[kadajawi]

Wishlist? Rebadge the Samsung NX-1. Samsung has finally surpassed Pentax by so much that I don't think Pentax can ever catch up. They aren't even competing. This is getting ridiculous.

[richandfleur]

Wishlist? Rebadge the Samsung NX-1. Samsung has finally surpassed Pentax by so much that I don't think Pentax can ever catch up. They aren't even competing. This is getting ridiculous.

Yeah I read about that this morning also. 4k and an intermediate size also, which would be great for cropping/repositioning within the frame etc. Presently with 1080p you have to be incredibly precise with your framing, unless you're looking to output to 720p.


I'm decided now that I'm not going to stay with Pentax for video. I've given up on them having a clue about it and am not going to lose any more sleep hoping Pentax would release a firmware to make use of the great hardware they already have available to play with. ie focus peaking, higher bitrates or less lossy compression formats/codecs, mechanical stabilisation that doesn't warp the image to sht.


I'll be staying with Pentax for stills and non complex video, such as on a tripod, no stabilisation required.


The funny thing for me though is that Pentax users have spent an age defending ourselves against Nikon and Canon, but nowadays they're all on relatively the same playing field. I'm not looking to any of the traditional DSLR manufacturers for a video replacement as they're all much of an mediocre muchness. Presently, for the type of shooting I do, I'm looking at Sony, probably the A6000 (if it gets the XAVC upgrade) or the A5100. These guys have APS-C sensors and can take a focal reducer adapter, and they're pretty small with flip out screens, but still have fairly sizeable batteries.


As always, if Pentax, I mean Ricoh, produced anything like this themselves then I'd stay, but they don't and don't seem to be looking that way also. Of late I've been quite disillusioned with their product development focus, but I'm coming to grips with the fact that I'm not their target market, ie Asian. That new LED in the hand grip model K-S1, the random bridge camera XG-1 (actually Kodak AZ522) and the new Action camera WG-M1 (actually Kodak PIXPRO SP1); Nothing here targets what I'm after personally, nor installs any belief that Pentax are heading in the right direction for video. The above development line might suit others perfectly and that's fine too.

[kadajawi]

The K-S1 is interesting from a design standpoint, and the LEDs can help, but what use is it if it loses the WR and doesn't improve on video?

Rebadging cameras in areas that won't be selling well anyway is fine IMHO.

I wonder what they are doing though. The K-S1 couldn't have cost them much work to develop, and that's all they released. What the hell are they working on?

I'd much rather have the A7s. A friend owns one, and the footage looks good. And of course the OM-D E-M1 and the Samsung NX-1. And that new Panasonic phone.

[TomGarn]

[...] As always, if Pentax, I mean Ricoh, produced anything like this themselves then I'd stay, but they don't and don't seem to be looking that way also. Of late I've been quite disillusioned with their product development focus, but I'm coming to grips with the fact that I'm not their target market, ie Asian. That new LED in the hand grip model K-S1, the random bridge camera XG-1 (actually Kodak AZ522) and the new Action camera WG-M1 (actually Kodak PIXPRO SP1); Nothing here targets what I'm after personally, nor installs any belief that Pentax are heading in the right direction for video. The above development line might suit others perfectly and that's fine too [...]

Very very well summed up - with full awareness for many years - as if it was my own .... richandfleur !
Ricoh/Pentax wants to go somewhere else ... for new customers and with some old photographers. We have seen
this through saddened eyes since Pentax K20D - and they just played around - a little - with our hopes for more
Final cuts in the heart do say again and again: Go - leave - search for other realms and new love affairs ...

[PiDicus Rex]

the random bridge camera XG-1 (actually Kodak AZ522) and the new Action camera WG-M1 (actually Kodak PIXPRO SP1)

Given Kodak is little more then a Branding exercise by it's owners now, have you ever considered that those models might be manufactured in bulk by Ricoh/Pentax for Kodak, and not the other way around?
Those bulk unit sales could be what's financing other developments of future products.

I see so much whining about the way the K-S1 looks, but if it brings sales volume to Ricoh/Pentax then it's a good camera, regardless of whether it has features that appeal to me.

[richandfleur]

Given Kodak is little more then a Branding exercise by it's owners now, have you ever considered that those models might be manufactured in bulk by Ricoh/Pentax for Kodak, and not the other way around?
Those bulk unit sales could be what's financing other developments of future products.

I see so much whining about the way the K-S1 looks, but if it brings sales volume to Ricoh/Pentax then it's a good camera, regardless of whether it has features that appeal to me.

Very good point PiDicus Rex. No, I hadn't considered that but it's an interesting angle.


IF it brings sales is the main part. Agree, raising some cash to fund better stuff is all good. My concern would be that these releases are in fact tying up development engineers and in fact not making much money, if at all. Will be interesting to see the sales figures on the items mentioned earlier.


We've discussed this before, but video wise Pentax already have the hardware in place and are being let down by the software side of things. Be that codecs or how they enable stabilisation etc. I've just had enough of waiting and am going to another APS-C platform that has video sorted.

I'd be happy with the DSLR sized unit as Pentax bodies aren't really that big anyway. I wanted an all in one for photos and videos but Pentax hasn't produced a video offering to match their stills capabilities. I would like a flippy outty screen also for video work. One day maybe Pentax will offer something, but for now I'll buy another product just for video. I'm not dropping the Pentax for stills at all, as I still think they're at the forefront of where I want a stills camera to be presently.

[TomGarn]

see minute 08:40 ....

You Tube

You Tube

[richandfleur]

Thanks man, that rather seals the deal elsewhere for me. Cheers.

[TomGarn]

........ stranded on the beaches of Ricoh ~ ~ ~
and: "sometimes I feel like a motherless child" ...

I got two Pentaxes K-5 and still have my old Optio A40 for walks & stuff ...(and a very old good Optio 450.
Right now I am selling my old Pentax K10D with a cheep 'try and error' F35-80 ...

I started with an Optio 330 once ... 2001 ... Now the good bye song is known for a while ...but as the saying goes:
"Those declared dead soon, usually live quite some time longer ..."

[PiDicus Rex]

Yes, same interview is VERY disappointing - I don't think they realise just how important Video is to any future model - look how much stick Nikon wore for their Stills Only model....

Maybe the decision makers should spend more time reading the posts here then just thanking the Pentax owners for being nice to new customers.

And if they are reading these posts, I'm still available to be hired to guide their Video development pathway.

[TomGarn]

In my case I dream on with my future-plans to make money even with my two Pentax K-5
If I ever succeed I will change the company ... and sell my Pentax stuff ... Promised !

Before that may eventually happen I am part of a sad fanatic but goodwilling sect of Pentax-Video-Pro-Dreamers
who desperately try to reach enlightenment to finally jump out of the cycle of rebirth in the body of another Pentax.

This is just one of those problems of poverty-stricken humans who can't afford to be walking on the sunny side of the street
And there is no other choice but emergency-feeding for us beggars of an old religious dream that we may wake up one day.

[JohnnyXD]

I think the best thing to do is buying a micro 4/3 with good video and mechanical estabilization. We would be able to use our pentax lenses.

[richandfleur]

Beering that video in mind I think anyone staying with pentax for video work shot have their photo taken to be hung on Ricoh's wall as the perfect consumer. They don't see it as an area of interest and they don't think anything is broken with their current stabilisation offering.

Olympus seems ideal from a stabisation point of view, but I believe they are limited to 30fps only at 1080p and i don't know how high their bitrates and codec choices go.

Panasonic and sony offer non stabilised sensors but better encoding abities. Sony offers APS-C sized sensors and most mirrorless cameras have no issues using pentax lenses.

There are several options but no one unit that does it all yet. Ie sensor stabilisation, APS-C sensor, weather sealed and with high quality 1080p 24fps and above. 4k or 2.5k would be a bit of a bonus also.

[kadajawi]

Sony also offers FF with a no-light capable sensor. And then there is Samsung, who also does APS-C with the best encoding capability, a seemingly great sensor, etc.


Sony _might_ offer the Olympus 5-axis stabilizer, at least that's what I heard, and one of the other Panasonics has a stabilizer too, but not enabled for video (AFAIK).


I think combining great video AND a stabilizer might be difficult though. Sensors heat up, especially if you want stuff like full sensor readout etc., so you'd need to add some sort of cooling to the sensor, but then it's too heavy to stabilize perhaps... or at least it won't work as good. Maybe a fan that blows air around in the camera?

[Steve.Ledger]

We always want better don't we? Always looking over the fence and wishing this or that was different or improved. That's life I guess. Being satisfied is much harder than hoping for improvements.
So I'll stop looking at other brands and what they are achieving, it's depressing because the only way I can afford to jump ship right now is to sell all my Pentax stuff which [a] I'd lose money on and [b] I'm sure to regret losing some of it.
So my only option is to conclude that what I have [now] is the best that is available to me.