From: Miserere <[email protected]> On 4 February 2013 14:21, Tom C <[email protected]> wrote: > >> It's hard to be competitive when producing in the low volumes Pentax >> does. Most everybody wants a bargain and Pentax is viewed by many as >> the bargain brand, yet Pentax's per unit costs must trend higher than >> competitors because their volume is a mere fraction of, for example >> Nikon. That means per unit profit will tend to be lower. Add to that >> the aforementioned tendency of many Pentax users to 'wait until the >> price drops' and you can see the struggle they face. >> >> I expect that they'll need to produce a FF camera, regardless of >> profit margins, otherwise even their most die-hard proponents would >> have a hard time taking them seriously.
>> I'm sure whatever they produce will be competent. Then the question >> becomes will they have the lenses to complement the increased >> resolution on a FF digital sensor? Right now there's nothing empiric >> to know how their best FF legacy lenses will work on a FF sensor. No >> doubt 'good enough' for web and smaller prints. So, following the way >> of APS-C and FF competitors, a new body will prompt many to purchase >> new, as of now, theoretical lenses. > You mean increased resolution compared to film? In any case, if legacy > lenses can withstand a K-5 sensor, they can withstand a 36MP FF > sensor, and most of them perform just fine resolution wise on the K-5. I mean increased from APS-C. I wasn't thinking about film. I also was thinking of more than just mathematical resolution (but used only that word). I disagree with a blanket statement on this. I know the following is something you already know. For one, most users of a FF digital would be moving up from APS-C. Their legacy film lenses used on APS-C sensors had an advantage in that the image circle projected on the sensor was cropped and represented pretty much the sweet spot of the lens. It's possible the results from a given lens were overall superior on APS-C as opposed to film. That same lens now used on a high resolution FF sensor, will have what ever deficiencies exist as one moves outwards from the center of the image circle revealed. One paragraph from a Thom Hogan article discussing the D800/E: "Resolution not only reveals more detail, it can also reveal more about how your lens performs. A lot was written about how the D800 would out-resolve lenses. Get that out of your mind, because that's not what's happening. Your lenses are capable of resolving even more than the D800 models will manage. But along with that extra resolution comes the ability to actually resolve what the lenses are doing. Poor corners become very obviously poor. Edge to edge sharpness differences (miscentered elements, etc.) become more obvious, especially on a D800E at or near maximum aperture. Chromatic aberrations now encompass more pixels on edges, so often become more visible at pixel level, too. Be prepared to see how your lens actually performs, at least if you're a pixel peeper or printing big." I'm not saying one can't obtain satisfactory results with legacy lenses on FF digital. "Satisfactory" is relative to final output size and end use of the image. It would be somewhat of a shame to have a higher resolution body and then essentially lose some of that advantage. As usual it's all in the eye of the beholder and of course constrained by what's in the wallet. >> If that's true, then the question is, if I need new lenses to make the >> most out of the new body vs. accepting the likely limitations of >> legacy lenses, is there much difference between staying with Pentax >> and changing systems all together? Especially so, considering the >> glacial slowness at which they seem to be moving. > Blah, blah, blah. Look Tom, you ALWAYS need new lenses; stop trying to > justify your habit to us, we're friends, we know the pain. LOL. Good I have permission then :) Tom C. -- 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.
