Originally posted by slip Just wondering what people think about Pentax's destination to be the smallest in most of the DSLR category.
Is it just because they think that is what people want? has it just been a tradition?
I picked up a K5 not long ago and thought it was a bit small for my hands (which are not that big) and preferred the bigger size of my k10 body
thought?
right direction?
any opinions welcomed
cheers
In some respects I refer to it as the "M disease" which began in the late 1970's and early 1980's with the introduction of the M series cameras. There was feirce competition between pentax specifically and Olympus with the OM10 as to who could claim rights to the smallest SLR
WHile my assessment is perhaps unfair, as obsessing with small can lead to innovarion, and whenm you compare the size of lenses especially from canikon today, relitive to the limiteds, there is some good that comes from it, but at some point things can go a little too far. for me, the *istD was just a little too small for my hands, I liked the size of the K10D better. While smaller than the K10D, I find the ergonomics of the K5/7 much better than the origonal *istD, and therefore size does not bother me.
WHere small does get me a little, is in the limits it imposes on maximum aperture. in the transition from K-M series lenses, we lost some significant lenses.
specifically,
- the 500/4.5 disappeared totally
- the fastest 50mm went from 1.2 to 1.4
- the 85mm went from 1.8 to 2
- the 135F2.5 disappeared
- the 200 F2.5 disappeared
- oddly enough the 150 went from F4 to F3.5
what was good however was the size reduction of the 300F4 and 400F5.6 both of which in the M series are better than the K series.
If you look at today's line up, you will see that many of the fast lenses made in the K and A series simply don't exist, and much of the line up has been shiftred to be equivelents of longer film lenses (i.e. reduced focal length to consider the crop factor)
Newer lenses are slow, perhaps in fairness they are all that is needed for most shooters, until, that is you want narrow DOF. then you are stuck purchasing either legacy lenses, or AF sigma or MF samyang or zeiss lenses.