[Bgomez]

The K-01 is not really ugly. It's just on a league of its own. It dares to be different. The mistake that I see Pentax doing in the K-01 is the high pricing for the design.

[abacus07]

K-01 is not ugly, in fact it's better looking than most DSLR IMO. It might look odd if you think that entry level DSLR looks good. K-01 has a mixed retro/futuristic look that is not bad, but at the price Pentax wanted to sell it for it should have included EVF, and then it might have sold much better.

I don't think you can sell a viewfinderless K-mount camera for $500, as K30 don't cost much more, and will probably be even closer in price within a few month. Body only for a entry level K-mount MILC (without EVF) has to be priced something like $300. Which is not much less than entry level DSLR from competition.

I'm not really sure what to think of this. You complain that the K-01 had too much content and then you complain that it doesn't have enough content. You also conveniently pick the high end of the price range that I mention while basically making an argument why there won't be an entry level DSLR below the K30. Entry level is about compromises. I think most would prefer the compromise of a mirrorless and VFless compact camera rather than one that downgraded the sensor. If they want a DSLR there is the K30 which is reasonably priced.

[Fogel70]

I'm not really sure what to think of this. You complain that the K-01 had too much content and then you complain that it doesn't have enough content. You also conveniently pick the high end of the price range that I mention while basically making an argument why there won't be an entry level DSLR below the K30. Entry level is about compromises. I think most would prefer the compromise of a mirrorless and VFless compact camera rather than one that downgraded the sensor. If they want a DSLR there is the K30 which is reasonably priced.

Do you really read what i wrote? I never said K-01 had too much content. The problem with K-01 is that Pentax choose to make it with build quality of something like K5, making it expensive to manufacture so it ended up with too high price.

I also never said there will not be a entry level camera below K-30, but K-01 was never meant to be this. Pentax can make a mirrorless K-mount camera as entry level, but then they have to design it for cheap as possible manufacturing, which is the opposite of K-01. And they also have to make it possible to add-on a cheap EVF. Anyone looking for a compact MILC will not choose K-mount MILC (except maybe existing K-mount users), as they are the largest VF-less APS-C MILC.

I don't think IQ is the most important thing on entry level cameras, and any DSLR released the last 5 years has good enough IQ for this.

[abacus07]

I guess I just disagree that it is similar at all to the K5 aside from using the same 3 yr old sensor. I also think you're speculating that it is expensive to manufacture. The K-30 body only is selling for $600ish and the K-01 has significantly less content (VF, mirror, buttons, dials, size, WR and possibly a few other items).

I also think that you have overdone the VF complaint. It's important to you but you aren't entry level. Most of the entry level buyers are coming from smartphones and P&S's. Very few of the other mirrorless options have VF'ers and that's not stopping everyone from buying the NEX.

The K mount does handicap it from a size perspective but that starts becoming less of a factor once a lens is mounted. Personally I would expect a substantially revamped mirrorless entry level model using the lessons learned from the K-01 instead of a DSLR entry level model.

[Bgomez]

Image Quality is still very important for entry-level DSLRs, at least for me, though I do get the point that a majority of entry-level buyers do not really care much. Since a lot of them might just be upgrading from a digital compact camera with tiny sensors. Upgrading to any bigger sensored camera will still be a big step up.

I have a question though about the K-01. Pentax is selling a non-limited version of their 40mm pancake lens, I was just wondering if that would also be compatible to my K-x.

About the lack of OVFs on DSLRs. For me it's a deal breaker unless of course they priced the K-01 very competitively.

I'd still really want a K-x successor that will kick CaNikon's behinds in terms of features on the entry-level arena.

[IchabodCrane]

Image Quality is still very important for entry-level DSLRs, at least for me, though I do get the point that a majority of entry-level buyers do not really care much. Since a lot of them might just be upgrading from a digital compact camera with tiny sensors. Upgrading to any bigger sensored camera will still be a big step up.

I have a question though about the K-01. Pentax is selling a non-limited version of their 40mm pancake lens, I was just wondering if that would also be compatible to my K-x.

About the lack of OVFs on DSLRs. For me it's a deal breaker unless of course they priced the K-01 very competitively.

I'd still really want a K-x successor that will kick CaNikon's behinds in terms of features on the entry-level arena.

If IQ is still quite important to the entry level DSLR buyer then Pentax needs a better JPEG engine as those users are the ones least likely to shoot in RAW.

[Bgomez]

If IQ is still quite important to the entry level DSLR buyer then Pentax needs a better JPEG engine

I agree with this. Jpegs on my K-x are less than stellar. That's why I only shoot it in DNG.

[ihasa]

In the UK the K30 is selling for less than the Kr used to cost. I can't see how they'd slot an entry model below that, unless it was a barebones ultra-cheap mirrorless.