Overall I agree with what Peter is saying (and have always felt this way since the introduction of the *ist D)... that is, when FF sensors become economical enough to be mainstream, Pentax must make a FF body or be regarded as a 2nd rate toy camera manufacturer. The Hyundai or Kia of the camera world as opposed to the Lexus, Infiniti, Acura.
While a 645D would enhance their image (the company's) it would not be as big of a seller as a 35mm sized FF body. There is not as much glass out there in 645 and lenses in that form factor will be more expensive to manufacture than even a standard 35mm lens. If it were me I would immediately cease throwing any R&D money down the non-DSLR compact camera business, it's not a big money maker for Pentax and the products they are producing in that line have been receiving fairly poor reviews. I'm thinking about upgrading my wife and son's P&S digitals. One will probably be a Canon and the other a Panasonic. I'd be happy to see a Pentax FF body at any price. Tom C. >From: Adam Maas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> >To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: Next move from Pentax: anyone in the know (even under NDA) ? >Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 11:02:43 -0400 > >Note the D3 is the camera whose performance I'm quoting at the end of my >previous post. Its performance is incredible, but also far more than I >have any actual need for, especially with SR. > >When the 5D was the current high-ISO king, people were saying you >couldn't get that type of performance from cropped sensors. Well now we >can, and said people just raise the bar. > >A FF Pentax with D3 level performance would be nice. But Pentax doesn't >play in that market (high-end 35mm) and never really has outside of the >LX. Pentax would do better to bring back the 645D program than pursue a >market that would require an entirely new line of lenses (Pentax would >need to introduce a full set of FF zooms, and possible a full set of FF >lenses if they intend to do SR on FF) as well as a new body. > >-Adam > > > >P. J. Alling wrote: > > Yep, that's why the new Nikon D3 has been cited has having superior > > noise performance at very high sensitivities. Same argument always made > > with film bigger is better. Physics dictates that a larger sensor site > > is better than a smaller site. You can correct with software, (or > > firmware if it's done on the sensor, but even then bigger will still be > > better). Take off the blinders and smell the photons. > > > > Adam Maas wrote: > >> That's not necessarily so. The newest crop of APS-C-ish sensors (In the > >> D300, A700 and 40D) have noise performance as good or better than the > >> last crop of FF sensors. 5D level noise performance is good enough for > >> me (As much as I'd like ISO 25,600 as my max ISO and ISO 6400 > >> performance that rivals ISO 1600 on a 5D, I don't need it.) > >> > >> -Adam > >> > >> > >> P. J. Alling wrote: > >> > >>> If Pentax doesn't address sensor size in the K mount line they'll >still > >>> be only second rate no matter how many nifty new lenses and bodies >they > >>> introduce. I can live with slower frame rates, I can deal with noisy > >>> autofocus, (heck my low light walking around kit consists of three > >>> lenses and only one is autofocus anyway. The only way to have high > >>> resolution with minimum noise even with world class image processing >is > >>> larger sensor sites, and that matters more to me than almost any other > >>> improvements in autofocus, frame rates or additional "features". >Olympus > >>> has boxed themselves in with the 4:3 system, Pentax hasn't done that >yet. > >>> > >>> Thibouille wrote: > >>> > >>>> I know you won't be able to tell what if you're under NDA but > >>>> sometimes the NDA allows you to say you're actually under NDA (I know > >>>> it sounds confused ^^) > >>>> > >>>> Why do I ask? > >>>> Interesting rumours from Pentaxforums where 3 people supposedly in >the > >>>> know do hint at very nice things coming in January. I do not trus >much > >>>> two of those but IMO Richard Day has a good reputation in my book. > >>>> > >>>> For those who wants to read (means you want run away from rumours) >here it is: > >>>> >http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-releases/13173-pentax-news-something-interesting-really.html > >>>> > >>>> For those who do not like rumours: there's nothing new. There no > >>>> CMOS-not -from-Sony-coming-soon. You can go back to sleep ;) > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >> > >> > > > > > > >-- >PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >[email protected] >http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
