Mr. Kitazawa (head of Pentax’s camera R&D) told to the Japanese DC Magazine that Pentax will devlop a mirrorless 35mm full-frame camera and they are also thinking to make a mirrorless version of their 645D medium format camera!
Damn what a news! That made my day. I certainly hope Kitazawa will make those dream cameras become real soon 🙂
23 Responses
This would be great, a mirrorless medium format camera would be much cheaper than the 645D….
yes cheaper indeed. no expensive pentaprism alignment. smaller compacter body. and re-uses the same sensor from the 645d for maximum costs savings.
pentax can easily compete with the canikon full frames if they can make a “645d mirrorless” at the same price points.
Pentax already got the Smallest(sensor..) Mirrorless (so far..) , he also want to got the Biggest(sensor) Mirrorless ? @@”
Wow, this is awesome if true. While I’m not sold on the usefuleness of medium format anymore seeing as how the next round of 35mm sensors are going to be over 30mp, I’m all for a 35mm mirrorless camera. I so miss small 35mm film cameras. “Full frame” cameras weren’t always the size of the D700 after all.
If Pentax makes it about the size of the Pentax ME Super they’d really have something different in the market. A camera half the size of the D700 (or upcoming D800/5D Mk III) with every bit of the image quality. Where do I sign up?
Too good to be true. If so, Leica glass will be even more expensive next year.
Pentax mirrorless MF make sense compared to Samsung MF in general. Mirrorless will make MF cameras more affordable than ever before, lighter, smaller, and with features we’re used to seeing on current 35/crop digital. Pentax already have a line of autofocus 645 lenses (also manual 645 and 67) that’s ready to be adapted. They don’t have to build many new lenses at once.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Sony is also going to go for FF NEX now that Pentax have announced FF mirrorless.
At any rate, competition is good for the consumer.
pentax ff mirrorless will bring leica back to reality. leica is so OVER priced. pentax “ccd” fullframe mirrorless can give you exact same quality at half the price.
and im sure they will be all sorts of adapters so you can mount superb leica lenses to pentax mirrorless.
Hope it will really come next year, remember that it took them 7 years to develop the 645D !
Now if they could use the incoming Sony FF sensors… but I think the K-5 uses a Sony sensor already.
A mirrorless MF would require a MF CMOS sensor for the live view. That would have to be custom design and stiched from multpile smaller chips. Possible, but hideously expensive. It would not be cheap, but would sell well by MF standards. Would it make profit, that’s a very different question.
A 35mm mirrorless with image stabilizer and M-adapting possibility and a competetive EVF, and I’ll buy the camera if under 2.000 euros.
why does live view need cmos sensor? the panasonic lumix lx5 (aka leica dlux5) is a ccd sensor, with no viewfinder. it has live view only, and fast autofocus. electronic shutter technolgy has really progressed.
now just make that sensor larger. not impossible for a ccd.
So far no medium format sensor provide good enough video support for Live View. It’s bound to come sooner or later though.
this is great news because of the way it will develop the mirrorless format. But i doubt that i will be able to afford a FF camera. How much do you think a pentax ff m.less would go for?
MF mirrorless is a lofty goal. I’ll settle on a mirrorless full-frame.
> Pentax will devlop a mirrorless 35mm full-frame camera
Do we need another large-lens mirrorless system?
Especially in light of launch of the Nikon 1, mirrorless FF becomes even more redundant than before.
IMO there would be much less glass/money wasted, if they’d concentrate on methods to achieve the shallow DOF on a small sensors instead.
>IMO there would be much less glass/money wasted, if they’d concentrate on methods to achieve the shallow DOF on a small sensors instead.
but how, going around laws of nature or something? they could stick a tacky blur background filter in the camera if that’s what you want?
sorry but I don’t see it
Sounds great, but its just wishful thinking.
I think quite a few landscape photographers would be interested in a Mamiya 7 sized medium format digital camera. Live view isn’t really necessary if it is a rangefinder based system.
The few results I’ve seen taken with the Pentax 645D suggest that a more compact camera with that sensor in would be attractive to landscape photographers. However, one of the larger sensors (e.g the 54x40mm with 80MP used in Leaf digital slrs) could be a better long-term option, albeit expensive.
I would absolutely hope for a mirrorless medium format. lighter than current high end dslrs and much better in image quality. I would definitely go for such a system. it might even be a bit cheaper than regular MF. look at how sony pumped up their APSC sensor in the NEX7. in good light and with decent glass they beat FF sensors. imagine what would be possible with a “EVIL” medium format. there is some pro assignments that already require 60MP mandatory. so resolution is still an issue in pro photography. I’d be thrilled with a EVIL medium format.
Gee all you MF mirrorless dreaming guys. It`s aleady there,if have the money. You just take any MF digiback and put it on whatever you want. Alpa, Cambo, Hassie Flexbody and so on. On top of that you can put fabulous Digitars from Schneider and you`ve got the suit.
I’d be more-than-content with a sensor the size and quality of the K-5 sensor on a mirrorless system. And if Pentax keeps its tradition of making its glass forward-compatible, it’ll be a home run.