[RonHendriks1966]

Well, they would have to be a little careful Sony didn't suddenly find reasons not to supply them with sensors I think one thing a consortium could do which might make a lot of sense would be to develop an entirely new operating system for cameras. That much be extremely expensive to do. Each company could differentiate itself by building its own layer on top of the core stack and the standard APIs. Software is one of the things that the Japanese camera industry has never really got right, imho. Look at how they handled the arrival of wifi, something that on other platforms is taken to be a no-brainer inclusion. And, I suppose one could argue, the more powerful and adaptable the software in cameras, the more resistant the industry could be to creeping colonization and patent ransom by the mobile crowd.

Running on Android 4.4 kitkat for instance, or a follower. Build in wifi and gps. Backscreen large camera. So on the backside looking like a Phone. Well maybe it's just handy when you can also make a phonecall with it.

[eyeswideshut]

Never mind the nay-sayers. It is a brilliant idea. The m43 experience has been altogether positive for customers, with an incredible range of cameras and lenses coming out within just five years. Besides, in a rocky business climate, consortia have been formed in many areas before - so why not?

Would it be OK if Pentax built my dream digital lx/mx camera with a k-mount and 100% /1.0 ovf before joining the consortium and going off to greener milc pastures ;-) ?

[pinholecam]

Another "Make my own imaginary Pentax FF camera" thread?

Come on! We really have too many of these already (probably 90% of the threads on this sub-section)

No one will agree on what they want.
I think might as well have a '3D print your own Pentax FF "
At least its going to be solid and not made of ether.

[rawr]

No one will agree on what they want.

You are right. It's a fundamental problem in these forums, because we all have different experiences and expectations.

Imagine the difficulties trying to wrangle a consortium together, where competitive market pressures and real money is involved. And when there seems no compelling reason for any company to get on board.

[eyeswideshut]

Another "Make my own imaginary Pentax FF camera" thread?

Come on! We really have too many of these already (probably 90% of the threads on this sub-section)

No one will agree on what they want.
I think might as well have a '3D print your own Pentax FF "
At least its going to be solid and not made of ether.

No No No. If I wanted a plastic phantastic 3D Pentax I'd join the Lomo boys with their Holgas first.
But there is a serious side to what I said, and that is a consortium as proposed by Ron will mean good bye to the k mount and probably the mirror/ovf as well. So we just can't have it all it seems.

BTW, what are you doing on the ff vaporware forum if I may ask?

[Kunzite]

Running on Android 4.4 kitkat for instance, or a follower.

Struggling to get barely acceptable standby times, and few hours of usage times from a 3Ah battery. Lag, with a 4 core processor. 2GB RAM are not really enough. Bugs. Updates. Hoping the next version will be better.
I'm seeing all those in the smartphone arena, I don't want them in my camera, too.

[Pablom]

Personally I would love to own a camera that can natively use Pentax and Fuji lenses (although the Fuji lenses I am referring to are APS-C)

[jogiba]

The new Chinese owner that also joint in on the mcro 4/3th consortium.

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[RonHendriks1966]

JK Imaging Ltd. is the worldwide licensee for KODAK PIXPRO and has nothing to do with Kodak.

Thanks for the information. Wel JK Imaging can join. I also found Black magic as part of micro 4/3th, so a dedicated cinema company would be great to make the new cameramount attractive.

[Kunzite]

I wouldn't want Ricoh/Pentax working together with a company whose name is Just Kidding Imaging Ltd

[jogiba]

Through a Global Licensing agreement with Kodak, JK Imaging is proud to manufacture and sell Kodak branded digital imaging products.

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[ElJamoquio]

You can have a consortium but... how many on that list actually put any real effort into m43? Most seems to be there just in case m43 totally takes off.

It's an open standard. I think you, personally, could build a M4/3 camera.

[ruggiex]

Just Open Source KAF/KAFII/KAFIII if wanting more players to create lenses for the mount. Probably much less logistics hassle and they can focus more on building things. The effectiveness of a consortium always seems like a joke to me. It's just a label most of the time.

[cali92rs]

Seems good in theory...but in practice, eh, I don't see it happening.

I actually think micro 4/3rds was excellent for consumers. Think of all the high quality lenses and bodies for that platform that have been released in the past 5 years.
But, what's good for consumers doesn't necessarily mean it's good for the companies.

[Kunzite]

It's an open standard. I think you, personally, could build a M4/3 camera.

Nope, it's just a proprietary mount shared between several manufacturers. Unless you can point me to the full specification, protocols included?