I tried a mirrorless. Have you?

hikerdoc wrote:

John McMillin wrote:

Alex Sarbu wrote:

OTOH I've seen different generations of EVFs, and in some cases the improvements were dramatic.

Alex

That's the problem, Alex. EVFs are an imperfect technology that will get marginally better with each generation of cameras. You'll want the next one, then the next one... It's planned obsolescence, and most makers are counting on this upgrade path to preserve their sales. Meanwhile, the OVFs in my my K- and K-3.3 are about as good as they can get. It's a mature product.

Does anybody really upgrade specifically for incremental advances in the viewfinder? Does the OVF represent perfect technology? If Ricoh considers this a mature and perfect technology, considers the viewfinder as the main reason for upgrade, considers the OVF as good as they can get, and if Ricoh is not also looking for future sales; the prospect for a new K1-III that offers no incentive as an upgrade is dim. On the contrary I think a K1-III will be promoted not as just another mature iteration, but as a product offering incredible OVF, advanced AF tracking, speed and buffer, next gen PS…… And Ricoh will be counting on you to upgrade to preserve sales just like the rest of them.

I'd say the minimum baseline for a K-1iii is it being a K-1 with the K-3iii's AF and electronics (but not viewfinder), a new sensor, and some other tweaks (perhaps the mechanics, although the K-1's are good for at least 6.5fps).

That is already a good incentive to upgrade, IMO.

Btw, "minimum baseline" sounds like a pleonasm, doesn't it? But I want to emphasis that there's no chance Pentax would consider anything less than that. Higher, quite likely.

Alex