New K100Y + 3 Lenses

drummercam wrote:

hikerdoc wrote:

isb_deep wrote:

lowerCamelCase wrote:

They cannot ignore all industry standards, so I expect at least touchscreen as it seems to fixed.

They did manage to put one in the Ricoh GR III, so they have the tech it's only a matter of if they have the resources to actually implement it on the aps-c body.

The new lenses are good news but a lot is left unsaid about the body. The AF, Video and Screen Interface to have improve if Pentax is to be competitive with it's peers.

I am not sure Ricoh is really concerned about competing with peers at this point. Certainly they wish to present a camera they and their users are proud of, but...

I am a Nikon user, D500, D850, and Z7; all wonderful cameras that offer capabilities far beyond my ability to fully utilize. I am in the same demographic group, mid 60’s, in which I perceive a majority of Pentax users coexist. There is nothing Ricoh can offer that is going to make me switch systems. I am not alone in that thinking. Ricoh knows this.

There is a very loyal group of Pentax users who will remain faithful to the Pentax label no matter what Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fuji, etc offer. They are comfortable with the functionality and ergonomics of their cameras, which also offer capabilities far beyond most of their abilities. They are interested in periodic refinements. Ricoh also knows this.

I agree with all that. I think the word "compete" is often misapplied. Pentax "competes" in its own way. It's not "competing" in sports-action AF tracking or video, but with, for example" its OVF, which we now see is being newly re-emphasized on K-new. It can just as easily be said that other brands don't compete in the provision of high-quality OVF's. Frankly, I don't think anything competes with Pentax flagship cameras in terms of compact robustness of build quality in-hand and ergonomics. Some are horrible at menu user-friendliness and in-camera RAW development. Other makers have lagged in their implementations of in-body stabilization, which in turn led Pentax to sensor shift AA and in-body astrotracing by sensor movement. I haven't seen anything that "competes" with the multifarious ways the Pentax green button can be used. The tacit assumption that the "ground of competition" is an array of features that other makers implement (or that DPR deems worthy), is a little misguided.

I think the *85 is going to be unbeatable in IQ. The apparent concavity of the front element seems like a very bold and confident optical design (curious -- do any other makers have concave front elements in this focal range?). The new FF 21mm Limited is going to be a pleasure to use and own, a real piece of optical artisanship, a "point of competition," if you will, made in the recent video. K-new joystick implementation will interesting to see, and the recent video points out the detailed attention they are giving it; they specifically mention changing the surface texture for better grip.

The only way Pentax should think of "competing" is not on assumed grounds of "other-maker-goodness" (DPR's unfortunate stovepipe), but simply getting its cameras into more hands for close personal examination of features where other makers "don't compete" with Pentax. Brick-and mortar stores are pretty much gone, and COVID-19 is causing industry conventions to be cancelled, so that is a problem.

Well said