatic. For instance, the D800 is basically a K5 in crop mode. So, it is like having APS-C built in.

I am not sure, though, how the viewfinder looks in crop mode. Nikon have LCD overlay for the viewfinder so perhaps the view through the finder is cropped as well.

Thanks, i wasn´t aware of this. It would be very nice to have a way to use your older lenses on a new FF Body. That way it would be so much easier to take the step into the FF world. (Of course dedicated glas will be a lot better, but this way you can get into it with a reasonable budget and built on it)

[monochrome]

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

After 35 years backpacking howitzers up and down mountains and into and out of marshes my sister-in-law recently switched to ----- a good pair of field binoculars.

[johnmflores]

It could say "Pentax K-F1" instead of "Nikon D750".

[Winder]

It could say "Pentax K-F1" instead of "Nikon D750".

That D750 is going to be very tempting for a lot of Pentax users who are ready to move up. Let's see how Nikon screws it up, but the specs hit the sweet spot for a lot of people.

[monochrome]

It's as if Nikon said to themselves, "Well heck, if Pentax isn't going to fill the space then I guess we'll just have to."

[jsherman999]

Thanks, i wasn´t aware of this. It would be very nice to have a way to use your older lenses on a new FF Body. That way it would be so much easier to take the step into the FF world. (Of course dedicated glas will be a lot better, but this way you can get into it with a reasonable budget and built on it)

bingo

[johnmflores]

It's as if Nikon said to themselves, "Well heck, if Pentax isn't going to fill the space then I guess we'll just have to."

Well, the reality is that the tail (Pentax) can't wag the dog (Sony) or the dog's best bud (Nikon). A 24Mp FF is not an option for Pentax until Sony (and Nikon) say it is.

[jsherman999]

It's as if Nikon said to themselves, "Well heck, if Pentax isn't going to fill the space then I guess we'll just have to."

Nikon: hover in the wings, watching Pentax carefully, ready to pounce on any gap, exploit any minor weakness...

(or)

Nikon: "Pentax? That's the re-seller that buys our unused D7100 sensors, right?"