Pentax FF DSLR - confirmed

The best value in Pentax having a 'professional' FF system is the kudos it gives the brand. Most of Canon and Nikon's sales aren't the pro models, they are the Consuner products, the compacts and to some extent the APS-C models.

Of course when Pentax release a FF pro system, it's not going to suddenly take the pro market by storm, but from little acorns grow ....

And that's better than having no acorn at all

Having a pro 6x7 system and semi-pro 645 in the film days
didn't really help 35mm sales..... Ah! the days when people
were happy using whatever format they had and a lot of
pros refused to use any camera bigger than 35mm

They already have a digital 645 and that hasn't made that
much impact on APS-C sales. Why wait for FF when you can
have a 645D now. When you consider the cost of the lenses
it wouldn't be much dearer than a FF system.

I wonder which they will sell the most of the 645D
or the £5,000 FF

-

I'm saving now £20 in a tin and its only taken me two months

I'm not sure I agree with that analogy. How many Photojournalists or pro sports photographers use a MG digital cam?

Surely the 645 is a largely specialist / extreme minority type of item? No doubt image quality is there, but as far as camera features and performance goes then it would not have the versatility of a top end DSLR for Professional work out and about in the world, and presumably not as quick and easy to manage in the hand.

I do admit to being intrigued and surprised when it was released - great to see of course, but I thought things had changed with digital - I mean, the bulk and lower speed of working (and lower camera performance) of a medium format system could be easily justified on quality alone in the film days when the next best thing was the humble 35mm, and many Pro applications actually required the larger format - I'm not so sure the same would apply now, certainly not between a digital 645 sensor and the (current) FF competition?

So is a FF I think the Nikon 600 and 800's were somewhere in the 50's in the Japanese top sellers last week. Mind you the Pentax K-30 was in there with them. A year or so ago the Pentax K-r was at something like No: 12 Were would a Pentax FF be No: 500?..... Pentax need to push like mad on the APS-C front to get back in the top 20 ratings... unfortunately the forums aren't helping with all the bickering about FF

Precisely. The 600 and 800 are expensive and high end pieces of kit, yet are selling better than Pentax's 'mass market' offering. That has to tell you something.

All the arguments levelled against FF (lack of lenses, expensive, big, smaller market share etc) can be made x1000 against the 645D... yet they managed to bring it to market, to much acclaim.

The trouble is, they can push like mad on the APSC front all they want - people seem to like the idea of buying into a system with a true flagship model (which means full frame these days). Even if, for the time being, they will make do with a crop sensor entry level DSLR. With all APSC DSLRs being pretty good these days, having the flexibility to upgrade to FF without having to switch systems is a distinct selling point.

Sure, for now! But the rapid advances in sensor technologies (increased performance + improved value) over time will soon start to take effect in the FF arena as well. Once this has more effect then gradually those of us interested in image quality first will be able to migrate to FF, leaving much cheaper cropped ranges of cameras to the 'masses' (this is already happening with APS-C sensors becoming the norm on CSCs and bridge models.)

The FF DSLR will retain its advantage though,even over digital medium format models, as the bodies don't have to be hugely bigger than their APS-C siblings. Maybe Pantax will be at an advantage here - I mean, we already have a standard mount size (our old FF lenses already fit on), whereas other brands use a smaller mount on APS-C models I believe?, making their FF models significantly bigger.

Hmmm, problem with this sort of predicting, it almost says 'don't commit any more to APS-C'. I mean, for me, my K7 is still new, and for the sort of stuff that I shoot now perfectly OK, and with little cash to throw around there is little incentive to upgrade to a K5II.

Might as well sit tight and save for a new FF in a couple of years Not good for Pentax's immediate sales though

Not so. All of my Nikon lenses are FF and fit the D7000, all of my Minolta lenses are FF and fit the 7D.

Best regards

With a little help from a Dremel, Nikon, CZ or OM lenses will fit
Pentax but, Nikon won't quite focus at infinity. Canon have a
major advantage in that their mount allows thinner bodies and
most lenses from other marques will fit with an adapter.
It also gives them the advatage of a thinner body.

Also don't forget that the OM system took over 5 years to develop
so don't expect Pentax FF for quite some time.

An apples to oranges comparison.

What this is in fact saying is that Nikon's market share is so relatively dominant that their high-end niche products are outselling Pentax's mass-market offerings.

I agree with you completely on the first point, Algi.

But on the second part I humbly submit you ascribe waaaaay too much importance to the impact of what is said on these forums on what actually goes on in the market place.

Camera buyers are influenced by numerous factors from which side of the bed they get out of to whether the wife is presently of a bright and sunny disposition.

Purchase decisions involve highly complex social interactions and it is just not realistic to suppose that forum chit-chat is more or less influential than the myriad of other more or less trivial factors involved.

However, such a belief is nevertheless widespread and is closely linked to what the philosopher Karl Popper refers to as the conspiracy theory of society. It is interesting stuff, you should read up on it.

The sad thing about all this is that it's far from confirmed. All that was confirmed was that R&D was in progress, which we would have expected anyway. This might be very advanced and just waiting for the green light, or not so advanced and needing more work. We have no idea apart from a vague "from 2013", although it might happen if Pentax decide it's necessary ASAP.

I hope it doesn't dissuade people from buying now, because they could be waiting longer than they think. Of course, equally well I could be wrong, but I wouldn't personally hang around for something that's speculation.

I for one have decided on a k-01.... just waiting for a another big sale to go snap one up!