Originally posted by Uluru It is not a K-3 competitor. It is an entirely different camera and a system.
Totally different philosophies of life, image making, human experience, image quality, colour quality, attention to detail, expectations, endurance, quality of material, lens making philosophy, you name it.
Quite frankly I am puzzled with A77 and similar Sony's cameras because I do not understand their purpose, reason to exist. And I think even Sony does not know the answer.
Yeah I agree, spec wise it seems they are direct competitors, but looking at them beyond specs, they are cameras from two very different systems. EVF vs OVF, Carl Zeiss branding Minolta design optics vs Limiteds, among other differences such as body design, WR, target audience/users, etc. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Just by looking at the lens lineup:
Sony perhaps has a more comprehensive lens lineup that are current and in production compared to Pentax unless you go hunt for second hand or new old stock F/FA lenses. But still I don't think you can find a handheld able 70-400mm telephoto zoom or a 300mm F2.8.
However, the strengths of the Pentax lens lineup is obviously the Limiteds. Some consider "the best autofocus lenses money can buy", the limiteds especially the 31, 43, and 77, are among the best prime lenses that are also very small and light to carry.
For me, I won't sacrifice the limiteds for a faster fps and yet bulkier A77 II (however assuming size is similar to A77) and have to use expensive "Carl Zeiss" lenses that come with it. It's hard to hunt for a 300mm+ telephoto lens that's reasonably handheld-able and easy to travel with, and relatively cheap compared to a 60-250mm, something like equivalent of Olympus's 50-200mm. Perhaps a Sigma 120-400 or 135-400. But still, for me I would choose the limiteds cause I use shorter focal lengths more than 300mm+ telephotos.
But if you are a user that uses telephoto most of the time than I guess that's a different story. But I do agree the blackout of the SLT when shooting is quite annoying especially when shooting sports or wildlife. Or maybe if you are a videographer then you might go for the Sony. So in the end, they are two cameras that targets quite different audiences. But very interested to see what Nikon's reaction is or would react at all, after seeing Pentax and Sony entering the high-end APS-C market and the Canon 7D II rumoured to be out in near future.