After collecting all relevant information about K-1 II, then using a borrowed one for one week, evaluating my own use cases and careful consideration, I decided not to upgrade my K-1 for the following reasons:
1. Claimed noise reduction in K-1 II at higher ISO's can be achieved to the same degree if not better by post processing K-1's raw images in Darktable.
Noise reduction in K-1 II is applied to the whole image uniformly. I can apply noise reduction in Darktable selectively by drawn mask to preserve fine details of the main subject, which otherwise will be softened by the accelerator unit in K-1 II. Sure, it requires some work and manual fiddling with noise filters, but you have full control over the resulting image for printing.
2. Even at lower or base ISO's, K-1 II's accelerator unit sucks battery power, thus reducing number of shots by 90 or roughly 12% in comparison to K-1. 90 shots could be a whole extra day of shooting on a tourist trip. There is no way to physically turn off the accelerator unit in K-1 II to reduce this unnecessary power consumption at lower ISO's, unless it performs some additional functions that we are not aware of.
3. K-1 II's improvements in SAFOX 12 auto focusing algorithms seem to be related to AF-C mode not to AF-S mode, which remains the same. Those who do not shoot birds in flight or sports would not benefit much from these improvements. I would petition Ricoh along with other K-1 owners to include improved SAFOX 12 auto focusing algorithms in one of the future K-1 firmware updates. Hell, I would even agree to pay up to $50 to Ricoh for such an update to keep them interested in implementing it.
4. K-1 II's hand-held 'Dynamic' Pixel Shift mode, while nice to have but not very useful in a real life situation. If I really pressed to have a perfect studio or static shot, I would use a tripod and a standard Pixel Shift mode anyway.
5. It is hard to justify $550 price tag for the upgrade to K-1 II. Currently, there is $200 difference between brand new K-1 and K-1 II bodies. Which means that the whole new motherboard with the accelerator unit costs less than $200. At least $350 (a speculative cost of labor) goes to Precision Camera as a middle man. I always try to eliminate / exterminate middlemen like worthless parasites whenever possible. In short, you will save more money just by selling your old K-1 and buying a brand new K-1 II if you really really need it.
Last edited by tax; 09-03-2018 at 04:22 PM.