[JPT]

I have some scepticism about what this guy says, but I'm sharing this anyway. It's a blog post from Kimio Tanaka in which he implies that some aspects of the FF mock up were deliberately deceptive.

Japanese
Photo of the Day PENTAX ???????????????

Google translate into English (very difficult to understand because of the conversational style of the bog post)
Google Translate

Some key points:
- There may not be a built-in flash
- The back LCD may be movable
- Pixel shift resultion enhancement may come in a model before the FF
- SR is likely to be included with all the normal functions

As I say, I have some scepticism about this guy. He is a bit of an attention seeker. But he was also featured on Ricoh's stage at CP+, so I believe he has some genuine insight. Make of it what you will.

---------- Post added 03-22-15 at 11:16 PM ----------

Actually, this summary of the same article is easier to understand in translation.

Google Translate

[Stavri]

This translation is really bad, and sentences don't make sense. Ricoh has said that the 3d printed mockup was meant to tease (and create a buzz) not deceive.....I wouldn't read too much into it.....
There's probably dozens of people out there with real info on the new FF and that can't divulge anything due to legal restrictions, I for one will wait on official sources.....any day now...

[UncleVanya]

I think items 1 & 4 are well established.

[Winder]

Some key points:
- There may not be a built-in flash
- The back LCD may be movable
- Pixel shift resultion enhancement may come in a model before the FF
- SR is likely to be included with all the normal functions

Don't expect a built in flash
I expect the LCD will be like the one on the 645z
Not sure about pixel shift. I don't expect it on the FF body. If they use a 36MP sensor, think of how much processing power and memory they need to implement an 8-shot 14-bit RAW image composite and process in camera in an acceptable time frame. That is 3.2GBs that has to be stacked and compressed into a single file. It will take some bad @$$ processing power to accomplish that with any speed.

My expectation is for a body that is slightly larger than the K-3 to accommodate the bigger OVF and larger SR. A little bigger and a good bit heavier than the D750. People love the K-3 body, so Ricoh would be crazy to deviate too far for the K-3.

[biz-engineer]

I'm pretty sure that the actual full frame camera will look better than the mockup. I think they have more advance that we may assume from the mockup.
For previous camera models, we've had very little information until about a few weeks before the official announcements.

[Bryce K]

From a marketing standpoint I could see them thinking that there was a need for a mockup so people had something they could put their eyes on and get excited about. Simply announcing they were going to make one without having something to show off could lead to people thinking it was just another piece of vaporware. Having the mockup was important from the standpoint of not just generating buzz but sustaining it, whether the form factor of the actual product ends up looking like it or not is irrelevant to some degree. Also would not be surprised to see it released w/out a built in flash, but I think the other stuff is just speculation on his part.

[biz-engineer]

I fully agree with you Bryce. Most likely, the mockup was 3D printed from the virtual model they are working on with computer aided design. So, the final product may be like the mockup and/or include some changes to the initial concept. We'll see.