The problem is that DSLR lenses don't AF efficiently with contrast detect AF. With your current K-mount lenses, you will get AF that is identical to what you get on Kx in liveview mode. This would be the slowest AF "mirrorless" system in the world. The body size would be larger than the competition. The K-mount also limits the number of manual focus lenses that you can use (such as all rangefinder lenses will be unusable) due to larger flange distance.
It wouldn't necessarily be doomed. Pentax would save a lot of money because they wouldn't have to design, build and market an entire new mount otherwise. All existing lenses for K-mount would work. There's also no reason why Pentax can't develop a decent CD-AF system either - or embedd PD-AF sensors into the sensor itself like Fuji's recent announcement.
Why is that?
So you would rather be able to use weird and wonderful lenses in a cropped, crippled, fully manual mode, than have full support for your K mount lenses? I can't see the attraction myself, and if I did, existing EVIL systems already offer this.
Pentax has been working on compact K-mount cameras for sometime as evidenced by this:
and there's this design as well:
Something like the first design, cleaned up and nice looking of course, could be viable if it contained a FF sensor. A full on K-mount EVIL, same registration distance etc, would be more cost effective for Pentax because users can use DA etc lenses natively without an adaptor.
The problem with this is the camera would be a fair bit bigger than other mirrorless cameras. With an APS-C sensor in it I'm not sure how well it would compete. A FF sensor might give it enough of an image quality lead to offset it's size. HOWEVER, such a camera would be extremely expensive and in a very different price bracket.
A pure K-mount EVIL has it's advantages but I don't think we'll see it.
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http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/charleycoleman
http://www.new-oxford.com/users/charley.coleman
Even the existing Pentax users would rather buy something like Kx than mirrorless camera that is just as thick but with much slower AF. Just use the KX in liveview mode; there you have a mirrorless camera!
Yes, they would. They would work identical to how they work on Kx/K7 in liveview mode. The liveview on Kx/K7 is a mirrorless system too.
The trick to develop faster CD-AF system is not just in the camera. It's in the lenses too. The DSLR lenses tell the camera who they are and what's needed for the PD-AF system. They don't tell the camera information required to develop efficient CD-AF algorithms. If it were this easy to develop efficient CD-AF system with DSLR lenses, surely Nikon and Canon would have done it for their liveview. Sony even added a dual sensor on their DSLRs due to slow CD-AF problem.
That would require a great deal of R&D money in sensor design, and third-party source that would build this sensor (with IQ that equals Sony/Canon sensors). How likely is that? Also, putting PD-AF sensors on the main sensor would come at the cost of IQ.
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It could actually be a smaller and thinner than the KX (no pentamirror for a start...) and as I said the AF doesn't have to be slower.
But Pentax would need brand new lenses for a new mount as well and Pentax could make new CD-AF optimised lenses regardless.
I didn't say it would be easy I'm just saying it's an option.
It's because the info required to develop efficient CD-AF algorithms isn't communicated between the camera and lenses, as they are with EVIL systems (Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, etc) where the cameras and lenses were designed from scratch to work with CD-AF. Why don't you try the liveview on Kx? Or K7? Or any Canon and Nikon DSLR? These are all "mirrorless" systems in liveview mode. That's what you will get with K-mount EVIL amd DSLR lenses.
All K-mount lenses works on NX, Nex and m4/3 camera with the right adapter -- just as all Nikon, Canon, C-mount, Lecia M, Contax G (etc) work. That's a very serious advantage of shorter flange mirrorless cameras (that K-mount mirrorless would lose right away). Yes, it's manual focus, but see above. The manual focus with 7x - 14x magnification on 920K LCD (or EVF) would work better than AF with DSLR lenses (which will be slow and might not be even accurate with DSLR lenses).
' They could make a new mount and shorter registration, but keep the body motor for the sole purpose of connecting it through an adapter for k-mount lenses. That would just leave the aperture actuation to deal with in the adapter. Later they could follow it with a body without the motor once more lenses are available.
What "info"?
This is inverse retrospective determinism- "because something has not been done, it cannot be done"- a logical fallacy.
They only "work" in the sense that they focus to infinity. They have no autofocus, they have no aperture coupling or other electronic communications, and they probably do not meter properly. I dare say there is some novelty value in taking pictures with random lenses, but little scope for serious use.
They meter just fine and are pretty popular. Some lenses have aperture ring, and for others the adapters have aperture levers. The number of posts on m4/3 forum to this toic (and ebay adapter sales) are testament to how well they work. For example, leica M lens to Sony E mount adapter
They would probably want to go all electronic on a new mount, so any AF and aperture motors would need to reside in the adapter itself, not in the camera. Some people seem to think its an impossibilty and will jump on you for suggesting that that is a technical possibility. I point to the sony nex adapter, which is halfway there already (tiny aperture control motor in the adapter). Pentax just needs to shoehorn another micromotor in and put an AF linkage and they are golden.
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Up at 6am the golden sun hitting the banks on the other side of the small lake making it look like a painting. Alone on the lake, I flipped the plastic worms around the banks, the silent trolling motor brought me face to face with a young buck on a morning stroll down to the waters edge. A little farther along, a gang of turkeys were on a walk and talk... A dragon fly lands on the tip of the crappie rig sitting idle along the edge of the boat.
I personally would like the noise performance along the lines of the Kx sensor. Once you get used to being able to shoot ISO 3200, it is hard to go back. But the Foveon sensors can be stunning...
It's just a dumb spacer ring. Certainly no sign of an aperture lever, and it even seems that you have to bend the metal with a screwdriver to "adapt" it to fit the lens!
Says who?
I think that is still a rumor, a logical one yes, but still a rumor...
I hope a lot, it should have a bit more weigth and size to be handholdable...
