[pathdoc]

This is not to say that I wouldn't shoot a 'digitalised' film body (e.g. a retro thing with the externals of an MX, no rear screen, even manual shutter recocking); I would. But I would most definitely still want a full-featured digital body for professional work (my medical photography), because I need to be sure before I cut something to ribbons for analysis that it has been photographed adequately. Give it another ten years and I think we will have our "drop-in digital replacement for film", and then ALL my film bodies will be be getting almost constant (recreational) use.

[GeneV]

I'm actually all for putting the additional knobs, buttons and dials on the bodies, and I think the K1 is a nice improvement. Menus are the bane of setting anything in a hurry. I just started using a Nissin flash with big dials instead of touch screens. Life is so much easier.

[Tony Belding]

The camera interface evolved for a reason - and that wasn't to make our life difficult
The MZ-5n's shutter speed dial has a limited range of settings: B and 2 to 1/2000 seconds, in one stop intervals. The K-1 allows from 30 to 1/8000 seconds, in 1/2 or 1/3 stops intervals. You just cannot write that on a dial. The Fujifilm X-T1 is similarly crippled (except that it has an Auto setting).
We shouldn't regress to ox carts just because they feel so nostalgic, and "God intended" us to use a bridle and not a steering wheel.

If the X-T1 was "crippled" and regressed to the level of ox carts, I don't think it would have been such a big success for Fujifilm or won so much praise and awards. When I was using one, I didn't run into any difficulties. I liked it.

I liked it better than the P / AUTO / SCN / A-HDR / U1 / U2 / B / M / TAv / Av / Tv / Sv dial that spends 95% of its time on P anyhow.

[Kunzite]

Fujifilm cameras' popularity is based on hype, not on a well designed interface.
And yeah, I guess I'm exaggerating - just a little, nothing like the idea of God creating us just so we'll use aperture rings

[Greenneck]

Making the K1 cheaper, tis all I request.

[kenspo]

Making the K1 cheaper, tis all I request.

So they shouldn't make any money to use for making new cameras in the future?

[Reed]

Ricoh should get their "money maker" lenses updated as soon as possible to PLM/DC,electronic apreture and HD coatings- DA50/DA35, those two along with 55-300 are probably best selling products they have in dslr line. With all current models supporting plm drive and electronic apreture, it is time to do that move.

[pathdoc]

Ricoh should get their "money maker" lenses updated as soon as possible to PLM/DC,electronic apreture and HD coatings- DA50/DA35, those two along with 55-300 are probably best selling products they have in dslr line. With all current models supporting plm drive and electronic apreture, it is time to do that move.

No. Not until the PLM aperture drive has had a few years in the field to let the potential bugs get sorted out. The first order of business is to put the PLM system into a wide-normal consumer DA prime (say, a 17 or 18-55/4.0) and give the K-30 or K-50 user something to fall back on if their aperture block dies.

In addition, the Limited primes do not need any more gadgetry stuffed inside their shells than is already there. Their strong suits are image quality and COMPACTNESS, and the latter would be ruined by ramming a DC motor and aperture control system inside.

That being said, we do need a modern D-FA fifty to go on the K-1; if you want to propose an HD D-FA 50mm f/1.4 DC WR PLM lens as a replacement for the venerable FA and even the DA*55/1.4, by all means. But the decent thing to do is to ensure that the K-30 and the K-5 series have the PLM firmware fix first; if the K-50 has it, they should too.

[Reed]

I never said about limited's enhancement above Allready we have announced D-FA primes- and thats a good thing. BUT what run the sales are kit lenses sold with camera and cheap aps-c consumer grade lenses(primes and zooms). I can assure you from my own experience, when I was working in online camera store- that for every nikon/canon 50/1.4 there was around twenty 50/1.8's sold. Decision to use 18-50wr dc lens as kit with k-s2 was one of best moves from Ricoh. No one new to dslr today wants a loud af lens. PLM and auto apreture mechanism in my opinion gain from Tamron collaboration. They started to use that allong with their "piezo" drive lenses some 3 years back from now.

[pathdoc]

No one new to dslr today wants a loud af lens.

Loud AF - Loud auto focus, or loud as... ??

Sort of works both ways.

The trouble with going all-DC, all-PLM is that you force users of older bodies to replace them in order to gain the optical benefits of the newer lenses, and one of Pentax's strengths is its legacy support in both directions. It's bad enough that my *istDS can't take full advantage of the 18-135, which in some ways is the ideal walkaround lens for it (but it can't drive the AF); being stuck not only with manual focus but also wide-open aperture full time would be a pain (and sometimes I deliberately select the *istDS for the colour rendition its sensor provides and its analogue TTL capability, something NO Pentax camera with SDM/DC capability can provide).

[Reed]

Loud screw drive AF. In newer Pentqx dslr's its even louder than before(for example k-s2 vs k-30),higher pitched becouse of greater torque. Backward compatibility is great feature, but nobody should look backward if it stops you from improvement. Nikon and Canon most constantly updated lenses are kit zooms.The reason for Canon not updating 50/1.8II was overproduction, they had to sell all the stock left to give it a good update for STM.It literally doubled the sales of that lens. My point is that it will not hurt any current user of older models, but will provide a new customer a greater choice.

[Kunzite]

No. Not until the PLM aperture drive has had a few years in the field to let the potential bugs get sorted out. The first order of business is to put the PLM system into a wide-normal consumer DA prime (say, a 17 or 18-55/4.0) and give the K-30 or K-50 user something to fall back on if their aperture block dies.

In addition, the Limited primes do not need any more gadgetry stuffed inside their shells than is already there. Their strong suits are image quality and COMPACTNESS, and the latter would be ruined by ramming a DC motor and aperture control system inside.

That being said, we do need a modern D-FA fifty to go on the K-1; if you want to propose an HD D-FA 50mm f/1.4 DC WR PLM lens as a replacement for the venerable FA and even the DA*55/1.4, by all means. But the decent thing to do is to ensure that the K-30 and the K-5 series have the PLM firmware fix first; if the K-50 has it, they should too.

I agree with the basic idea of being wary of adopting untested technologies, but can they afford to wait too much? You say "a few years", I'd say "as soon as they're confident it's working". Hopefully that means 2017

I think Pentax should generally do away with both screw drive AF and mechanically linked apertures. The ideal D FA Limited, for me, would have in-lens motors and be WR; it should still be quite compact due to a smaller than f/1.4 aperture. For non-Limited lenses, I see no reason for still using the in-lens AF motor.

As we go back in time, to older and older cameras, the probability of users buying relatively expensive lenses decreases. I'd be pleasantly surprised if the K-5II series will benefit from a KAF4 upgrade, too - as it's the first Ricoh Pentax K-mount flagship.
Besides, the old camera users could get the old lenses, if they didn't already. We shouldn't set artificial limits on progress based on cameras launched a decade ago.

[Greenneck]

So they shouldn't make any money to use for making new cameras in the future?

Where did I say that?

[kenspo]

Where did I say that?

You wanted the K-1 to become even more cheap. Price already pushed to the limit.

[Rondec]

If the X-T1 was "crippled" and regressed to the level of ox carts, I don't think it would have been such a big success for Fujifilm or won so much praise and awards. When I was using one, I didn't run into any difficulties. I liked it.

I liked it better than the P / AUTO / SCN / A-HDR / U1 / U2 / B / M / TAv / Av / Tv / Sv dial that spends 95% of its time on P anyhow.

I guess I don't see the problem. 90 percent of photographers probably shoot in either (P)rogram mode or Av (aperture priority) mode. It takes two minutes to look into the manual or on line to figure out what the various positions on the dial do and if you don't choose to use them, it certainly doesn't hurt you to have them on the camera.

On the other hand, a camera like the K-1 has basically all of its features accessible easily without menu diving. Things like turning image stabilization on or off, pixel shift, iso setting can all be done with a simple spin of the dial. Is it complex? A little bit, but it builds on previous interfaces that actually work quite well.

I don't know how successful Fuji has really been. Praise online is a little different from camera sales.

Be that as it may, Pentax has room for improvement in many areas, but I wouldn't think that ergonomics and accessibility of features is one of them.