Originally posted by mecrox Every time I think of "adapter" I get a headache. I'm not sure that adapter is really the Way of Pentax.
We are talking about the company that lets you still use your M42 Takumar lenses from 1950 on your K-5 II, correct? The same one that put out a 1.7X AF teleconverter that lets you use those same 1950 M42 lenses on your K-5 II with full autofocus capability, right?
There's no free lunch here, if you don't have an adapter then you end up with the K-01. All the space for a mirror box, none of the advantages of mirrorless.
If you do the adapter right, you can keep full compatibility with old lenses while having a short register distance that allows compact cameras. Again, Sony is very instructive here, A-mount lenses just work on E-mount cameras because they put out a decent first-party adapter. CDAF isn't the best performing AF mode, but they're putting PDAF in their MILC nowadays.
For that matter you could even do the Metabones Speed Booster-style telecompressor/adapter and get FF field-of-view on a crop sensor MILC body.. Lots of possibilities.
---------- Post added 06-03-2014 at 03:47 PM ----------
Originally posted by eyeswideshut Now if only that ff camera had a gorgeous optical view finder!
I still think the excitement and then disappointment over the Nikon DF was the result of pent-up demand for a serious manual-focus DSLR body.
Epson went totally cheapo with the R-D1, it's literally just a Cosina Bessa rangefinder body with a digital sensor. They didn't even bother updating the shutter mechanism, it still depends on you cocking the shutter with a wind lever just like the film version. And the stupid things still sell for $1000+ even though they're a decade old at this point. Leica does the same thing - digital sensor awkwardly grafted on to their classic film bodies, and people buy them.
People want a camera for taking pictures, not for poking through menus. There's 100 years of ergonomic design that went into film bodies, and much of it was just thrown away when electronic cameras and autofocus became a thing.
I remain convinced that a "digital Pentax MX/ME" with a big, bright viewfinder, split-prism focus screen, tactile controls, and a full-frame sensor would be a serious seller. That pent-up demand for a photographer's dream camera is exactly what Fuji is tapping into with the X-series right now.