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My wild theory on the new APSC - and why they're so viewfinder obsessed

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pschlute
Posted 24/07/2020 - 21:03 Link
I know no more idea about what Pentax has up their sleeve than you do. But look at these quotes......

"When you take a picture with a single lens reflex (SLR) camera, the light passes through the lens, and in turn the optical viewfinder. You view the image directly with your eyes, and feel it with your heart."

"The intuitive shooting process made possible by the SLR mechanism — the lens, mirror and prism viewfinder — can best be described as a pure joy."

"With an SLR, photography is more like painting a picture than operating a mechanical device"

"Light passing through the lens is reflected by the mirror to the pentaprism, which in turn directs it to the viewfinder’s eyepiece"

"PENTAX showed its commitment to the development of the optical viewfinder by incorporating a glass pentaprism, which allows the light captured by lens to be viewed directly with the naked eye."

"the optical viewfinder captures subtle nuances of the subject’s lighting conditions, colors and shades."

These are taken from the latest statement of Pentax core values published within the last month. These suggest your idea is not likely.

Further, although I am no camera design engineer, I would think it highly unlikely that a camera with the design philosophy of a hybrid viewfinder could be suddenly switched to being a simple old SLR instead.
Edited by pschlute: 24/07/2020 - 21:05
Mike-P
Posted 25/07/2020 - 12:35 Link
The only thing that makes me wonder is the small sensor below the viewfinder. People have said its to turn off the back screen if you bring the camera up to your eye but to me that just screams overkill when you could do it with a simple button press which you are going to do to turn liveview on to begin with.

My little Canon M5 has the same sensor next to the viewfinder and that is to turn the EVF on when the camera is in power saver mode and you don't need that for an OVF.

Anyway, I would be up for such a thing but I think it's unlikely this time around ... I think the 2/3 years of development time for the prism viewfinder is just Pentax/Ricoh working at their own snail like pace.
Edited by Mike-P: 25/07/2020 - 12:36
pschlute
Posted 25/07/2020 - 12:43 Link
Mike-P wrote:
The only thing that makes me wonder is the small sensor below the viewfinder. People have said its to turn off the back screen if you bring the camera up to your eye but to me that just screams overkill when you could do it with a simple button press which you are going to do to turn liveview on to begin with.

I have seen suggestions that the rear LCD could be touch screen controls. In which case the auto-disable touch controls would be very handy.
Mike-P
Posted 25/07/2020 - 12:47 Link
pschlute wrote:

I have seen suggestions that the rear LCD could be touch screen controls. In which case the auto-disable touch controls would be very handy.

Again the M5 has a touch screen and so did my D500 but that is turned on and off with liveview on the rear screen, you simply don't need a sensor to do that, especially on a DSLR.
pschlute
Posted 25/07/2020 - 12:57 Link
Mike-P wrote:
pschlute wrote:

I have seen suggestions that the rear LCD could be touch screen controls. In which case the auto-disable touch controls would be very handy.

Again the M5 has a touch screen and so did my D500 but that is turned on and off with liveview on the rear screen, you simply don't need a sensor to do that, especially on a DSLR.

What if you are not using LV ?
Mike-P
Posted 25/07/2020 - 13:06 Link
pschlute wrote:

What if you are not using LV ?

Then you wouldn't be using the rear screen so why would you have it touch enabled?

All the latest DSLR's that have a touch screen (incl 90D and D500) have touch screens which are turned on/off with the liveview button as you only use them on a DSLR with liveview, there is absolutely no reason to have a sensor as there is no EVF. The only other use is to swipe through pictures and in menus but again you have to use a button to access them to begin with.

Unless I'm missing something?
johnjbloomfield
Posted 26/07/2020 - 17:42 Link
This is true but they also said "at PENTAX we don't design SLRs or Mirrorless cameras based on which is superior or inferior in terms of technology we believe everything depends on which type of camera the user prefers because of the way it handles of captures a particular subject"

https://youtu.be/KfcFDGbtZyE?t=614

Which I interpret as them stills being a use for the functions you get in Liveview (and the AF in Pentax live view is already excellent for example). So I don't think they are dropping that aspect just asserting their commitment to SLR. So they aren't going to drop the OVF in favour of mirrorless but they aren't closing the door on mirrorless tech.

And of course they filed this patent...https://pentaxrumors.com/2018/10/09/ricoh-ovf-evf-switchable-hybrid-viewfinder-patent/

Only time will tell...I mainly wish they would just hurry up and get the announcements out my backup body really needs an upgrade!





pschlute wrote:
I know no more idea about what Pentax has up their sleeve than you do. But look at these quotes......

"When you take a picture with a single lens reflex (SLR) camera, the light passes through the lens, and in turn the optical viewfinder. You view the image directly with your eyes, and feel it with your heart."

"The intuitive shooting process made possible by the SLR mechanism — the lens, mirror and prism viewfinder — can best be described as a pure joy."

"With an SLR, photography is more like painting a picture than operating a mechanical device"

"Light passing through the lens is reflected by the mirror to the pentaprism, which in turn directs it to the viewfinder’s eyepiece"

"PENTAX showed its commitment to the development of the optical viewfinder by incorporating a glass pentaprism, which allows the light captured by lens to be viewed directly with the naked eye."

"the optical viewfinder captures subtle nuances of the subject’s lighting conditions, colors and shades."

These are taken from the latest statement of Pentax core values published within the last month. These suggest your idea is not likely.

Further, although I am no camera design engineer, I would think it highly unlikely that a camera with the design philosophy of a hybrid viewfinder could be suddenly switched to being a simple old SLR instead.

pschlute
Posted 26/07/2020 - 20:36 Link
Mike-P wrote:
pschlute wrote:

What if you are not using LV ?

Then you wouldn't be using the rear screen so why would you have it touch enabled?


I have never used a ML camera or one with touch screen. But surely the touch screen can function in modes other that LV ? Setting the AF point or changing ISo or aperture or one of the manu items perhaps. I don't know but is it not possible ?

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