Originally posted by biz-engineer Top wheels are pretty useless, on previous DSLR (K-3 and earlier), the front and back wheel already can do the same functions. Those two wheels added on the top are just a marketing gimmick because there are already two wheels at the back and front like it is on the K-3, and if you look at video show casing the K-1, those top wheel are barely used at all. My guess is that those two top wheels will be gone on the next camera model, and that the fancy tilt display will also be replaced by a normal tilt display. It's not because a product is different that it is better, differences should bring an advantage, instead of making the design more complex without benefit.
I suspect I will use the Crop position quite a bit. Just as I often want to be able to zoom a lens rapidly as the subject changes in front of me, so I like the idea of being able to (sort of) zoom the camera rapidly for the same reason.
I like the idea of have a full range of angles, for example from the wide (but with low burst rate) "150mm in FF mode" to the narrow (with higher burst rate and smaller raw file size) "450mm in APS-C mode".
I also like the idea of the CH/CL position, switching rapidly between single and continuous shooting. This gives a hint about why I think I will like this feature: I do a lot of action photography, where I want to be able to adapt the camera to a rapidly changing subject.
(Nowadays I don't use spectacles while shooting. Therefore I can barely read the LCD panel on the top. But I'm sure I will be able to read the letters on the Smart Function dial, just as I can read those on the Mode dial in order to set User Modes. The combination of those two dials should be very useful to me).