Re: KAF3 lens mount already here?

[Arnold Stark]

Hi Boz,

I wrote the above as a SPECULATION, and I ask you to treat it as such.  Until this time noone has solid facts, so your guess is as good as mine.

Agreed. :-)

- the *ist is designed from the ground up to be as small and light as possible, and probably as cheap as posible.  I hold it for entirely possible that Pentax removed the aperturecoupling to save weight and size.

From the price announced for the *ist (near that of MZ6 and MZ5N) my 
guess is that there will be one body above the *ist and one body below 
the *ist, and the latter one will be "as cheap as possible".

The only "logical" thought is that with CF 17 = 0 the *ist works like MZ-60 and with CF17 = 1 it works like MZ-50.

It is one logical interpretation. The other one is that nowadays a 
beginner often is not able to work with manual aperture and Pentax cares 
for such people.

- Pentax has released quite a few bodies lately with a crippled mount
- Pentax releases lenses without aperture rings (hence without that aperture coupling) together 
with the *ist, and calls them "perfect match".
Well, it is a perfect match, whether the *ist supports lenses without 
A-setting or not.

The latter source also expressed the expectation that FA-J will be limited to the cheapest price segment.
   

The latter source could not say anthing about a new film body or DSLR a month ago. I would say that this source has simply read the press-releases himself, and repeats what he/she has read.  I am not fully sure if a person in that position knows the technical operation of the mount as well as you and I do...

I believe this source does, and right now this source is presenting the 
*ist and the *ist D at CeBit, so NOW this source should really know 
about the K-mount compatibility of *ist and *ist D - unfortunately the 
statement from this source that I referred to is from February 20th, so 
it might indeed be based on unreliable information rather than on a 
hands-on.

Also, in the process of piecingtogether the KMP I have come across SO MANY wrong and inconsistent writings by Pentax (for items in production, mind you), that I will not be surprised by anything any more.

I agree again.

Let's go to CeBit and put an end to all this speculation!
You are planning to go.  Bring your favorite K-mount lens, and test things out!  CeBit is already running...

I indeed plan to go at the weekend. However, Heiko Hamann might bring 
reliable compatibilty news before that....

Arnold