On Feb 25, 2006, at 9:50 AM, DagT wrote:
Things I appreciate in the current Pentax DSLRs are the use of SD
cards and
AA batteries. I admire Pentax opted for AA batteries without
forcing the
users to buy expensive proprietary Li-Ion cells (and it's
convenient of
course).
Can anyone predict what's going to happen on the battery of the
next 10mp
DSLR ? Any expert on this?
- I don't find anything wrong with the supposedly "expensive
proprietary" Li-Ion batteries in my Canon, Konica Minolta, Panasonic
and Sony cameras. They work extremely well, extremely efficiently.
Third party alternatives with the same or better performance as the
originals are available for 1/6 to 1/2 the price, depending upon the
battery. My two spare batteries for the Canon 10D cost me $9 apiece,
the one for the Sony cost me $20. The real advantage is ease of use
(no fumbling with multiple cells and orientation) and very long,
reliable shelf life without having to maintain them much like I do
with the NiHi rechargeable AAs. The Sony in particular uses an "Info-
Lithium" battery which is used by about a bazillion camcorders so
they're everywhere batteries are available. This battery has logic in
it to report its charge state, so the camera also has superbly
accurate status information read out in the viewfinder, something
which is impossible to achieve with standard AA cells.
- That said, the CRV3 and AA cells in the Pentax work just fine. I've
never had an "in the field" emergency with any of my cameras ...
that's what a couple of spares and an automotive compatible charger
are around to take care of ... so the fact that they are the most
easily found batteries is pretty much irrelevant. They also have
enough power to handle a lot of exposures without any worries, should
easily power the new camera without any problems.
I doubt that Pentax will change this particular aspect of the design
as I don't see any particular reason for them to do so.
They might go back to CF cards though.
I'd bet on CF cards, as the D used them as well, and while you can
get a SD->CF adaptor, the reverse is not true.
With 8 GB of CF cards I hope you are right...
I have 5 Gbytes of SD and 8 Gbytes of CF storage cards, an SD->CF
adapter. And a 40G storage tank that has slots to take either
directly. I think I'm set. ;-)
Ideally, they'll put both slots in the camera. But it's not
important. I doubt they'll go to something dumb, like a different
card format.
Godfrey
