It's been a while since the last release for the Pentax 645 system, and there are rumors that the competition from Fujifilm and Hasselblad made Pentax put the development on hold.
Regardless of whether the rumors have truth in them, it's certainly a tough situation for Pentax, which has three different formats to maintain, while being the smallest player. It is certainly wise to at least specialize each product line in a different area of photography, to at least avoid too much internal competition.
The release of K-3 III seems to indicate that Pentax tries to specialize their aps-c system in mostly hand-held action shooting in available light.
K-1 and K-1 II are essentially field and studio cameras. It's difficult to say if this approach will be maintained in future releases, but assuming the rumor about next Pentax FF being built around Sigma fp L sensor is true, we shouldn't expect 60 MPix camera to have fast FPS and buffer clearing.
Where does that leave the 645 line?
Obviously, we could treat in the same way as FF line, just with bigger files. Not sure if that's the way to go though, with most FF high res cameras being almost competitive with cropped 645 in terms of IQ, while beating it in all other respects. It's not like 100 Mpix sensors will enter the FF realm anytime soon, but is MF just about the number of megapixels?
There's this idea about Pentax taking advantage of the legacy mount and developing the system around a bigger sensor size - full format 645. Entering the realm of Phase One and Hasselblad H. However, it's difficult to say how viable this route is for such a small player with limited (no pun intended) means.
A more economically viable option is to find a partner. It is though a bit difficult to find one for development of legacy technology, and going mirrorless with MF is kinda against the whole principles of Pentax thing.
However, it's not like this sort of partnership has to be like L-mount alliance. It can be on a different level. For example, I have been thinking about Sigma. Sigma is mostly known for their lenses, but they also make cameras... and sensors. Sigma owns the Foveon technology and are currently developing their first FF camera with such sensor. Foveon is known for the way better color reproduction than Bayer sensors, but also way worse noise, which is probably the main reason why only Sigma puts this tech in their cameras. Well, this is where Pentax could fit in. It has experience dealing with noise with dedicated hardware (Accelerator Unit). I think Foveon sensor combined with Pentax expertise could overcome the main limitations of the technology to major degree. In return, Pentax could get the sensor and put it into their cropped 645, getting the ultimate IQ and distinguishing themselves from the medium format crowd.
We could maybe also get some Sigma rebadged lenses for other formats while we're at it
However, it is just a pure speculation on my part.
How about you folks? Where would you like to see Pentax heading with their 645 system?