Pentax's latest announcement on FF DSLR.

[Cage]

Yep, Pentax have a FF DSLR all ready to go.

As a matter of fact it's been all ready to go for about 10 years now.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2001/02/11/pentaxdigitalslr/print

[Bennymiata]

It looks like it was designed 10 years ago, by the size of the chimping screen!

Why would they bother as they also have the 645D?

[JM Tran]

I would have loved an FF Pentax!

wonder how that Phillips sensor goes with IQ:)

[peterb666]

I would think the demand for 6mp ff sensor dSLRs would be pretty limited these days. ;-)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[Cage]

The announcement probably sent ripples through the photographic world in 2001.

Pentax never went into production, and apparently the sensor was a bit of a dud.

[Kym]

Not exactly up to date 'Feb 11, 2001 at 04:00:00 GMT'
Why bother when there is a medium format?

[JM Tran]

Not exactly up to date 'Feb 11, 2001 at 04:00:00 GMT'
Why bother when there is a medium format?

because the 645D, while having amazing IQ - is way too slow for majority of amateur uses and as a general purpose camera. I cant see myself using it at weddings or traveling! But an FF camera to fully utilize the Limited primes and FA lenses would be a very nice edition to fill that gap between APSC and MF.

[Cage]

This thread was actually meant to be 'tongue in cheek'. There is a thread running on the Pentax forum, speculating about a FF DSLR, that is currently up to 90 pages.

AFAIK, this announcement, at PMA 2001, was the last official muttering from Pentax re a FF DSLR.

Who knows in which direction Pentax-Ricoh will head. The DA lens release, at the time, basically said 'Good bye full frame'.

[Falcons]

Latest rumour is a ff Pentax with electronic view finder - qiute a strong rumour too that seeems to have some substance.

[Cage]

The EVF will want to be a lot better than the 'you-beaut' one on the Sony I recently had a look through.

I'm about to bite the bullet and get the K5. At $1159, local pick-up, and full CRK warranty, it's too good to pass up.

[mongo]

Mrs Mongo bought a K5 about 6 to 8 months ago. Mongo sometimes uses it too. It is a great camera - no complaints.

As far as medium format goes, Mongo has had a 645 pentax for years (film) and could not think of using such a camera anywhere but a studio or wedding at best. It is not and could never be a general use camera for practical reasons as well as the cost !. So if pentax want to stay in the race, they had better rethink their earlier stated position of FF only on medium format and start making a general use FF SLR

[arthurking83]

Not all that long ago, Kodak announced a new 16Mp full 35mm frame sensor.

This sensor is based on the MF sensor used in the 645D!

It obviously needs volume production and hence a camera maker willing to use it, so anything is possible!

[Cage]

Mrs Mongo bought a K5 about 6 to 8 months ago. Mongo sometimes uses it too. It is a great camera - no complaints.

As far as medium format goes, Mongo has had a 645 pentax for years (film) and could not think of using such a camera anywhere but a studio or wedding at best. It is not and could never be a general use camera for practical reasons as well as the cost !. So if pentax want to stay in the race, they had better rethink their earlier stated position of FF only on medium format and start making a general use FF SLR

Mongo, unfortunately it's not only a camera body they need to come up with. Pentax, in their 'wisdom' , broke their lens compatibility chain when they released the DA lens line.

With the DA lens line-up pretty much any prime with a FOV wider than the 40 Ltd, and all zooms bar the 55-300, suffer from dark circles or heavy vignetting when mounted on a full frame body.

There has been some speculation about the possibility of re-releasing some of the FA range to fill the gaps, but I think that would require some major re-engineering, with auto focus drives and coatings being high on the agenda.

Ricoh, like Pentax, have a reputation for thinking 'outside the square', so maybe we will see something really innovative like a mirror-less FF.

For the type of photography I do, a full frame would be overkill. Having said that, it would still be nice to have one. I still have a swag of Canon 'A' series gear and it's a pleasure to look through the FF viewfinder.

I must say though that from viewing photos on this forum the camera that consistently surprises me with it's IQ in the Nikon D700. Be interested to see what the replacement comes up like. And no, I'm not about to jump ship. I've got too much tied up in Pentax glass.

Cheers
Kevin

PS: @arthurking Coincidentally that 16MP sensor was announced about the same time Kodak went belly up.

[mongo]

.......... I've got too much tied up in Pentax glass.

Mongo knows what you mean ! He too has a great deal tied up in Pentax 645 glass, Pentax 35mm glass and Nikon glass.

BTW - this may interest you. Mongo bought an adapter to use his Pentax 645 glass on his Nikon SLR and it works a treat ! especially like using the 120mm f4 (645) macro lens.
They may even come up with adapters to make up for the mistake of changing compatibility so that Pentax lenses can still be used on newer changed pentax bodies.

[Cage]

Pentax were in 'la la land' whilst under Hoya control.

Prior to the takeover they had a lens roadmap, not much on it, but it did have a new T/C. Hoya put the brakes on any new products.

With hindsight it is obvious that Hoya's only interest in Pentax was the medical imaging side of things.

I've actually just acquired a Canon FD to P/K adaptor and was pleasantly surprised how well the FD f1.4 came up on the K20D.

[Lance B]

Some might be interested in this interview with Mr Kitazawa, Pentax's R&D chief, and translation over at Pentax Forums:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-rumors/168982-translation-kitazawa-interview.html

645 mirrorless, just for you Mongo. :D

35mm FF a possibility, but more likely a mirrorless as well.

Another link:

http://photorumors.com/2011/12/17/pentax-is-working-on-a-mirrorless-full-frame-and-medium-format-cameras/

[Cage]

Thanks for the link Lance.

Tanaka San did his best to evoke a positive response from Kitazawa San re upcoming models, but the latter, being the inscrutable PR type person that he obviously is, gave Jack Poo away, and when pressed on definitive points said "I'd like to see that, but that's only my own thoughts" or whatever he said in Japanese that sounded the same.

[Kym]

Be careful, when Japanese businessmen say 'maybe', 'possible' in business conversations they can mean NO FREKIN WAY!! (my translation).

I've had dealings with Nipponese companies some years ago, you have to be very careful in understanding the true intent.

That said, the tone was good, i.e. the grunts and laughing.

[arthurking83]

LOL! Kevin :D

announcement is one thing, but the lead up to the announcement is an entirely different kettle of sensors!

There would have been behind the scenes dealings and proposals as well as gauging manufacturer feedback and requirements.

I doubt that even Kodak would have been idiotic enough to design and announce a new sensor without first having the customer base to support the product.

It wouldn't surprise me to see that Nikon would be using a 16Mp sensor, but the reality would be that as a CCD design, it'd be a backward step for them.

As for Pentax tho ... not already having a FF sensor camera it could easily make sense for them to be an initial customer for this Kodak product as they already use (more of it) in their 645D.

if it comes in cheap enough for Pentax to price it competitively against the likes of the Sony FF cameras, it may be a bigger hit than many may expect.

At $10K for the 645, the market for this price level surely is going to be very small(compared to a SLR), where a less than $3K or $2K full frame camera may well be a higher long term volume prospect for Pentax.

Nikon showed that with the D700, it wasn't much of a redesign to a D300 to shoehorn an Fx sensor into one, with associated other engineering adaptations(prism housing and whatever else)
But a D700 is close enough to a D300 that they're basically the same body with only a few differences.

As the K5 is a D300 competitor and a worthy one at that, I can't see why it'd be too difficult to adapt a K5(or successor) to suit both sensor formats, in the way Nikon has with their Dxxx bodies.

How big the market is for this camera segment is anyone's guess, and it's going to be hard for Pentax to break into Canon, Sony and Nikon's current sales figures. Current investments into respective systems is a hard nut to crack, but if they can sway K5 owners to upgrade to a full frame body or prospective new camera owners that Pentax is a viable alternative .. they have a fair to good chance of success.