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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-01-2018, 05:08 AM
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Also from te interview, it becomes clear that they (Pentax) are taking critism seriously, although they do want to stress the advantages of their cameras and lenses. He was very open about critisism on the K1, AF wise and buffer wise. He stressed the need for wider AF point coverage, esp. on FF. He also emphasized the need for faster AF, which is driven by the lens motor choice in new lenses.
So these issues should be improved upon in the next body, be it FF or APSC. The main objections to the KP, battery life, buffer depth, will no doubt be adressed.
Overall, I got the feeling that, although narrowing down the line-up, and slowing the release schedule, the Pentax of now is serious about offering high level equipment.
For the first time, after both interviews, I get the impression they are no longer satisfied being outdated or second best. Perhaps they are now seriously considering if and how they can and should also enter the mirrorless market.
Chris
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-01-2018, 01:45 AM
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Nice to see this interview!
He seems to steer quite a bit between his own view and wishes for Pentax, and the course dictated by the Japanese management, but he does seem well in on what is going on in the company.
He defends the weight of the DFA50/1.4 in style, and in general seems to be aware of a lot of user feedback at Pentax.
Crucial is the part indeed, where he says that the K1, KP, and K70 are getting old, and that something new is needed for the next (anniversary) year.
He is actually the first Pentax guy to (finally!) flat out state in the open (asahiman said it unofficially earlier already) that the KP was and is the intended K3 successor. He also says that Pentax, and he himself for that matter, were not happy with the KP sales, because the KP was a smaller package than some mirrorless options, with built in SR before mirrorless (read: Fuji) had it, and still people would not buy the KP. They clearly expected (much) larger sales with the KP.
(edit: in a weird way, you could say that Pentax' current possible hesitation to bring out a new APSC body next to FF, was brought on by the Pentax user base itself: by refusing to buy the KP which in doing would be legitimizing and funding ongoing APSC support. In my defense: I díd buy a KP, although quickly sold it again and bought a K3II).
So with that out of the way, and no K3 successor, he looks to the future. The K1 was in some ways outdone on technological features, by the KP (is what he says). They don't want the new body to be less than an older model, so if it is going to be an APSC camera, it is going to be better than the K1 in some regards, making people want the new APSC, despite already having the K1, because of some higher performance features.
Summarizing, it seems clear a new body is to arrive next year. If it is an APSC body, it will be a top model. Otherwise, it could also be a new higher performing FF model. He does not clearly state which it will be, but hints at an APSC body. Note that he says "Ich wünsche mich...": "My wish is that....".
He also talks a lot about how a new high performing DFA lens is actually two lenses, eg. 50mm (on FF) ánd 85mm when put on APSC. It appears that that was the reason for going with 50mm first, because a 85mm lens would take them all the way into 135mm on crop. He admits he does not like 50mm himself. So they do seem to take an APSC body seriously as a body for their new high performing lenses. The fast wide prime will most likely be 35mm, he clearly says that a 28mm lens does not need to be very fast.
Given that asahiman clearly stated that "nearly all the development power at the moment is going to full frame, in two classes, and lenses", I would still think it most likely, that the new top body will be FF.
Chris
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