johnvanr wrote:
I don’t think Ricoh ever really tried and the move to mirrorless was where their lack of R&D effort forced them to either commit or potentially sink.
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The Ricoh GXR body and five sensor/lens modules, plus a APS-C Leica M mount unit, was a worthy mirrorless move, and well respected.
Upon the purchase of Pentax this system died; to this day, I consider this pivot a massive strategic mistake.
FrozenInTime wrote:
The Ricoh GXR body and five sensor/lens modules, plus a APS-C Leica M mount unit, was a worthy mirrorless move, and well respected.
Upon the purchase of Pentax this system died; to this day, I consider this pivot a massive strategic mistake.
Most of my Pentax 35mm experience is 20-25 years ago. I was given a bunch of K1000s spotmatics and lenses, and to sell them I had to test them. I thought they were well made and of good quality. Recently, I got back into medium format film and digital and Pentax was an obvious choice Sharing lenses in the 645 system etc. I'm impressed with the 645, 645N, and the 645Z. I even bought a rather sophisticated PC-555 data point and shoot for $11, because I wanted it's case. It has excellent auto focus and auto exposure - a true point and shoot. It would be a loss if they gave up, and I hope there is some new direction they intend to go.
James Markus wrote:
Most of my Pentax 35mm experience is 20-25 years ago. I was given a bunch of K1000s spotmatics and lenses, and to sell them I had to test them. I thought they were well made and of good quality. Recently, I got back into medium format film and digital and Pentax was an obvious choice Sharing lenses in the 645 system etc. I'm impressed with the 645, 645N, and the 645Z. I even bought a rather sophisticated PC-555 data point and shoot for $11, because I wanted it's case. It has excellent auto focus and auto exposure - a true point and shoot. It would be a loss if they gave up, and I hope there is some new direction they intend to go. ...Show more →
I feel Pentax peaked with the MX, PK then LX, PKA; the introduction of AF set 35mm build quality back for many years before the limited lenses appeared; the 645 series remained impressive to the end.
FrozenInTime wrote:
I feel Pentax peaked with the MX, PK then LX, PKA; the introduction of AF set 35mm build quality back for many years before the limited lenses appeared; the 645 series remained impressive to the end.
AF brought about the "streamlined, plastic, modular body look" that ruined the aesthetics of their classic cameras.
If Pentax were to release a full frame, manual focus MX that can be used with its manual focus K mount lenses; and produce it with ZERO video features, it would be a hit!
The "content creator crowd" has plenty of plastic hybrids to choose from, so Pentax needs to be different. Pentax has the technology to create a digital, full frame MX. It would compete with Leica if they did this.
snegron7 wrote:
AF brought about the "streamlined, plastic, modular body look" that ruined the aesthetics of their classic cameras.
If Pentax were to release a full frame, manual focus MX that can be used with its manual focus K mount lenses; and produce it with ZERO video features, it would be a hit!
The "content creator crowd" has plenty of plastic hybrids to choose from, so Pentax needs to be different. Pentax has the technology to create a digital, full frame MX. It would compete with Leica if they did this.
I think the MX is too small to make a full frame DSLR the same size. But K2 / LX / Spotmatic size could work. Likely it would be a bit deeper though because of the rear LCD assembly - more like the digital KP but with a bigger viewfinder.
Not sure it should be manual focus only. The Limited lenses have a strong reputation after all.. but I agree it needs to offer a great manual focus experience and imo they should release a few manual focus Super Takumars with it.
