Pentax K-01
Posted 05/02/2012 - 18:56
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ronniemac wrote:
Just did a Google image search on "Pentax K-01". Try it. This camera is certainly generating massive interest, which must be good news for Pentax. I seriously think that on balance the design will do more for sales than if it had been retro. Pentax is thinking ahead with this future design classic. And still puting image quality first.
I agree with your comment, as a marketing move, it seems to be generating a lot of visibility to the Pentax brand. And we are already on page 25 on this thread! Just did a Google image search on "Pentax K-01". Try it. This camera is certainly generating massive interest, which must be good news for Pentax. I seriously think that on balance the design will do more for sales than if it had been retro. Pentax is thinking ahead with this future design classic. And still puting image quality first.
Personally, I think the yellow version looks great and unlike any other camera.
Posted 05/02/2012 - 20:27
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Algi - that's quite a lot actually as they were on sale at £349 new (now £379)! I dithered too long about the two lens kit at £479 and it's gone back to £549
Matt
Matt
http://www.mattmatic.co.uk
(For gallery, tips and links)
(For gallery, tips and links)
Posted 05/02/2012 - 20:42
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Amazon This item k-01 is due to be released on March 12, 2012.
k-5 IIs, Pentax 60-250, 17-70, 100macro WR, 50mm F2,
AF50 F1.4, Siggy 10-20, Siggy 100-300 F4, ..Pentax Af 160 ring flash
AF50 F1.4, Siggy 10-20, Siggy 100-300 F4, ..Pentax Af 160 ring flash
Posted 05/02/2012 - 21:17
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Just came across a very interesting interview with Mark Weir, "Senior Manager of Technology and Marketing, Sony" conducted at CES.
The full interview is here but a few highlight follow:
The full interview is here but a few highlight follow:
Quote:
Industry-wide, it's clear that 2011 was a year in which mirrorless came into its own. It's no secret that the adoption rate of the mirrorless category in the US relative to, say, areas like Asia is not as great. I think most know that the mirrorless portion of the interchangeable-lens camera business has been hovering just a bit below 10% for the two years that mirrorless has been available.
. . .In the US. Starting a couple of years ago, it was a small fraction of the interchangeable-lens camera business, and it rose steadily to 5, 6, 7 percent, whereas in Asian countries mirrorless as a percentage of total interchangeable-lens cameras rose to 20% fairly quickly.
. . .the adoption rate in the US is a bit slower than it has been in other areas, but now in 2011 as more manufacturers have entered the category . . .we see that that rate has grown quite a bit. . . and is actually pushing towards 20% in November and December.
Industry-wide, it's clear that 2011 was a year in which mirrorless came into its own. It's no secret that the adoption rate of the mirrorless category in the US relative to, say, areas like Asia is not as great. I think most know that the mirrorless portion of the interchangeable-lens camera business has been hovering just a bit below 10% for the two years that mirrorless has been available.
. . .In the US. Starting a couple of years ago, it was a small fraction of the interchangeable-lens camera business, and it rose steadily to 5, 6, 7 percent, whereas in Asian countries mirrorless as a percentage of total interchangeable-lens cameras rose to 20% fairly quickly.
. . .the adoption rate in the US is a bit slower than it has been in other areas, but now in 2011 as more manufacturers have entered the category . . .we see that that rate has grown quite a bit. . . and is actually pushing towards 20% in November and December.
Quote:
the mirrorless camera segment, or the compact system camera segment was originally conceive. . to appeal to those users stepping up from a compact point and shoot camera, who consider an SLR and choose not to buy one, typically because of size, weight, complexity, things like that.
That was the conventional wisdom, and I do believe in the long term, that will be the primary appeal for these cameras.
However, during the early adoption stages, I think it's been pretty clear that a more enthusiast-focused customer has been a larger percentage of the purchasing than most-anyone would have expected, so typically we see middle-level models performing very, very well and being very high-demand, even more so than the entry-level models.
And I think that that's changing as time passes, because more and more of the original core customer, the entry-level customer who's stepping up from a point and shoot to an interchangeable-lens camera, I think more and more of those customers will come in, and then naturally the entry-level models will become more and more popular.
But at least at first, at least through the first couple of years of CSC evolution, that hasn't always been the case.
the mirrorless camera segment, or the compact system camera segment was originally conceive. . to appeal to those users stepping up from a compact point and shoot camera, who consider an SLR and choose not to buy one, typically because of size, weight, complexity, things like that.
That was the conventional wisdom, and I do believe in the long term, that will be the primary appeal for these cameras.
However, during the early adoption stages, I think it's been pretty clear that a more enthusiast-focused customer has been a larger percentage of the purchasing than most-anyone would have expected, so typically we see middle-level models performing very, very well and being very high-demand, even more so than the entry-level models.
And I think that that's changing as time passes, because more and more of the original core customer, the entry-level customer who's stepping up from a point and shoot to an interchangeable-lens camera, I think more and more of those customers will come in, and then naturally the entry-level models will become more and more popular.
But at least at first, at least through the first couple of years of CSC evolution, that hasn't always been the case.
Posted 06/02/2012 - 05:40
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Interesting quotes Shaky.
http://frogfish.smugmug.com/ Pentax. Pentax DA*300/4, Cosina 55/1.2, Lens Baby Composer Pro & Edge 80, AFA x1.7, Metz 50 af1.
Nikon. D800. D600. Sigma 500/4.5, Nikon 300/2.8 VRII, Sigma 120-300/2.8, Zeiss Distagon ZF2 21/2.8, Zeiss Distagon ZF2 35/2.0, Sigma 50/1.4, Nikkor 85/1.8, Nikon TC20EIII, Nikon TC14EII, Kenko x1.4, Sigma 2.0
Nikon. D800. D600. Sigma 500/4.5, Nikon 300/2.8 VRII, Sigma 120-300/2.8, Zeiss Distagon ZF2 21/2.8, Zeiss Distagon ZF2 35/2.0, Sigma 50/1.4, Nikkor 85/1.8, Nikon TC20EIII, Nikon TC14EII, Kenko x1.4, Sigma 2.0
Posted 06/02/2012 - 08:03
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Buyers need to be very careful here... It's obviously very attractive to manufacturers to sell cameras that are cheaper to manufacture and discontinue the more traditional type of camera. If it hadn't been for companies such as Leica the rangefinder would have died in the 50's. IMHO the 6x6 folder was killed off far to early.
Also don't forget what almost happened in the music industry, they were considering dropping vinyl and selling just Compact Cassettes which would have left us in a right mess. Luckily CD (which the music industry didn't want) saved the day. It won't be long though before they consider dropping CD's and going 100% download.
It's up to the consumer don't buy into systems that aren't really in your interest. The figures quoted above 10-20% could be just someone buying a 2nd camera..... but the man from Sony doesn't seem to be reading it like that He thinks 10-20% don't want and won't want DSLR's. CSC Evolution Eh!!
Also don't forget what almost happened in the music industry, they were considering dropping vinyl and selling just Compact Cassettes which would have left us in a right mess. Luckily CD (which the music industry didn't want) saved the day. It won't be long though before they consider dropping CD's and going 100% download.
It's up to the consumer don't buy into systems that aren't really in your interest. The figures quoted above 10-20% could be just someone buying a 2nd camera..... but the man from Sony doesn't seem to be reading it like that He thinks 10-20% don't want and won't want DSLR's. CSC Evolution Eh!!
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber
Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff
Algi
Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff
Algi
Posted 06/02/2012 - 09:04
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Algernon wrote:
It's up to the consumer don't buy into systems that aren't really in your interest. The figures quoted above 10-20% could be just someone buying a 2nd camera..... but the man from Sony doesn't seem to be reading it like that He thinks 10-20% don't want and won't want DSLR's.
That’s not right Algi, it’s actually the opposite of what he is saying.It's up to the consumer don't buy into systems that aren't really in your interest. The figures quoted above 10-20% could be just someone buying a 2nd camera..... but the man from Sony doesn't seem to be reading it like that He thinks 10-20% don't want and won't want DSLR's.
He is broadly speaking of thee segments defined by technology and ranked in order of ascending sophistication;
1. Point & Shoot
2. Mirrorless; let’s call them CSCs
3. dslr.
CSC’s being a new technology are to a certain extent cannibalising market share from each of the surrounding segments.
But to his surprise he is seeing enthusiasts accounting for a large proportion of CSC sales. And enthusiasts by definition already have decent systems read dslrs and by extension are precisely buying second CSC systems.
Further, I would have thought it logically follows the reason enthusiasts are buying second CSC systems is because they are after something more portable than what they have already; unfortunately that doesn’t seem to bode well for the K-01 supersize design ethos.
As for the 20% marketshare, I don’t interpret his comments as implying it is a ceiling, although the exponential growth seen in Asian markets must by definition slow at some stage. I believe he rather sees it as a sort of threshold, beyond which the growth poses a significant threat to the existing dslr segment.
Posted 06/02/2012 - 10:15
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Shaky wrote:
Further, I would have thought it logically follows the reason enthusiasts are buying second CSC systems is because they are after something more portable than what they have already; unfortunately that doesn’t seem to bode well for the K-01 supersize design ethos.
The man from Sony said that he expected the P&S upgraders to become the main market (the high uptake of enthusiasts initially was because of a latent demand for something more compact to supplement their DSLR). Further, I would have thought it logically follows the reason enthusiasts are buying second CSC systems is because they are after something more portable than what they have already; unfortunately that doesn’t seem to bode well for the K-01 supersize design ethos.
The K-01 looks like a fairly inexpensive product to develop and bring to market, and will probably do OK by Pentax standards while not troubling Sony and Panasonic too much. But perhaps more importantly the design will put the brand in the spotlight as it prepares to launch two DSLRs which will be more appealing to enthusiasts.
Posted 06/02/2012 - 10:52
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(Reply to Shaky's post)
Only time will tell... but no photographer or even manufacturer (considering how many there are) is going to want to pay for maintaining a range of lenses in more than one mount. It will be a nightmare for the likes of Sigma, but the camera manufacturers won't be concerned about that
Regarding size the NEX 7 looks small until you put a lens on it, if you look at the plan view link the actual "film plane" mark looks closer to the front of the camera than the back, the cameras 66mm wide so that's about 33mm or greater, so a camera with the "film plane" closer to the back will be smaller (to the front of an identical lens) than the NEX 7.... even the K-5 is only about 20mm and the K-01 is only 13mm which is a massive 20mm better than the NEX 7
So anybody buying a second camera thinking it's a lot smaller is making a big mistake if they want to use it with a lens, which I assume most would.
Only time will tell... but no photographer or even manufacturer (considering how many there are) is going to want to pay for maintaining a range of lenses in more than one mount. It will be a nightmare for the likes of Sigma, but the camera manufacturers won't be concerned about that
Regarding size the NEX 7 looks small until you put a lens on it, if you look at the plan view link the actual "film plane" mark looks closer to the front of the camera than the back, the cameras 66mm wide so that's about 33mm or greater, so a camera with the "film plane" closer to the back will be smaller (to the front of an identical lens) than the NEX 7.... even the K-5 is only about 20mm and the K-01 is only 13mm which is a massive 20mm better than the NEX 7
So anybody buying a second camera thinking it's a lot smaller is making a big mistake if they want to use it with a lens, which I assume most would.
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber
Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff
Algi
Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff
Algi
Posted 06/02/2012 - 11:15
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One of the things that would concern me with the thin CSCs is the strength of the lens mount. There's nowhere for seriously solid support.
The K-01 looks much better in this respect and I'd expect it to withstand more leverage before damage ocurred. Not that I stress my camera mounts, but heavy telephoto lenses could be a risk.
The K-01 looks much better in this respect and I'd expect it to withstand more leverage before damage ocurred. Not that I stress my camera mounts, but heavy telephoto lenses could be a risk.
Best regards, John
Posted 06/02/2012 - 11:28
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You don't really need a strong beefy lens mount with the small CSCs, as they're really designed to be paired with smaller lighter lenses. If you mount a big lens their compact size no longer makes sense. A DSLR or DSLR-like camera is a better bet for long teles handheld IMO, because of their heft and their eye-level viewfinder.
I have seen pictures of people using huge telephoto lenses with NEX type cameras, but the lens is supported on a tripod with the camera 'mounted' to the lens - of course there's no issue there as the camera itself is very light.
I have seen pictures of people using huge telephoto lenses with NEX type cameras, but the lens is supported on a tripod with the camera 'mounted' to the lens - of course there's no issue there as the camera itself is very light.
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