This is simply the use of computer circuits to keep track of the focus point setting on a particular lens when the camera is panned or recomposed. Obviously it only has relevance when depth of field is at a minimum. In real camera systems intended for general photography, focus point is not, contrary to popular belief, absolute. In any application where this is going to be able to work efficiently, or even demonstrably, it's going to be possible to achieve the same effect manually anyway.....

.......Frankly, this is simply yet more nonsense that complicates the process of making images to the detriment of basic technique and understanding, and no substitute for good design.

This is mainly bullshit,...sorry!..marketing hype....

Hassy has been slipping in it's sales recently due to it's thinking that by making it's digital back proprietry it would 'force' the use/purchase of it's system. However, many digital MF users waited for better and more versatile systems to appear which is now happening.

MF cameras did not even have auto-focus until fairly recent times when F&H added it to the Rollei 6000 series (?) Makes you wonder HOW we all managed to get such sharp pix for all those years!

Well since you are a pentax enthusiast, which make is better?.....

....I came to pentax for DSLR because of the anti-shake as I was doing lots of on stage shots at the time. Previously, I was going to buy a minolta system but they went to Sony. I may well change back to Sony when the a900 comes down in price. At the moment DSLR's are more or less a failed experiment for me......

....Hate the black plastic blob more than nextdoors dog!!

The annoying thing is that I could probably put a kx to use as the low light image quality is suposed to be good and HD video clips in the same box would be really handy......But, I'm not going to risk a camera with such a bad reputaion already for battery probs, mirror vibration probs, video probs...no decent sound. I can't help wondering if it's been purposely crippled by pentax so that they can ask even more for a 'next model' a little bit more sorted out. As it is the kx is VERY expensive for what it is.....

Yes, I do use pentax cameras although less and less at the moment as my new 5x7 and rollfilm cameras get more use now. My first pentax was an S1a bought secondhand in about 1970,..it still works well and is simple and easy to use without memorising a 200 page paperback that is so boring you can use it to fight sleep disorder.

At the present time I am very dissapointed in the pentax dslr models and hope that this once great and innovative make will see the light and start 'zagging while the others are still zigging' Pentax cameras at the moment are poorly designed and much over priced in the UK.

While people go on kissing the pentax bum there will naturally not be any improvement in design or value for money. Fortunately, the digital world is changing now and pentax will probably have to innovate or sink. Sites like this are vital in keeping pressure up on manufacturers to improve what they do. Remember, the black plastic SLR is now over 40 years old and was not the best design in the first place,..just easy for the industry to make. All over the web there is criticism of the camera industry and desires for more modern digital imaging systems.

As to whether I will be kinder to pentax in 2010, that depends on whether penatx is going to listen to it's many critics across the world, or continues in it's policy of deafness being the best way forward.....

So Sorry,...I got my words in the wrong order......

.....I intended to say 'poor spec and vanilla reputation'.

And, even pentax themselves class kx as an 'entry model' as do US buyers, not just 'the press'...whatever that is now....

Mind you, entry level users would be badly served with the kx as they would have to find their way around the various shortcomings such as battery problems, mirror vibration, poor implementation of various camera systems, difficult 'token' live view and 'marketing ploy' video which can't be used properly or even combined with stereo sound or external mic....etc etc

I think this is a great help to all UK camera/lens purchasers as it will sharpen up the attention of the UK sellers who are too comfortable with rip-off thinking. That kx is a 500 quid camera here is outrageous, bearing in mind it's poor reputation and vanilla spec, especially when the rest of the world considers it an 'entry level' item

Your're right as always John,..we have NOT seen it and we are not likely to for a very long time! They are only going to make 200 for the jap market initially...

.......so that part of this (about the 645D)is purely academic. So instead of 'shall we shant we' they could get on with some product innovation....

I would certainly like to see pentax using innovation and good design to explore other areas of the market like this rather than to go on making these 'me to' items, which are generally late to market and increasingly pricey.

This particular item is a ground breaking one in a small but vitally important market. It shows genuine innovation and product conception by essentially a tiny company. This is the kind of thing that pentax could do well and gain great stature from.

as things stand, pentax is about to re-enter the MF world late with a re-vamp of their already aged film camera. This is already out of date compared to other developments in digital MF and has very little to separate it from the better systems,...only availablility of 645 lenses and presumably cheapness!...not great incentives to buy such an item.

...Yet again we see a 'me too' product with no innovation late to market.

Well no, The pentax 645 is just an upgrade of the previous roll film camera and has a fixed sensor of only 30 meg pixels,..as I understand it(?) This camera is adaptable for all digital backs including the current 69meg modles and also for all main lens choices. Aslo offers use of movements and extreme wide angle facility...

....so no, completely different animal really,..a system rather than an upscaled black plastic blob that is already well out of date....

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/hartblei-cam.shtml

Note adaptors for pentax 645, 67 and 35mm lenses so, at last they can be used for high quality digital imaging.

.....Yet again a camera that pentax 'might' have come up with...