K3D* rumour with 1.3x crop factor

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=30983324

Hmm I might just start saving

Been doing that for a while in case a new camera comes along, keep buying flash and lens so not much in the pot.

Interesting rumours... and a square format was touted on this forum quite a while ago

Sounds sensible to me
Who knows if it'll see the light of day???
Matt

Agreed, yes sounds interesting

Yes it sound interesting. But why don't we wait for the facts?
It's just like in the news: "The minister for X is expected to announce this and that tomorrow".
Well, if I learn about what he/she actually announces tomorrow that is much more valuable to me than todays speculation what it might be... Today I'm content to hear todays news, let's hear tomorrows news tomorrow and keep speculation and facts apart.

Maybe I'm getting old...

Prieni

my initial reaction was one of "why on earth would I want that?", but when you consider the image circle of the lens it's almost more a case of "what is the good justification for NOT doing that".

If a 23.5mm square sensor can be made for a reasonable price (and why shouldn't it?) then it seems like a pretty darned good idea.

In fact, taking this to its logical extreme what we want is a circular sensor having a radius of 33mm to truly make full use of the image circle. Of course a circular sensor would incur all sorts of production difficulties so it isn't practical, but you could maybe approximate with an octagon and matching octagonal pixels......


PS my apologies to Viewfinder or whoever it was who mentioned this ages ago, I seem to recall being one of the voices scoffing at this idea and have now totally swapped sides.

There is a big problem with a square format sensor, especially with the DA*16-50 and 50-135. These lenses project a mostly rectangular image 'circle' designed for APS-C. Just mount one on an ond film SLR and you will see what I mean.

I've never seen any lens project anything but a circle and I'm not sure how that would be possible. Just shine a light through the lens and project that onto a wall. I suspect the 35mm camera test isn't valid because of the rectangular film gate.

Well the news I hear is a new K30D will have the same sensor as the K20D, just more bells and whistles attached, Samsung are also coming with the equivalent. It will be announced in Spring. They are both also planning a K300d, maybe with the same sensor again.
More interestingly, if they use the Pentax fit for it, is the Samsung micro 4/3rds camera that is promised for later this year. I cannot imagine they would go with a different lens fitting for it, but I suppose they may do.
It would be a perfect in pocket walkaround.

That sounds a lot more likely, though I suspect the 14.6 MP sensor has had a lot of development since the K20D.

If it really does turn out to be a 'micro 4/3' camera then it will be a very important milestone for nearly everybody who follows pentax. Any micro4/3 camera will NOT have a pentax K mount but it will not be a problem as the beauty of micro4/3 is that adaptors are easilly made for any lens. In the case of Samsung there is a very good chance that the adaptor will have a full interface with both lens mount and camera so there is a good chance of full lens functions to camera.

The only downside of micro4/3 is that an electronic v/f becomes more or less essential for thru the lens viewing. Up to now these have been hated by photographers but if the Panasonic G1 is anything o go by then we will all be getting much more used to them.

I'm not sure if it just not the older generation who doesn't like using the electronic viewfinder.
The majority of the younger generation of camera users were more or less brought up on compacts that use this system and most actually demand livieview on ad DSLR before they will consider it.

Well I don't know about generations, but proper pentaprism finders are very superior to EVFs. You can't judge manual focus on an EVF and the slow response time means that following action is almost impossible.

If you want to see a really good viewfinder have a look through a Voigtlander Bessamatic - it's useless for focusing but the aerial viewfinder image is just staggering!

"..... but proper pentaprism finders are very superior to EVFs..."

Unfortunately, the way things are going, "proper pentaprisms" are probably going to be a thing of the past whether we like it or not, along with all the other stuff we have discovered we have to do without such as aperture rings, split image rangefinders and 'real' metal cameras,..there's lots of dumbing down to come yet.......

Crazy rumour...ignore dpreview.

A 1.3X DSLR is barmy IMO....Pentax have spent the last few years developing and spending lots of money on the DA digi lenses optimised for APS-C sensors with 1.5X crop factor....a 1.3X would need some new lenses, would cost a lot of money to develop and most importantly offers NO marketing advantage whatsoever to Pentax in the DSLR market place. They either stay fully committed to APS-C or maybe jump to full frame (with also heavy expense an new full frame lenses)....a half way house like 1.3X is pointless.

cheers Steve.