Pentax won't rule out mirrorless cameras.

Saw this on the "other"forum:

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Pentax_wont_rule_out_mirrorless_camera...

Not good news on the 645D though.

Not really bad news either, they just haven't decided, which is pretty much what their position has been all along.

If the 645D is a massive success in Japan you can be sure it will be rolled out elsewhere in due course.

Well I hope that the big year for Pentax brings us something exciting, and that they start dropping hint long before Photokina other wise it will 2011 that is the big year not 2010 .

Hmmm, have been sitting on a for sale list these last few days ready to post on the forum but haven't done so yet as I thought I would let it settle a bit first after Gareth, Huw and Richard.

Perhaps I will leave it a few more months now (scared myself silly when I added it up anyway).

I hope you stick around Mike. I'd hate to see you move to another brand and be lost to us photographically speaking.
Fingers crossed they come up with something good soon!

A mirrorless camera wouldn't be a bad thing - it seems as though that's the "hot" area of the market these days and Sony look set to launch two in the near future with an APS-C sensor (like the Samsung).

I just hope that Pentax don't cripple it by sticking with the K-mount. By all means bring out an adapter to allow all our current lenses to be used, but the main advantages of mirrorless designs are centred around the smaller sizes required. Give us an all new mount and make the registration distance even smaller than M4/3's and the throat bigger than the Canon EOS mount - then we could use pretty much anything from anyone with appropriate adapters.

Add a new line of "Micro-K" pancakes (rework the 21, 40 and 70) and you'd have a fantastic pocket camera system - I'd buy it!

seems like a cost cutting measure long term... the kx so close in size to the samsung mirrorless camera, the real issue becomes "which lens do I use?" a pancake makes it compact size, a zoom makes it compact slr sized for either camera....

If I was buying one of these evil cameras, my priority would be value. It should be cheaper than a true DSLR. Second in my mind would be IQ which should be the best available for the price. Third would be lens choice. Size would be my last consideration - as long as it was more compact than the smallest true DSLR.

So retaining the K-mount and apsc sensor would be a good thing in my book, at least compensating for the less compact size, providing the savings from not including a mirror were passed on in the price. As Don says, the Samsung NX camera is hardly smaller than the K-x anyway.

Doing it that way would give users the comfort of knowing they can upgrade to a mirror DSLR if they want in the future and retain their lenses.

actually the kx with pancake lens IS smaller and lighter than the nx with kit lens....

Womble uses a mirrorless camera and I have too at times, they aren't too bad.

Are you sure? I was looking at the NX in Dixons at Gatwick Airport the other day and it really is small. I dont know about weight since it was tied to the counter

Not the most portable of set-ups, however.

Most compacts of today are mirrorless to so it isn't all that exotic

This is the reply I posted on the Amateur Photographer Forum regarding the Pentax news item.

"Pentax engineers are continuing to pursue the possibility of launching a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera.... Pentax's Japanese HQ has not ruled out the launch of such a camera at a future date."

Well they'd better make their minds up quick or once again Pentax will miss the boat as many think they did with the advent of digital.

"It's quite clear that we don't want to be seen as the same as everyone else. We would go down a different route."

And there is potentially another problem. Being different is ok if you're a big player like Canon, Nikon or Sony, but perhaps Pentax would be wise to tag along the 4/3rds or Samsung NX route.

"Meanwhile, he said Pentax has yet to decide whether it will launch its 645D medium-format digital camera in the UK."

Or actually launch it at all..!! Its release date keeps passing and as yet no sign.
Since I wrote that it seems the 645D will(?) be released in Japan on May 20th.