I would buy that in a heartbeat, but pentax doesn't do tech like touch screens, so I don't believe it. They are usually years behind with that kind of sizzle feature.
Touch Screen would be idiotic. Manual controls is the way to go.
Grip - the GR cameras are perfect the way they are.
Name change - Another idiotic idea. The GR brand is a classic.
Let's be even more idiotic and take away snap focus.
Just add a viewfinder upgraded sensor and be done. Make the LCD smaller to fit it if you have to. Move the flash possibly.
Basically I agree Tim. When you are on to a good thing don't mess with it.
Touch screens can be good and bad. Recent association with the Panasonic GM1 shows that in a space strapped small camera body an intelligent use of configurable touch screen "function buttons" can provide a higher level of control that trying to squeeze in more mechanical buttons. On the other hand a touch enabled screen can be subject to false presses and drive the user insane.
Ricoh could do well to upgrade their wheels which are still basically the same since the back click to set wheel was scrapped for the not nearly as good jog lever. Other brands now have much nicer wheels with click-set capability.
I think that the GR might do well with a good evf. The trouble is that screen size and/or flash might need to be compromised. There was some talk years ago about led-flash around the lens (in general terms) - but no camera manufacturer has taken this up as far as I know.
... and the GR brand is Ricoh's last finger hold in the camera business and one that a Ricoh exec said some time ago that Ricoh would never abandon. Maybe famous last words but I suggest that the end of the GR might be the end of Ricoh as a camera-type owner as opposed to the Pentax by Ricoh brand that they have been trying to promote. The GR is effectively the last indigenous Ricoh sourced camera on the market - or maybe I missed something?
I don't have many PK lenses and I am not about to start a new collection should Ricoh go all the way with Pentax. I suggest that quite a lot of users might be reluctant to start building a dslr FF-capable lens holding and as Pentax was and still is a junior member in the dslr club one might wonder what the future might hold by way of the FF sensor Pentax dslr body.
There must be a market there and the better Pentax dslr bodies are well regarded but seriously trying to carve out a niche in the dslr market right now might be a bit like pushing rocks up hill.
Sorry if I wandered off the topic a bit but if indeed Ricoh is turning its back on the GR then we must wonder what other "attractive" direction the company might be taking.
For me it is GR or nothing, but I would rather a re-marketed updated GXR - now that would be interesting and I would change my mind quite quickly.
--
Tom Caldwell
