Meet the Ricoh/Pentax D400!

Well according to Thom Hogan anyway! (who?) A Well respected Nikon,photographer/writer/reviewer and talker of sense!

http://www.dslrbodies.com/newsviews/meanwhile-meet-the-pentax.html

How times change...
I used to own a D300/300s (Suprise Suprise!:lol
Great Camera but I can tell you the D7100 is not what D300/s users were looking for, many have already gone off to buy Canon 7D's and I know a few who are now eyeing the K3...

Here's the thing though and where Size Matters in the photographic industry at least!

Despite the undoubted furore the K3 is causing, despite the groans the Nikon D610 is recieivng (And it really is!), I bet Canon have a 7D MKII and Nikon a D400 sat waiting to go if the 70D/6D and the D7100/D610 combo's don't catch the market share their research has told them they will. They've got em waiting in the wings to slap Ricoh/Pentax and indeed Olympus with it's EM1 back into their respective boxes, they can afford to research these camera's and bring them to market only if required/demanded. Ricoh will increase their share surely with this Camera but htey've got to keep their foot on the gas, I can't see them overtaking Canon and Sony as they are giants but Nikon could be dropping the ball here, Pentax used to have a bigger following than Nikon and look what happened! I'd settle for a close fourth in sales with a market share in the middle high teens, which would be double the current. It will not take much more of a range to do so, they need to fulfill the roadmap, the Pro Centres are a great idea and on the increase, (Similar idea to the Sony centres of excellence) and getting a lot more space on the shelves, also they are back in some of the high street electrical retailers too, all good.
K5II/s, K50, K50, Q7, HD Limiteds, HD 55-300, MX-1, GR and new flashes in under a year and I still sound like I'm complaining, I'm not!
Despite what John Riley thinks of them, I still think Pentax need an APSC Rangefinder/CsC, along the lines of the K-O1/Nex but more of a system camera, like the Nex, with it's own flashes and accessories, to wring the last drop out of APSC before and indeed if they decide to hit us with what must surely be called the D-LX? (Full Frame)( still hate the term!) and a wide, standard and long F2.8 zooms...
I sense Ricoh have their foot on the gas but I hope they don't tire (Tyre? :lol if they don't quite get into the twenties for market share percentage, soon if ever, as they can't just expect the big three to stand and watch it happen?

What does this bit mean please?:

"once again we have a camera maker who isn't listening to serious users about which bracketing variations would be most useful (no 1 or 2 stop bracket steps, only 1/3 and 1/2). "

I thought Pentax did that pretty well?

I agree about a random brand of wifi card. It's nice that it's an option, but it's not built in and it will swallow up one of the two card slots if you opt to have this feature. At least it's an option though, so for me it would make no difference as I don't use wifi, although I maybe might if it linked to a smart phone, but even then probably not honestly. I'd use USB 3.0 now that's an option I expect.

This is all very well, but I haven't ever seen the point of switching from system to system when something new comes out. Next week it will be something else anyway.

It's probably very boring to some, but I use cameras to make images. Upgrading happens when needed because something breaks or because I get a sudden twitchy mouse finger on Amazon...

As for CSCs, there was one sat on my shelf a couple of days ago. Other marques are off topic, but suffice it to say that with lens it was only slightly less bulky than a K-50. It also didn't work. Dead as a dodo straight out of the box.

I agree with the USB thing a it's my preference and near instantaneous! I suppose Mac users could complain there is no thunderbolt port or whatever they call it now? I think the card option for wifi is nice but as you say, your stuck with just that card and it takes up a slot, maybe an extra slot in the grip would have been good there? You'd need more power if your using wifi it's bound to suck the juice more and the amount of shots available from one battery has already shrunk a bit? With all the features it's got it's not much of a surprise though...
Hey they got to make their coin somewhere I guess, hence the grip re-shape and BG5!

Some people like to do brackets of 5/7/9/ stops, hell knows why but they do, it's not going to take a lot of camera memory to appease them I suppose so it's an option for later which will cost little and please a few people???

Fuji? Hush my mouth!

Trying one at the moment, it's not much less in size then my IIs and frankly isn't as sharp, nor does it have the Dynamic range, Got it because my mate who had 25 years, in the business kept harping on about how good and sharp the image quality is, and the lovely highlight to shadow transitions it has, yadda yadda yadda...
It's soft and fuzzy compared to my IIs, it does do lovely jpegs though but that's it so I can't really see the point, a Pentax one kitted with a set of Limited's now...

Been a serial switcher but then that's been to do with personal problems and nothing to do with brand loyalty or lack of it in the past but I'm well on the way to getting better about these things. Was worried for a time I may have made a bad move coming back to Pentax but it felt right so I am Giving them a longer go and the future is now looking a little more secure...

Switching bodies sounds fine in principle, but what about the lenses? You buy into a system as a whole, not because body X happens to be a cintilla better than body Y. I can't see Nikonians deserting in droves to Pentax.

I guess I'm saying that the negative bracket comment in that linked article doesn't seem justified? Maybe I'm missing something here, but I've heard only good things about the Pentax auto bracket controls. In fact some really love them for use with timelapse photography as all the bracketing can be automated. not sure what I'm missing here.

USB 3 would seem to be the fastest way to get photos off now, assuming you have a compatible USB 3 port on your computer.

I tend to agree on mirrorless compacts. That seems an oxymoron, given they're now a cellphone sized body with a full sized lens hanging off the front. I'm more inclined to prefer a bigger housing to hold onto. But, that's just me...

I know what I see and what people tell me, and people using D300's are sick of waiting, nearly as sick of waiting as the Americans seem to be for the Pentax FF...

People switch for all sorts of reasons that others don't understand...

Anyway, who mentioned droves, I mentioned a few, I don't know droves of people, thank god, I'd probably end up with tired arms punching most of em!

I do to but I like something of similar quality to a DSLR that does not have a fixed lens, I find fixed lens scompacts a little limiting, now the Ricoh Gr with it's adaptor and optical finder accessories is nearly there, I was just postulating something smallish that could use the Ltd's but with a bit more of a system to it than the K-O1.
People put the wierdest combo's on the Q...

Yep very well. You choose the step you want the bracketing to use (0.3 or 0.5) and can then choose how many of those steps the camera does with a dial and then shift the whole lot with the exposure compensation button and a dial. The camera displays the exposures on a number-line up to +/- 3 stops IIRC.

So you can set it to shoot in 0.5 steps but to start at 0 and bracket +1 & +2 (or 0, +1.5, +3 if you wish).

It's like the Hyper manual mode - many features can be used together instead of complicated menu options - those not familiar with Pentax handling simply don't realise how versatile it is.

John.