Sorry guys ☹️

Hi Guys, it’s with a heavy heart i have to tell you i have sold most of my Pentax kit & defected to Sony. I must say, i have no regrets being with Pentax for nearly two years & i have taken some of the best photos i have ever taken. Since my K-3ii had been playing up i was faced with either replacing it or as i was liking the Sony A7 range, getting one of those. I hung on pinning all hopes on the fact the k-3ii replacement might be unveiled at the Photokina show, but nothing. With the range of longer focal length lenses being sparse, & Pentax seemingly not moving on, i opted for the route i have. I just want to thank everyone on this forum for being so helpful & nice,i have learned allot from here, & i putting that alongside my past experience when i was a Canon man, the Pentax users are far more willing to help, & are a much nicer bunch to be associated with.
I have some kit i will put up for sale soon. Which is a 2x teleplus mc4 converter, a vivitar 90mm macro & matched 1:1 converter, a brand new aftermarket cordless remote release, a corded remote release, an as new Clubman 28mm f2.8, my macro extention tubes - 2x 31mm 2x 21mm & 2x 13mm.
All the best

Steve

No need to apologise. Sony is attracting customers from lots of DSLR companies because the’re innovating and are very competitively priced.

This situation is cropping up more and more and the content is usually very similar. People want to stay with Pentax, they really do, but Pentax has not been delivering in areas people want.

Hope to see you able to return some day.

That’s not entirely fair, You mean what some people want. There are those who have returned to DSLR from mirrorless due to issues with low light performance. We have just seen the announcement of a GR III as well as the recent high spec lens with more to follow. If and when Pentax release a mirrorless body it will use the current K-mount, not need to make a new one like the others so again seamless use of new and existing lenses. The FF body was slow to come to the market but when it did it was a winner, so who is to say the same won’t happen with mirrorless?

Steve I hope you enjoy your Sony gear and that it serves you well.
I am one of the lucky ones for whom Pentax give me everything I need in cameras and lenses.
At our camera club we have about 60 members and within the last few months 4 members have switched from their old brand to Fuji, they were all Canon and Nikon users. The all electronic solution is clearly appealing to a lot of folks.
We had one guy go from Nikon to Sony after about a year he was back with Nikon. I think the all electronic solutions offered by the likes of Sony and Fuji get a lot of very positive on line media coverage which can help sway people. No doubt though that they can offer certain functions that work better than in a more traditional based camera.
As I say I'm lucky and happy where I am, shoot in RAW, use manual mode 90%, sometimes using Tav, my simple needs to photograph fulfilled.

I really hope not. If Ricoh do make a mirrorless, I think they would be foolish not to have a new mount. They would be depriving the lens designers so much. Far better to do what Canon have done. Introduce a new mirrorless mount with a much reduced flange/sensor distance. But at the same time provide an adapter so that the K Mount lenses can still be used. So many times it has been said that Pentax/Ricoh have fallen behind because they havenb't adopted new things or have done it too late. Yet here is another "suggestion" that Ricoh should cling to the past so just the existing customers are pleased.

In answer to richandfleur (AKA a troll)

The other man's grass is always greener .....

Sony colours are terrible...

https://petapixel.com/2018/10/09/is-sonys-color-science-really-that-bad/

Their Pixel Shift is a monstrous pig to use...

Their water resistance still resembles a leaky boot...

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2018/02/taking-apart-the-sony-a7riii-in-search-...

Their lens mount was designed for APS-C..... unless they looked into the future.

I could go on, but I'm bored
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In reply to Kim C, Canon and Nikon have both enlarged their mounts to accommodate a moving sensor as well as bringing the lens closer to the sensor which brings its own challenges with lens design - think of the increased angle to the sensor edge. Pentax is unique in having a moving sensor for all its DSLRs and still probably gets more out of this feature than anyone else, and that is because the K- mount is large enough already, with its roots back to 35mm rather than the dawn of digital with smaller sensors.

Good luck Steppy - I think you've made the best choice for you. I suspect there are plenty of others considering the same route.

I might as well re-post something I posted in another forum....

Having a thinner body isn't an advantage with a lot of 'Big Boys Lenses'

If the rear element is set back into the lens body, such as with a lot of zooms and all long telephotos. The lens body can't be shortened and has to be even longer or use an adapter. That's the last thing I'd want. Even longer lenses especially on an unbalanced system.

On a Sony the tripod bush is very close to the front of the camera leaving only a small area to handle the compression when it's on a tripod with a long lens. So a mount on the lens is essential.

Pentax DSLR's have it right

You might have a thinner body, but the hand grip part usually has to be a lot thicker and the advantage of the thin body is is lost when several of your lenses have to be about 30mm longer. (Nikon mount).

Example this 400mm is 200mm long it would be 230mm for a mirrorless mount.

http://kmp.pentaxians.eu/wp-content/uploads/bojidar/lenses/primes/_optics/400f5....
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Surely a tripod mount on a long lens is the correct way to mount it though, you wouldn't want to hang a heavy lens off the front of your camera without support (I'm thinking about my Sigma 100-300f4).

Personally I don't care for the way skinny cameras feel anyway, still miss my K10D for ergonomics.

Some 300mm Pentax lenses don't have a tripod clamp. Plus smaller lenses are becoming heavier i.e. D-FA 50mm f/1.4

One big disadvantage in reducing the space behind the lens is that it makes 'FUTURE DEVELOPMENT' of things like tilting lenses and filtration almost impossible.

Pentax are probably unique in having quite a bit of composition shift/adjustment available via the floating sensor.

Sony's only have rear screen tilt in one direction which makes it useless in portrait mode. The K-1 has it in both directions.

The Pentax K-1 + D-FA 50mm f/1.4 + Pixel Shift is probably the sharpest FF camera on the market today.

Some more shots from the Tokina Cousin ...
Click the box on the lower left of each picture to see full size.

https://www.kenko-tokina.co.jp/tokina/ogawa/opera.html
https://www.kenko-tokina.co.jp/tokina/opera.html

I've not looked too close, but the Canon camera looks not quite up to the job

Pentax still make a hell of a lot of gear

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Yes it does address those points but not the sensor/flange mount difference. OK, it may not appeal to long lens users but in many ways a DSLR is better for that tham ML

A big problem with elements close to the sensor is that any dust will be picked up by the sensor. Nikon Z users are going to have to keep their rear elements spotless

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Have they fixed the light leaks around the lens mount with their own native lenses yet: link ?

I would have hoped so, seeing that the post was over 4 years ago and that model has been updated twice since then. I have had no problems with my A7.
"The interesting news is that, unlike some companies in the past, Sony has readily admitted there is a problem

I wonder who they were getting at!

I won't mention lens motors or duff shutters ………...Ooops I did

John