On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 23:00:08 -0000, John Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 08:51:21AM +1000, Rob Studdert wrote:
On 28 Feb 2006 at 13:11, John Francis wrote:
> Hmm. So if the power contacts come back, presumably we would
> get at least one more digital signal pin to control the in-lens
> features (including, but not necessarily limited to, USM motors).
The two pins could easily deliver power and I/O
> Additionally both the new body and the new lenses would have to
> include the old AF system as well, or we lose compatibility.
I don't know why they didn't just dump the mount with the first digital
body
rather than lead us on like they have. It's now obvious what direction
they are
heading and compatibility with older lenses isn't high on their agenda.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some people are just pissed that their 25-year-old
lenses need a whole extra press of a button to work on the new cameras.
Nobody has been "leading you on", except perhaps a few people here who
still cling to the belief (or, IMO, delusion) that Pentax would decide
to re-introduce a mechanical aperture sensor, or go back to aperture
rings on lenses.
I wouldn't be totally surprised to find that the new lenses don't even
use a mechanical aperture actuator, but have in-lens motors for that.
But, unlike you, I beleve that Pentax *do* have backwards compatibility
fairly high on their agenda, and I expect pretty much what we have now;
F and FA lenses work for everything, and A lenses work in manual focus.
You'll have to leave the lenses in the "A" setting, of course, and use
the aperture setting control on the body. But I expect there to be a
mechanical aperture actuator for those old lenses, even if the new ones
use a totally-electronic mount. As for those older lenses - there's a
green button on the new body, and I expect it to work just like the D.
If, as anticipated, the new body does include shake reduction, then I
even expect there will be some way to use that with "A" lenses.
Let's face it - if Pentax don't have decent compatibility with their
old lenses, then why would anybody buy their new high-end camera,
instead of a D200 (or a 30D)? The same argument goes, to a lesser
extent,for new lenses - if the forthcoming DA f2.8 zooms don't work
on my 'D (or DS, or DL ...) they look less attractive to me.
With the announcement of the new body, and a lens roadmap that shows
those new f2.8 zooms arriving shortly afterwards, I feel a lot more
confident about Pentax now than I did three months ago.
Quite so. And from the look of it, the new D seems to have just about
everything that people asked for in the questionnaire that Don produced.
John
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
