Originally posted by Clavius Hmmm... another thread with a good suggestion and the usual nay-sayers. I keep remembering the same type of nay-sayers booooooh-ing ideas like MILC, MILC+FF, MILC+FF+SR, AF adapters, etc. Now look at what Sony has done. I often think their R&D lurks this forum for ideas. People can make fun of such ideas all they want, but sooner or later Sony will do just this first if the other brands wait long enough.
SR costs a lot in a parts and often works counterproductive. (When shooting from a tripod. I even have examples where it wrecked handheld shots.) Leaving it off would not hurt.
Same goes for the whole mirror, mirror mechanism, focussing screen, prism, VF optics and all the manual calibration that needs to be done in the factories.
WR can go too. It's either no WR or WR that fails anyway, but adds a lot to the costs of camera and lenses. I'll use a baggy with an elastic band like I do now with my WR K-3 and WR lenses.
AF is to useful to leave out though. Without it, it would become a niche product, only pushing the price up.
Same goes for WIFI/NFC. The parts are dirt cheap anyway. And a 2015 camera wihout internal connectivity is unthinkable.
I don't think the OP asked for those things you mention to be left off the camera. He asked for a camera without video, GPS, pop up flash and wi fi. He wanted it to remain an SLR.
There are three different groups on the forum. One (which you belong to) want Pentax to come out with a Sony style A7 knock off -- mirrorless and a different mount. That seems unlikely to happen based on what Pentax has said and it certainly wasn't what this thread is about. The second group wants a traditional SLR, but leaving off extraneous features that they personally don't use -- GPS, SR, pop up flash, video -- on the belief that leaving these particular features off would lead to a cheap full frame camera. I don't really buy their cost analysis, but either way, they certainly aren't clamoring for mirrorless or, a new mount. The third group (of which I am a member) believes that Pentax needs to have something special with their full frame camera and that it should be highly specified and have some features that current Canon/Nikon don't offer. That means SR in the body and all of the different uses it has been put to (astro tracking, SR, composition adjust, etc), really good auto focus, and top end video. This is the sort of camera that won't be cheap, but could make a big splash.
I don't buy that weather sealing and SR add that much cost to this camera and they are the sort of features that fit really well with the group of cameras that Pentax has made over time.
Pentax isn't going to suddenly morph into Sony -- it doesn't fit with who they've been in the past or who they want to be going forward. It will be better for them to figure out how to make a camera that fits with their current line up and then spend a little in marketing to let photographers know what they've done. I, for one, think it will succeed.