[hjb981]

The anti-aliasing filter has been removed on the Pentax K-5 II, but only disabled on the Nikon D800E. I am curious as to what the difference is. I can understand what "remove" means, but how does one "disable" an AA filter?

Machine translated quote from an interview with Hiraku Kawauchi, director of public relations for Pentax Ricoh Japan (in this answer discussing the AA filter):
"... There are several cameras that do not have this type of filter, but there are differences. For example, the Nikon D800E has not removed the filter, but it has been disabled. We've completely eliminated. ..."
(Google Translate)

[Not a Number]

Hardware vs software filters?

[Turtle]

Somewhere mentioned that typically an AA filter consists of two layers that split the light twice, once vertically, and once horizontally.
Supposedly the D800E uses two filters, one splits the light and the other converges it, both in the same plane. Essentially cancelling out the blurring effect.

.T

[topace]

Wikipedia links to Rob Galbraith DPI: Announced: Nikon D800 with 36.15 million image pixel sensor, that pretty much says what Turlte just said. I'm thinking no AA filter should be better than disabled AA filter if for no other reason than there being no glass for the light to pass through.

[goubejp]

Here is the principle from the source listed above on the D800E

The birefrigent elements that decompose light to produce an AA filter are rotated to annihilate each other.
Of course suppression these elements is better; recombination may not be perfect, and there are less optical elements to go through

[ironlionzion]

From what I read, if you completely take out the AA filter, you need to adjust some of the components slightly. D800E, as shown above, uses the filter but "disables" it, so no adjustments are needed. Could explain why Pentax is charging 100 dollars more for the K5 iis...it's not as simple as just removing the AA filter.

[Giklab]

Well, the D800e also costs more than the base model. This thread is very interesting, I think this is another example of Pentax doing it better.

[vonBaloney]

It costs more simply because they expect to sell less of them, and they will probably produce less of them. I expect they will push the other one more as the IIs is intended for those informed enough to know they want it and not the default model. For instance, at those magical stores that actually carry Pentax, maybe they'd have the II but you'd have to special order the IIs. I'd get the IIs myself, but I probably wouldn't be getting it for at least a year so who knows what could happen by then...

[ironlionzion]

Selling less doesn't necessitate pricing it higher. It's a complex entanglement on both the demand and supply side. I was just stating the fact that if the iis costs more than the ii, the producers will want to try to charge more. But, on the demand side, people vote with their money. Even if the K-5 ii and the K-5 iis cost exactly the same, if people love the iis more, Pentax has incentive to increase it's price and decrease the price of the ii. It's a complicated mess involving many factors - I was just trying to point out one of them that could somewhat justify the price difference, in a response to people complaining that we are paying more for "less."

[vonBaloney]

Selling less doesn't necessitate pricing it higher. It's a complex entanglement on both the demand and supply side. I was just stating the fact that if the iis costs more than the ii, the producers will want to try to charge more. But, on the demand side, people vote with their money. Even if the K-5 ii and the K-5 iis cost exactly the same, if people love the iis more, Pentax has incentive to increase it's price and decrease the price of the ii. It's a complicated mess involving many factors - I was just trying to point out one of them that could somewhat justify the price difference, in a response to people complaining that we are paying more for "less."

And the prices may well change if the sales patterns are different than they expect. But they've pretty much said outright already that the initial price difference is due to the fact that they expect to sell less of them and because it is more of a specialty product. (Which hints at the fact that they will be making less of them as well.)

[wildweasel]

The D800e uses a 'disabled' filter so the focusing and metering remain accurate. I'm looking forward to getting my D800 later this month - 3D focusing is great.