[fredralphfred]

Interesting. Editing must take a huge amount of time. I'm surprised multiple cameras (even without the 30 minute limitation) would stay in sync for hours with a separate audio recorder.

If he's doing short takes, he can re-sync at the beginning of each take; it wouldn't be that hard. He could use a slate (or a vigorous hand-clap). I think some video editing programs will even sync for you if the snap is distinct enough.

[cfraz]

If he's doing short takes, he can re-sync at the beginning of each take; it wouldn't be that hard. He could use a slate (or a vigorous hand-clap). I think some video editing programs will even sync for you if the snap is distinct enough.

I know, but that is precisely what he said he does not want to do. He wants to keep multiple cameras and audio recorder continuously recording with just a single sync event at the beginning of a several hour session.

[madbrain]

If you take a look at main pentax site for the new ff, you might not post this thread **Full Frame by PENTAX | RICOH IMAGING
1. Just made it easy, a high end camera requires many features implemented without not making it a bigger, heavier body, slots for AA batteries just simply waste of space. You spend thousand dollars for the body but afraid to pay several hundreds for a backup Liion?

As I have stated several times in this thread, the issue of AA for me has nothing to do with cost - and everything to do with the downsides of LiOn batteries - in terms of reliability, longevity, and need for separate charger when traveling.

3. Looking at the demo snapshot for new body, I don't think a built-in flash is available

Yes, I know, unfortunately. Which is why I'm requesting this on the 2nd gen FF
Surely Pentax will have several FF bodies at some point, like they have several APS-C bodies right now, most of them with a built-in flash, with the K3-II being the only exception.

---------- Post added 02-02-16 at 06:31 PM ----------

If he's doing short takes, he can re-sync at the beginning of each take; it wouldn't be that hard. He could use a slate (or a vigorous hand-clap). I think some video editing programs will even sync for you if the snap is distinct enough.

My A/V editor can sync multiple video clips together based on audio. I'm not doing manual syncing anymore, thankfully. That would drive me mad. It is still a bit tedious when there are interruptions in one camera.
My ideal workflow is :
1) plug-in each camera to A/C adapter
2) format SD card in every camera
3) turn on audio recorder
4) start video recording on each camera
5) play many takes, forgetting about all the recording gear
6) stop all recorders
7) review/edit A/V video - with a single video file from each camera, and separate audio tracks from the recorder (I use at least 2 mics, sometimes more)
Right now, I still get multiple files from each camera. My camcorder splits files every 2GB, but records until the 32GB SDHC is full. It can also record to the internal 120GB, but I don't use this because it's USB 2.0 and too slow to transfer.
My T3i splits them at 4 GB, or at 30 min, whichever comes first, but auto-restarts with Magic lantern, after a 1-2 sec break.
The K-30 splits at 4GB or 25 mins, whichever comes first, and stops afterwards (loudly).
As you see, none of the cameras are really ideal yet. But I think newer 4K cameras have a better chance of supporting >4GB file size. And the 30 min really is up to the manufacturer and how they feel about taxes in the European market.

It's possible to stop/start the cameras between takes. But even with an IR remote, I really hate doing so, as it makes me think more about the technical recording aspect, than the music. And I'm not a pro and do a large number of takes. It's unfortunately not rare that I come out of few hours of recording and am not happy with the results of any take, and throw all the material away.

---------- Post added 02-02-16 at 06:36 PM ----------

If he's doing short takes, he can re-sync at the beginning of each take; it wouldn't be that hard. He could use a slate (or a vigorous hand-clap). I think some video editing programs will even sync for you if the snap is distinct enough.

My A/V editor can sync multiple video clips together based on audio. I'm not doing manual syncing anymore, thankfully. That would drive me mad. It is still a bit tedious when there are interruptions in one camera.
My ideal workflow is :
1) plug-in each camera to A/C adapter
2) format SD card in every camera
3) turn on audio recorder
4) start video recording on each camera
5) play many takes, forgetting about all the recording gear
6) stop all recorders
7) review/edit A/V video - with a single video file from each camera, and separate audio tracks from the recorder (I use at least 2 mics, sometimes more)
Right now, I still get multiple files from each camera. My camcorder splits files every 2GB, but records until the 32GB SDHC is full. It can also record to the internal 120GB, but I don't use this because it's USB 2.0 and too slow to transfer.
My T3i splits them at 4 GB, or at 30 min, whichever comes first, but auto-restarts with Magic lantern, after a 1-2 sec break.
The K-30 splits at 4GB or 25 mins, whichever comes first, and stops afterwards (loudly).
As you see, none of the cameras are really ideal yet. But I think newer 4K cameras have a better chance of supporting >4GB file size, for example if they support the exFAT file system. And the 30 min really is up to the manufacturer and how they feel about taxes in the European market.

[madbrain]

BTW, tried to take video on my K-30 last night, using my new DA35/2.4 lens . Pic was great. But unfortunately, the video was limited to 16min36s at 1920x1080/30p at the highest quality.
At lower resolution, fps, or quality level, it will record up to 25 min - not 30 .

16 min max video recording is really quite a severe limitation. That is more likely due to the 4GB filesize limit than the tax issue.
4GB limit is due to FAT32.

Is there any other Pentax camera that supports exFAT for >4GB video files ? K-3 or K3-II ?

[madbrain]

I also checked the specs for the 645Z and saw that it is also limited to 25 min or 4GB video, whichever comes first. Quite disappointing. If any camera needs higher bitrate, 4K video, and >25min video clips, it would be the 645Z.

Here is a video I did last night with the Canon HG21 camcorder and K-30 with DA35, FYI. I manually started/stopped the K-30 with the IR remote to avoid the length issue. But my recording session was about 2 hours.

You Tube

You Tube

[fredralphfred]

I also checked the specs for the 645Z and saw that it is also limited to 25 min or 4GB video, whichever comes first. Quite disappointing. If any camera needs higher bitrate, 4K video, and >25min video clips, it would be the 645Z.

Here is a video I did last night with the Canon HG21 camcorder and K-30 with DA35, FYI. I manually started/stopped the K-30 with the IR remote to avoid the length issue. But my recording session was about 2 hours.

Bourrée, French Suite N°6 in E Major, J.S. Bach, harpsichord - YouTube

Pentax has never made video a priority. And concerning other manufacturers, I really think it's a cooling issue they're not addressing by hiding behind taxes. They want to discourage continuous use. The sensors get a lot hotter and are used a LOT more in video applications than they are still photo, and that greatly impacts warranty. About the 645Z -- the bigger the sensor, the bigger the cooling problem. Especially once you provide the circuitry (which almost has to be on-sensor) to read-out a 4K image 60 times per second. Plus, Pentax never makes their own sensors, and _NO_ MF sensor maker cares about video.

You have, however, effectively highlighted the usefulness of a recording engineer. I understand it may not be practical for you (Enya had to learn how to be a recording engineer because she likes to work alone in the studio), but that's why most people use them.

---------- Post added 02-04-16 at 09:42 PM ----------

Thanks for the YouTube link. Wow, could I ever take this off-topic now. Never heard of Line Audio, never knew there were double-manual harpsichords, much less with the manuals coupled. Pleased to note you aren't depending on camera audio (even through "mic in".) Also curious about the recorder you use. Didn't know you were "that" into it. Yes, digital audio recording is way ahead of video recording because it's that much easier (and in my opinion much more developed because it's been taken "seriously" for that much longer). Don't think I'm not sympathetic to your desires, but I am sceptical that some of them will be addressed soon.

[madbrain]

Pentax has never made video a priority. And concerning other manufacturers, I really think it's a cooling issue they're not addressing by hiding behind taxes. They want to discourage continuous use. The sensors get a lot hotter and are used a LOT more in video applications than they are still photo, and that greatly impacts warranty.

Again, I have run my T3i for hours before on a tripod with Magic lantern, and haven't seen an issue. This is a 5-year old camera with an even older sensor. The K-30 was running last night also for hours, with restarts. The final video is from the very end of the recording session.

There was no noticeable camera overheating. I didn't discern extra noise in the video from the K-30 between beginning and end.

Right now Pentax has a 4GB limit on top of the 25 min limit, which actually happens much earlier. That limit is for sure because of a file system limit. It's not because of overheating.

Moore's law should help solve the overheating problems with sensors, eventually. Either by allowing more capabilities with the same amount of power - and thus heat - or the same capabilities with less power, or some combination thereof.

About the 645Z -- the bigger the sensor, the bigger the cooling problem. Especially once you provide the circuitry (which almost has to be on-sensor) to read-out a 4K image 60 times per second. Plus, Pentax never makes their own sensors, and _NO_ MF sensor maker cares about video.

Well, the MF sensors makers may not care, but the sensor makers for smaller sizes do seem to care, and certainly there are other camera manufacturers that care more about video than Pentax.
Pentax is still stuck at a max of 30 fps in full HD (or 60i on the K3-II) with a relatively low 22 Mbps bit-rate, that doesn't do justice to what can be captured by the lens. I don't know if this is because of a sensor limit. There are Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic cameras that do full HD/60p, and support higher bit rate. Even my cell phone does 60p (but it will overheat). I'm not really contemplating buying an MF camera for video, anyway. But an FF camera, yes, it's certainly a possibility in my future. Ultimately, I'd like a big jump in quality from 1080/60i or 1080/30p, preferably to 4K/60p, and with more than 24 bit color . It probably won't be Pentax in 2016 delivering it. I do hope Pentax will deliver it some day, though. Before 8K becomes popular

You have, however, effectively highlighted the usefulness of a recording engineer. I understand it may not be practical for you (Enya had to learn how to be a recording engineer because she likes to work alone in the studio), but that's why most people use them.

Are you saying there is something wrong with the way the audio was recorded ? In this case, the audio was straight from my digital recorder, no audio processing done at all. Sometimes I do a bit of noise reduction, but I didn't in this case. You can hear at the end after the sound dies down that my room is far from quiet. It is a home environment, not a studio environment. I believe if I wanted to improve the recording quality, very expensive - and ugly - acoustic treatments would be in order. And I'm just not going to do that. My husband wouldn't stand for it, either. The room with the harpsichord (and the 9ft grand piano, not pictured) is what you see when you enter the house through the frond door, with the staircase behind. It's the largest room and most suitable, with a high ceiling, IMO. It's a fairly live room, which I like, but it's not to everyone's taste. Certainly for harpsichord, I think the acoustics work. For piano, a bit less. I had a concert pianist play on my grand and it was just incredibly loud when pedaling. Defeaning to the point of being actually physically harmful to the ears. I couldn't stay near him.

Thanks for the YouTube link. Wow, could I ever take this off-topic now. Never heard of Line Audio, never knew there were double-manual harpsichords, much less with the manuals coupled. Pleased to note you aren't depending on camera audio (even through "mic in".) Also curious about the recorder you use. Didn't know you were "that" into it. Yes, digital audio recording is way ahead of video recording because it's that much easier (and in my opinion much more developed because it's been taken "seriously" for that much longer). Don't think I'm not sympathetic to your desires, but I am sceptical that some of them will be addressed soon.

I'm only depending on camera audio for the synchronization with the separate recorder, here. But I don't always want to spend about one hour editing the video after a 2 hour recording session, like I did last night.
Being able to just share the raw camera clip and not have horrible audio on it would be a plus. My HG21 camcorder has a stereo on mic on it, and the audio on it is usable with AGC disabled if one takes care of setting the right level on the camera. The K-30 with its 32 kHz mono audio recording, is definitely unusable for anything other than synchronization.

Line Audio is a very small mic manufacturer in Europe. I own a pair of omni mics from Line Audio.

For the recording last night, I used some inexpensive small diaphragm condensers, the M-audio Pulsar II, in an XY pattern on the mic stand, at about 5ft height, 1ft away from the instrument, half-way through its 8ft length.
These mics do not have the best noise floor. But ultimately, I believe the room acoustics are the limits for me in terms of sound, not the equipment, or the skills of the person recording. I have read quite a bit about recording technique, mic patterns, ic placement, and so on. And I experimented many times with different mics and placement. The digital recorder allows recording 20 tracks simultaneously (though I don't have 20 preamps). I have tried up to 12 mics simultaneously in the room, with various placements. I have also tried with some much more expensive mics that a friend bought and loaned to me.

I have settled on just a few mics nowadays, and I sold or gave away a bunch of the mics that I ended up not using. Usually I stick with those M-audio Pulsar II SDC for harpsichord.
For piano, I use either the AKG C3000B LDC in XY fairly close, or the Line Audio omni as a spaced pair, a bit farther back. I believe I'm a lot better at playing harpsichord than piano at this point though. Right now, I have a bunch of camera equipment on top of the piano cover, overlooking the harpsichord.

[Grosbill01]

2) no length limit on video recording clips. 30mins is not acceptable.
Make a different version for Europe if you have to due to the tax situation on video cameras. Don't impose the 30min limitation on the rest of the world.

Video mode is enormously heat sensors and it is important to limit the shooting to avoid damaging the sensors.
The new Nikon D5 is thus limited to 3 minutes. And later Nikon does not hope to raise the 30 minutes limit.
I am European, and there is no special tax on video and especially not on the ability to shoot over 30 minutes.
I have a Canon camcorder allow me to shoot an entire hour.

[madbrain]

Video mode is enormously heat sensors and it is important to limit the shooting to avoid damaging the sensors.
The new Nikon D5 is thus limited to 3 minutes. And later Nikon does not hope to raise the 30 minutes limit.

The 3min limit is specific to the D5. My Samsung Note 4 cell phone also has a 5 min limit on 4K recording, and it's quite clear that it overheats after that long.

However, I have restarted the video recording on my (now stolen) Canon T3i and on my K-30, and never noticed any overheating, even after several hours of video recording.
With the T3i, magic lantern was auto-restarting. With the K-30, it was manual restart, so it wasn't exactly continuous.
But I don't think overheating is a real issue on these 2 cameras. These are not 4K cameras, though.

It may very well be that the 4K sensors still aren't power-efficient enough.

Note that the D5 has a 29mn59s limit in HD mode. The 3 min limit is only in 4K mode.

I am European, and there is no special tax on video and especially not on the ability to shoot over 30 minutes.
I have a Canon camcorder allow me to shoot an entire hour.

The European law is not about forbidding >30 minutes recording, but higher taxes on models that allow it.

Why Digital Cameras Have a 30 Minute Video Recording Limit - Tested
30 minute limit on video capture could end if WTO group gets its way: Digital Photography Review
RevK's rants: How bloody stupid is EU law?

The manufacturers appear to all have chosen to limit the recording to 29min59, rather than be subjected to the tax. Or be forced to make separate models for EU and the rest of the world.

Except Panasonic which makes a non-EU version of the GH4 without any such limit. I may buy that camera just for that reason, even though it has a 4/3 sensor which is smaller than APS-C, and much smaller than FF. 4/3 sensor will still be much bigger than the sensor in my Canon camcorder.

[fredralphfred]

. . . Are you saying there is something wrong with the way the audio was recorded ? . . .

Absolutely not! It shows that your diligence in placing the microphones (MOST IMPORTANT), setting levels, and selecting audio gear has paid off. I was referring to the fact that a recording engineer takes care of equipment quirks while you concentrate on performing. For a price, of course, which is why you're soloing -- it would get quite expensive to have a dedicated recording engineer for practice sessions.

. . . In this case, the audio was straight from my digital recorder, no audio processing done at all. . . .

. . . As it should be with proper equipment selection, set-up, and placement.

Sometimes I do a bit of noise reduction, but I didn't in this case. You can hear at the end after the sound dies down that my room is far from quiet. It is a home environment, not a studio environment. I believe if I wanted to improve the recording quality, very expensive - and ugly - acoustic treatments would be in order. . . .

Your room didn't have any obvious standing wave problems that I noticed, and you did a good job of close-micing your instruments. Too much treatment and a room sounds "dead," inciting you to add time-consuming reverb (at least, until you get the "right" amount and type) which in my opinion never sounds as good. (I'm not a huge fan of the "drummer in the parking deck while band's in the studio" sound that a lot of studio music goes for.)

And I'm just not going to do that. My husband wouldn't stand for it, either. The room with the harpsichord (and the 9ft grand piano, not pictured) is what you see when you enter the house through the frond door, with the staircase behind. It's the largest room and most suitable, with a high ceiling, IMO. It's a fairly live room, which I like, but it's not to everyone's taste. Certainly for harpsichord, I think the acoustics work. For piano, a bit less. I had a concert pianist play on my grand and it was just incredibly loud when pedaling. Defeaning to the point of being actually physically harmful to the ears. I couldn't stay near him.

Many people _do_ forget the "forte" part of the Piano's name. If you really wanted treatment, there are some very attractive and decorative options. But I would definitely consult an engineer as adding (especially expensive "decorative") treatments to a room that doesn't really have a problem can easily lead to immense problems.

I'm only depending on camera audio for the synchronization with the separate recorder, here. But I don't always want to spend about one hour editing the video after a 2 hour recording session, like I did last night.
Being able to just share the raw camera clip and not have horrible audio on it would be a plus. My HG21 camcorder has a stereo on mic on it, and the audio on it is usable with AGC disabled if one takes care of setting the right level on the camera. The K-30 with its 32 kHz mono audio recording, is definitely unusable for anything other than synchronization.

Line Audio is a very small mic manufacturer in Europe. I own a pair of omni mics from Line Audio.

For the recording last night, I used some inexpensive small diaphragm condensers, the M-audio Pulsar II, in an XY pattern on the mic stand, at about 5ft height, 1ft away from the instrument, half-way through its 8ft length.
These mics do not have the best noise floor. But ultimately, I believe the room acoustics are the limits for me in terms of sound, not the equipment, or the skills of the person recording. I have read quite a bit about recording technique, mic patterns, ic placement, and so on. And I experimented many times with different mics and placement. The digital recorder allows recording 20 tracks simultaneously (though I don't have 20 preamps). I have tried up to 12 mics simultaneously in the room, with various placements. I have also tried with some much more expensive mics that a friend bought and loaned to me.

I have settled on just a few mics nowadays, and I sold or gave away a bunch of the mics that I ended up not using. Usually I stick with those M-audio Pulsar II SDC for harpsichord.
For piano, I use either the AKG C3000B LDC in XY fairly close, or the Line Audio omni as a spaced pair, a bit farther back. I believe I'm a lot better at playing harpsichord than piano at this point though. Right now, I have a bunch of camera equipment on top of the piano cover, overlooking the harpsichord.

Well, I enjoyed what you did, and it sounded as good as it could sound over YouTube, anyway. I think you'll find that's your largest limiting factor. Your noise floor couldn't have been too bad since I didn't hear any digital noise-reduction buzzing in it.

In terms of modest equipment, my best-loved field recorder (and I've had lots in my time, peaking with a stereo-matched pair of AKG C414-B ULS-II's into a Grace Labs Lunatec V2 to a Sound Devices 744t) was a Yamaha Pocketrak 2G, believe it or not. I picked it up on sale at Guitar Center on a whim, and if you properly managed the noise level and peaks (meaning it SHOULD peak but it SHOULDN'T be audible), it turned out some GREAT recordings! As long as the music was loud. It was much more pocketable and easily set-up than my "good" setup, and I got much-better-than-expected results. Unfortunately, I lost it somehow during a move or a job change -- they all kind of happened at the same time and there was a lot of confusion there. And no one has made anything even close for portability and sound quality.

That reminds me, whenever I look at camera gear, that the gear is not the problem. Unfortunately, I was much better at recording sound than I am at taking pictures.

[madbrain]

Absolutely not! It shows that your diligence in placing the microphones (MOST IMPORTANT), setting levels, and selecting audio gear has paid off. I was referring to the fact that a recording engineer takes care of equipment quirks while you concentrate on performing. For a price, of course, which is why you're soloing -- it would get quite expensive to have a dedicated recording engineer for practice sessions. . . .

Right. And I never really "perform", to me it's always a practice session, until it's eventually good enough. I don't give recitals, simply because I can't. The presence of a recording engineer probably would prevent me from getting anything done. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to see me stumble. I started taking piano lessons 14 years ago, as an adult. And harpsichord about 10. But I didn't have my own harpsichord until recently.

As it should be with proper equipment selection, set-up, and placement.Your room didn't have any obvious standing wave problems that I noticed, and you did a good job of close-micing your instruments. Too much treatment and a room sounds "dead," inciting you to add time-consuming reverb (at least, until you get the "right" amount and type) which in my opinion never sounds as good. (I'm not a huge fan of the "drummer in the parking deck while band's in the studio" sound that a lot of studio music goes for.)

Yeah, I don't like to add reverb - but I never need to with my room now.

Many people _do_ forget the "forte" part of the Piano's name. If you really wanted treatment, there are some very attractive and decorative options. But I would definitely consult an engineer as adding (especially expensive "decorative") treatments to a room that doesn't really have a problem can easily lead to immense problems.

I never truly play "forte". It's actually impossible to be both a good harpsichordist and pianist. The techniques really go against each other. A heavy touch is a huge problem on a harpsichord. Too light of a touch is also not so good on a piano. I end up alternating a few months of piano and harpsichord. Right now it's been a long time since I touched the piano.

The room doesn't have major problems in my opinion, for the way I play the instruments, other than it's not dead silent when not playing, but that can never be achieved in a home, IMO. In the summer it's more problematic to record with the freezer against the garage wall just behind. It's an energy star and comes on & off. Sometimes I turn it off altogether while recording. The central A/C & heating is an issue too.

Well, I enjoyed what you did, and it sounded as good as it could sound over YouTube, anyway. I think you'll find that's your largest limiting factor. Your noise floor couldn't have been too bad since I didn't hear any digital noise-reduction buzzing in it.

Right, there was no digital noise reduction at all in this one. I have used some in previous recording. I can always hear the metallic buzzing in quiet passages, or at the end.
In this one, I just did mastering step - +11.7 dB on left and +12.3 dB on the right. Ie. it was recorded at about -12 dB . Which I think is a common recommendation. I no longer try to "peak" the levels when recording as I used to. It's actually a waste of time. But the mastering step is necessary when going from the two 24-bit 96 kHz original mono WAV files to the 16-bit 48 kHz stereo WAV file that ends up in the video editor, PowerDirector. I produced the video as H.264 with a 1536 kbps LPCM track, ie. uncompressed 48 kHz 16 bit stereo. All the audio compression was done by Youtube after the upload - none before.

In terms of modest equipment, my best-loved field recorder (and I've had lots in my time, peaking with a stereo-matched pair of AKG C414-B ULS-II's into a Grace Labs Lunatec V2 to a Sound Devices 744t) was a Yamaha Pocketrak 2G, believe it or not. I picked it up on sale at Guitar Center on a whim, and if you properly managed the noise level and peaks (meaning it SHOULD peak but it SHOULDN'T be audible), it turned out some GREAT recordings! As long as the music was loud. It was much more pocketable and easily set-up than my "good" setup, and I got much-better-than-expected results. Unfortunately, I lost it somehow during a move or a job change -- they all kind of happened at the same time and there was a lot of confusion there. And no one has made anything even close for portability and sound quality.

My gear is not at all portable, but neither are my instruments - at 300 and 1200 lbs respectively for the harpsichord and piano. I wish I owned the C414 . Maybe some day. I have a friend who owns them, and I borrowed them. He has a Grace Preamp as well. And a very expensive A/D. The funny thing is he is too much of a perfectionist , given his classical training (piano major), and he has never dared upload a single video to Youtube or anywhere else... Whereas my videos have lots of warts in terms of musical technique, but at least I put them out there (eventually, this one I referenced above is still unlisted).

That reminds me, whenever I look at camera gear, that the gear is not the problem. Unfortunately, I was much better at recording sound than I am at taking pictures.

For me with the audio, what's behind the mics is the problem, ie. the musician

With cameras, with a current DSLR, it's definitely not the limiting factor. But if I only have a compact or a cell phone, I am horribly frustrated and am pretty much incapable of framing a single decent picture. The viewfinder and buttons on the DSLR have spoiled me way too much, and I can't stand small touch screens found on cell phones and compacts. When I lost my Pentax gear during my vacation in Hong Kong on jan 1, at 6 days into a 16 days trip, I was extremely upset. I bought a compact, but I don't think I got a single good picture with it the next 10 days.

[fredralphfred]

. . . For me with the audio, what's behind the mics is the problem, ie. the musician . . .

It's funny you mention that. Every time I'd play a recording I did for the musician(s) in question, they never even commented on sound quality. They were listening for how they played and what went right or wrong. I eventually concluded the recordings were "good enough." You spoke of your friend, the perfectionist. I don't want to impugn him, but music should be shared. He will learn more faster from sharing his videos than he will by erasing them. A friend of mine started playing Hammond (organ jazz trio) after graduating from high school. I used to accuse him of "practicing in public," but he didn't care because he knew he'd get there. I don't remember when I realized he had, but 15 years later, he's pretty damned good.

. . . With cameras, with a current DSLR, it's definitely not the limiting factor. But if I only have a compact or a cell phone, I am horribly frustrated and am pretty much incapable of framing a single decent picture. The viewfinder and buttons on the DSLR have spoiled me way too much, and I can't stand small touch screens found on cell phones and compacts. When I lost my Pentax gear during my vacation in Hong Kong on jan 1, at 6 days into a 16 days trip, I was extremely upset. I bought a compact, but I don't think I got a single good picture with it the next 10 days.

Ouch! I'm sorry to hear about your missing gear. That would hurt. As for me, I suspect I just need to get out more and take more mediocre pictures; some day they'll turn out good.

[dylansalt]

I hope an actual"real" Pentax FF shows itself - I mean it's 2016 - not exactly rocket science anymore

[madbrain]

Well, the K-1 specs are 0 for 5, so I guess I was right to ask for those on the second-gen mode.

The lack of any video improvement is very disappointing.

[patarok]

absolutely right. even compact digitals can do highspeed video recording... a simple tilt and swivel mechanism display like on the K-S2 or like on any other "with sanity created" DSLR would have done the trick. this would have freed up resources for checking out with a faster memory and a dual CPU solution.
I expected at least 60fps in full HD
and 6 still fps AT LEAST...

NEXT FF, PLZ no more than 32MP... Thank you. If i would need about 40MP i would fuc!n buy a mid-format camera... sh. pix woud have been crystal clear with a 24MP Sensor.
Now all those wannabe-"pros" are yelling hooray and post "totally professional" photos of themselves with their new "Supergear" in their hands(what actually shows that they are far away from professional. honestly i dont know serious photographers who picture themselves with their cameras ...LOL), and all the other users who find fun and love in photography(pro or not) can facepalm themselves. Thank you.

I hope for RICOH Imaging, that there are enough of this "Super-Pros"(i could facepalm the whole day long. Really!)... so they sell enough devices to be able to make a sane DSLR afterwards...