Mirrorless rumours

[bfitzgerald]

I tip my hat to Pentax on this one 100% Prism VF, dual dials and most of what you want (they don't have a DOF preview button I don't think you can assign that to the green button which limits it's use)
Prices look ok, not sure they needed 2 bodies.

I like what I see, but..
Marketing wise Pentax don't really need yet another 16mp DSLR, and sadly marketing talks here. Nikon will sell a load of D3200's, with tiny poor viewfinders, cut down feature set (esp flash) and not that great handling (lack of dedicated controls WB etc) just on the 24mp alone. I don't agree with it, but that's how thing pan out.
So I don't see this making much difference for Pentax.

The other problem with Pentax is the lens range, prices have gone up a lot (more than anyone else), yes some nice lenses..but they lack affordable fast primes (which even Sony have) Note how well the new Canon 40mm f2.8 pancake is selling at £150 flying off the shelves even with the nasty focus by wire. Pentax 40mm f2.8 yes nice build (metal) costs £350 odd. Pentax 21mm f3.2 a slow lens and costing £420.

They had a bash at more affordable primes with the 35mm f2.4, but it's 3/4 of a stop slower than the f1.8 ones. They did a 50mm f1.8 that nobody seems to stock, priced at just under £200 which is pretty high for a budget prime. 70mm f2.4 over £500 and again slower than the normal lenses from Canikon at f1.8 (85mm)

I'm just not convinced on the lens range, and forget about ebay AF bargains Pentax have very few lenses compared to the many Minolta ones out there for good prices (most of them) I'd love to see Sony copy them body wise I think they should, but this isn't going to make much difference to Pentax overall. I still find it hard to recommend anyone look at Pentax based on my own experiences with the company...I doubt I will look at them again.

Bottom line is you can build a system hitting ebay and buying up some decent Minolta stuff for a near song price wise. You just can't do that with Pentax, and IMO you can't do it as well with Canikon either.

[classiccameras]

Hi Barry
Whils't I aggree with your critisisms in most part of the Pentax system and their lens price/selection, there are some very good primes and zooms from people like Tamron, Sigma and Tokina.
[ When I had a KR, it was fitted with a Tammy 17-50 non VC and I got superb results, I never used the kit lens ]. The independants may not be as cheap as Sony's counterparts but are still high quality and better built in most cases and can be found on EBay.
Agreed, Pentax legacy lenses are pretty much non existant, although my local dealer has a few Primes in the window. Nikon are in the same boat to a point as none of their legacy AF lenses will work on DX. Big mistake by Nikon, although I can see their motive. I often ask myself, just how many lenses do I really need?
Truth is, not many at all if I was to be honest.
Your right more pixels sell more cameras, but I can see where Pentax are coming from with 16mp, plus its a Sony sensor which is a bonus. Pentax body ergonomics and design is refreshingly nice to hold and operate compared to other makes.
I must admit that we Sony users are some what spoilt with the Minolta legacy which is what attracted me to the brand in the first place, much more so than camera reviews.

[bfitzgerald]

Pentax are easy to use that's a fair comment, though on these bodies the green button is less useful as there is no DOF preview button. A few niggles like no sensor near the VF to turn off the rear LCD (turns off on half press of shutter) that used to bug me a bit. Bar that they look decent enough esp viewfinder wise.
The Tamron 17-50mm is a must have for Pentax, the problem is you go looking for a bargain 50mm f1.7 and you don't find it! You look for a fast 35mm f1.8 and it's not there either. Then you start thinking about those bargain priced classics like the beercan, 35-70mm f4, 100-200mm f4.5, a a decent 100-300mm APO for not a huge outlay.

Those lenses are just not there on K mount.
You will find some decent enough manual focus lenses around, but then you have to goof around with stop down metering with K mount
IMO unless someone has a serious collection of K mount stuff, or needs the WR aspect, I'd pass.

Much as I like the good VF decent spec mid level bodies, I'd love to see Sony do that but they won't. The system is important, and I know why folks run to Canon you can get anything you want.