You should never go full retro right? Wrong.
Fuji have launched a range of cameras with shutter dials, aperture rings, iso dials, EC dials, and folks just dig them. I don't know anyone that doesn't. For me at least, they look awesome, they feel natural and you always know what your camera is thinking - so photography is easier. Not quite so with the all electronic, two stepped interface we are used to. By two stepped I mean, you are a control step further back from the raw control that real retro cameras give you.
I mean look at the X100 series, look at the XT-1, the X-pro 1 etc. They're so damn right. And that's why people are buying them in droves. Ok, the Nikon Df, was off mark, silly mistake - due to trying to integrate too much automation within retro styling. Hence, too many design conflicts.
So, with the KP, which seems to have a lot of folks scratching heads saying, where does it sit? Is it a K-3 ii replacement? No, it can't be, etc. I think it would have made a lot of sense if Pentax had made this FULL RETRO, with some real top level controls (by top level I mean direct, one level of input) a la Fujifilm and then we would have had a winner.
As it is, it seems to exist in parallel, the frankenstein offspring of a K-70 and a K-3ii with K-1 styling cues. Duh-what? Why? If you are going to launch a new product it has to be something new for people to want it. At least, new enough. And here, well, maybe a better IBIS is nice, and maybe nice to have wifi, but this doesn't seem to be nearly new enough to sway me away from the already excellent K-3 ii or K-70 which kind of do the same thing, almost exactly. If these were cars, this would be like a choice between heated seats and electric windows. Not a choice between the automatic and the manual - when the manual is what we were really after!!
Doh, Pentax, you could have done it so well. Gotta go full retro.
Last edited by plooksta; 01-27-2017 at 04:27 PM.