More "Blurry" Photos of the New Pentax "Flagship" DSLR

Here are two more blurry photos from the Chinese blogger who shot and posted the "Mr. Blurry Cameraphone" images of the upcoming new Pentax DSLR, which is the new Pentax flagship body, I bet (I will explain why it should be, in more details below):-

http://ivyjopy.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9C2325683F4C3B9C!10525.entry?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=475368852

Edit 4-17 Evening: The above blog post and the "mode dial" image contained in it that was originally linked here have been removed. I have updated the link for a picture from another source which is a copied one by someone earlier. Btw, the (forced?) removal of those just reinforces the "creditability" of the pictures in which the DSLR shown should be *real* !

Well, I now know that the pictures are intentionally blurred as he could not disclose more information about the new camera. As such, posting clear images of the new products was just impossible. But however and in fact, the source of information is very reliable, as it has been told that that guy is actually an employee of the Pentax Shanghai, by a knowledgeable and long-time Chinese Pentaxian, Mr. Peter Fang.

But still, as seen from those three blurry pictures up till now, the following can be concluded, quite safely:-

1. It willl be a new flagship that replaces the K20D and it looks like a "more advanced" DSLR than the K20 (as already told by a Pentax Europe official in early March, here), judged by the looks of the new mode dial and dedicated metering selector level (that is like the old design of the *ist D, K10 and K20). Now the mode dial seems to have an unlock button in the centre which is very similar to the design of upper rank Sony DSLRs like the A900 and A700, or just what the old Pentax (P)Z-1/(P)Z-1p used to be;

2. It seems that there is no built-in flash/RTF for that new flagship, for the first time for a Pentax DSLR or even an AFSLR, just like what Canon have been doing for their upper rank DSLRs. It may also mean that the new DSLR has a bigger and larger viewfinder and/or the new DSLR has a larger sensor format so that the Pentaprism (also certain it is not a Pentamirror for such a higher model) is made larger and there is not much room left for the built-in flash. It will not be a Full Frame DSLR anyway, as it was also already told that the new DSLR will be marketed at price closed to the current price (range) of the K20. So, it is just impossible to have a Full Frame DSLR as that price. The sensor might be an APS-H or 1.3X one, with some little chance. Or, it is just still an APS-C one in the end? Anway, I really still want a built-in flash on any DSLR. Oh, No.. :-( ;

3. Or, it could mean that Pentax have finally adopted and implemented their patent of making a hybrid viewfinder with a colour electroluminescent display overlaid on the focusing screen of an optical viewfinder. This design will have practical meanings so that an "EVF" can be used for movie/video recording and somehow useful under the LiveView mode, which however is usually only required when the "optical" viewfinder is not accessible. Or, at least, worst comes to the worst, it can serve the purpose of a rich finder information display system like what the old Minolta Dynax/Maxxum AFSLR models or now what all Nikon DSLRs can do with an overlaid monochrome LCD display (and red LED illumination for AF points for most of them);

4. The DSLR has a top LCD, which can be seen very roughly from the second super blurry photo above, which verifies again that it is not an entry level model like the K-m.

So, will the new flagship has more unique and useful features which works better and more effectively/efficiently? I don't know and I really hope I shall not be disappointed this time. I do hope Hoya/Pentax could implement more of their registered patents into the new body, like this, for their old patented DSLR air suction dust removal and cleaning system, which I think the Nikon D60 and the latest D5000 have already adopted a very similar design. Nikon bought the Pentax patent?

And, what will this new "flagship" be named? If I am Pentax/Hoya, I would name it to be K-x, so that it can make up a line with a consistent name with the K-m. It does no harm as there was already the old film KM in the 70s and so did the film KX in the same decade - the old glory good days of Pentax/Asahi Optical Company. Pentax used to call their revolutionary models with the name "X", e.g., KX, LX and SFX and thus X would be an appropriate name. Why use small letter instead of Capital then? Small letter represent "small" cameras, which is compact and lightweight (relatively). Btw, in the meantime, we can still call this upcoming new camera to be K-x, where "x" simply means unknown! ;-D (Whilst there exists Pentaxian "disclosed"/suggested that this new DSLR to be named K7 (Why not name it K-6 or simply WD-40 if so? ;-)), I think it is just a stupid name afterall and surely won't help them better marketing wise, especially if their newer DSLR bodies seem not to be in a *family*. In contrast, K-m and K-x are, IMO.)

Okay, I expect there will be more leaks and some less "blurry" product images to be disclosed in the meantime as I believe there are much more selected Pentax beta testers outthere worldwide. So, let's wait and see. I shall always be here! :-D