Originally posted by Papa_Joe The istD* and the ist DL both had an additional photocell build in. Thus a camera with the old TTL mode is more complicated to built without any real advantage for Pentax. P-TTL (or however they called it) was implemented by all the competitors and sold as a new feature, better then the old TTL. So why should Pentax built a camera with something that only is usefull with old flashes (they want to sell new ones I guess), has been seen as an outdated technoloy on the market from start on and makes building the camera more comlicated and expensive?
It is not a question of use with old flashes, TTL is better for some applications regardless of age of flash, specifically wildlife, aside from that, it is not just a question of working with old flashes, it is a question of also working with legacy Pentax lenses and teleconverters because the camera cannot correct exposure for when a teleconverter is used, unless the teleconverter corrects for aperture, the Pentax DA 1.4x does this but it is a cropped sensor only TC, not full frame and is recently released only, we have gone years with cameras that do not or did not support the commercially available products to be used with their cameras.
The fact is, it is not a question of an outdated product, it is a question of cost only, because they use the cameras open aperture metering sensors to perform both functions. But it is a cost of what? A few dollars. What was the cost of the K1 MKII. Several thousand dollars. I can see it not being used in. Consumer bodies like the K70 , but for flagship products???