K-S2 & MX-1

Yes, but the salespeople had to have customers who understood and cared about the difference. It's the users who would not have that have disappeared , at least for a traditional type of budget DSLR... The less sophisticated will use smartphones and those who like technology and style and appreciate more about quality and camera features will likely be interested in the Innovations models. Either way the target market for the K500 had vanished.

Not at all. The salespeople's job is to 'sell' the difference. Mention Weather Resistance to anyone who is buying their first DSLR and I'll bet they understand what that means.
Additionally, the keen DSLR buyer will do some research and join some forums to get advice. They would undoubtedly be steered towards the K-50 rather than the K-500.

I don't think there was a target market for the K-500 in the first place, except maybe those without the extra cash for the K-50.

Sure, that's probably right.. The people I'm thinking of would be those who know little about photography but want a ' real' camera (ie one that clunks and bumps and the light shines through it) but want the easiest and cheapest you can get. That DSLR user is gone because they know they can get good looking pictures with their phone and those willing to spend money are more tech savvy now (readers of those male -oriented gadget mags) and so would be more attracted to the innovations of the K-S type.

Have one from release date one. Ironically there is still not one single Pentax camera made since that does a better job at video. Or at least until the Pentax full-frame is released

Interesting statement.
So you think the K-30/K-50/K-3/K-S1/K-S2 are poorer for video?

Personally I like the MX-1 for video clips.
I'd use the K-01 or K-50 if I wanted some special lens effects like lots of bokeh to islolate the subject, but for almost everything else I grab the MX-1

#outdateddefinition

Yes exactly, as it applied to my theoretical user base who have ceased to exist. But, equally, it does not mean that those people will instead be choosing a mirrorless system camera. As I said, they are more likely to divide up into happy smartphone shooters or, for the more gadget-oriented, into a market for the newer innovations-type Pentax DSLRs.

The biggest clunk and bump on mine is the noisy autofocus!
- that aspect of the new kit lens really appeals to me.

A camera at its heart is an image capture device. Pinhole cameras didn't make any noise and you didn't look through them. All cameras capture light, and make a saved image out of it.

Easily today there would be more mirrorless cameras than DSLRs, when you consider compacts, 'sports' cameras and cell phones. To say they are not real cameras is a bit silly really.

I picked up another 35mm film camera last week and it was impressive, with a huge bright viewfinder. Unless that returns to a DSLR I can afford (APS-C) , then I'm leaning towards a larger image display screen that shows exactly what the sensor is seeing.

On another forum there were few posts about how "real" photographers don't use AF...whilst considering my opinions on these posts I ruminated over how easy it was to manual focus on old 35mm SLRs- big bright screens, microprisms and spit prism focusing aids.... modern APS-C's with standard screens don't come close. I use LV with focus peaking for lot of my low light shots, although I do occasionally resort to using a distance scale to focus by guestimate of distance from subject (when it is really dark)
An EVF with focus peaking would be great in this instance.

Variety in cameras can only be good thing IMHO

Richard, remember that I was not saying what I consider to be a real camera myself ...i am talking about a theoretical low-end user base who would never have used a DSLR before. To them it would seem like a more ' real' camera .... But again, the k500 is not continuing, so this user type has disappeared.

hello - i received my K-S2 yesterday, i played with it a little bit so here are my first impressions, it replaced my K30.

I've been upgrading since K100 to Kx to K30 to KS2, so skipping one generation each time, every time there has been a decent upgrade. When the K30 and K50 were basically the same, the KS1 was unappealing, i wasnt expecting the KS2 to be so good, in my opinion it will be much better than the k30 (from my 2 hours of playing with it, will review this comment in a few months):

- screen, this is so much better especially for filming oneself
- 20mpix vs 16, i checked quickly the quality of the shots and it looked good, i shot in jpeg by mistake the first shots (which i hadnt done for 2 years, but it was defo settings) and the shots were actually brilliant - hard to compare though, but hopefully it will be a little bit better
- high ISO seems a little bit better, i havent tested it enough, i filmed myself in super low light and sadly 1600 ISO is still too noisy, 800 is completely fine and a little bit better than the K30, shame there is no option for 1200 iso, this could be great.
- wifi, which i use to control the camera with a phone, not of use for everyone but definitely is for me
- video is much more advanced, shows levels, proper controls, thing flashing when recording, small features i wasnt complaining about the lack of, but it actually makes a big difference
- i havent tested AF etc.. in comparison, the first thing that shocked me was the noise it makes, and i realised it was the SR, strange thing. I filmed myself playing the guitare, so my body was kind of static, but my arm was moving from left to right, the camera was tracking it, it is INSANE how much it moves, i will always turn it off when on a stand because it doesnt make sense, but that means for filming when walking it should do a great job at shake reduction.
- the built in mic has much more control (like 15 levels vs 4 previously), and there is a mic jack input, which will be useful

otherwise it handles like the K30, feels heavier somehow, but the buttons are in the same place.

very happy with my choice so far, definitely has many more features than the K30, i cant think of anything missing - get one!

Sounds promising, thanks for the feedback.

You're saying it has ' mechanical' sensor shake reduction in video? ?? Pentax might be getting at least one more customer soon! Can we get this verified folks, if so it signifies an excellent step back !

hmm i am not an expert, all i can say is that the camera was on a tripod so static, but the image was moving when filming, following my movement, i've used stabilisation for image in softwares and i can tell you that this is much more efficient - don't know how that would be a step back?!
i have no idea how it works, i can just say that the image was definitely not still (the right side of the frame was a lamp, which clearly wouldnt be moving!)
anyway it turned it off afterwards.

No! The K-S2 only has Movie SR.
What boudou701 saw was the result of Movie SR.
In no way does mechanical SR behave this way because it is accelerometer driven which detects camera movement. Movie SR on the other hand detects movement IN THE IMAGE and attempts to stabilize that. This is why it is such utter cr*p.

SR should never be used when a camera is on a tripod. The manual also mentions this.