David wrote:
> Dave O'Brien writes:
>
> > Pentax could easily make an F5 killer from the Z-1p if they gave up on
> > small size. Just upgrade the AF and the fps, and add the interval
> > timer back.
>
> I'm not sure that Pentax would want to go down that path. BTW that body
> would have to be an absolute dream-camera to pull people off the F5.
I doubt it. People who want an F5 will buy one if for nothing else but for the Nikon
name. Pentax should stick to making pentaxes. A case in point is Canon who for about
20 years tried to make Nikon F series copies; they even copied the name calling theirs
F1. Canon didn't really get of the ground in this price segment until they ignored
what Nikon did and started making Canon's. Hence, whatever Pentax do in the upper
classes they should make Pentaxes.
> My ideal camera would see a return to separating the motordrive from the
> body. There are times when small and quiet are paramount.
They should but is it realistic?
I can see only one possible reason these day for removing motor drive from the camera
body. That is if they decide to keep the mechanical shutter. It then makes sense. It
also means that all power hungry parts must be detached from the camera, pretty much
like Bob and others have suggested. This means that the basic camera body can work
with modest battery resources.
However, getting full AF and motor drive will make the camera big and heavy but not
more so than the F5.
Todays trend is including everything in the body and the idea is to turn off the
features you don't want. It may bring value for money but do nothing for reducing
complexity or for reducing size and weight. When a high end AF 35mm slr weight more
than an AF medium format slr with built in motor drive it stops making sense. At
least, such 35mm photography is then only about convenience not portability.
The problem is that a highly modular slr could be very expensive. For one thing,
Pentax have said that the LX sucessor won't maintain interchangeable viewfinders (That
was five years ago - they might have changed their priorities). This most likely due
to conflict with metering. I'm convinced that Pentax choose OTF metering in the LX in
order to make it easy and affordable to use interchangeable viewfinders without
affecting metering.
Pål
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