D FA 21 Limited Dimensions and Derived Speed

Credit: DPR Pentax Forum OP zakaria

From this roughly to-scale drawing, putting aside the small perspective and other scaling errors, I do agree that the estimated filter thread is in 67mm. When compared to the FA 20 F2.8 lens which also had a 67mm front thread, the sensible guess of the maximum aperture of the new lens would be F2.8, too. It should not be a re-packaged FA 20 as the new lens is much longer, nonetheless. Good. ;-)

D FA* 85 F1.4 1st Samples

https://pentaxofficial.com/en/5548/

Looks good for the downsized pics, with EXIF for photos in the original link.

K-New Development Video Will be Put Online This Friday

http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/japan/event/2020/cp_ref/
(in Japanese)

In short, the video was originally planned to be played at the CP+2020 which was cancelled and now it will be put online, at Tokyo time 1200 hours on 13 May. So, let's see what happens and will be told.

A Closer Look at the Focus Screen Etchings of the K-New

A careful-minded Pentaxian at the DPR Pentax DSLR forum spotted that there were interesting etchings and marks on the focusing screen of the exhibit of the K-new prototype displayed back to September last year, here we go:

First we look at the center of the screen, there is an inner set of brackets of four, in addition to the central spot circle. Note that I have increased the contrast of the above and below pictures for the sake of easier viewing of the marks.

And then at the outer, there is yet another pair brackets of two which covers almost the whole picture frame horizontally. Hence, the AF area of this K-new as a DSLR, i.e. the TTL phase-matching AF, is really very wide. Good! :-D

Furthermore, at the upper right corner there is a mark of a letter "O" which is supposed to mean "Optical". This coincides my guess in the new year for the likehood of a new hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder in the K-new.  Really nice! :-))

I am happy this time, and so do many Pentaxians and fans, I suppose. Good news from Pentax (Ricoh) should come soon!

Replacing the Defective Rechargeable Battery for Pentax DSLR's Date/Time/Settings Memory

The below captions are self-explanatory and can be followed step-by-step:

Credits: https://polonai.se/scrapbook/pentax-k-r-date-time-forget-fix/index.html

Via post in the Cinese Xitek Pentax forum, with additional illustrating photos.

D FA 70-210 Had a Different Focusing Mechanism than the Original Tamron?

A Chinese full review on the lens reveals that the Pentax had a different focusing mechanism/method than the original Tamron SP lens, although the optical formula of the both lenses are the same. See the following official diagrams for the difference:

The Red Japanese words on the highlighted part just mean "focusing elements". The reviewer also writes that he tested the AF speed of the two lenses on the same objects and found that the AF of the Pentax lens was actually a tad faster. He hence suspected that it is owing to the less lens elements being moved for the AF with the Pentax lens. Note that the bodies used for the comparison test were a K-1 II and a Canon 5D III.

However, maybe owing to this change, it is also found that the Pentax lens however is less sharp when wide opened at both the wide and tele ends, which is not a good sign anyway, as image quality is affected. But it is also mentioned that the Pentax could be sharper when stopped down, on the other hand.

Nonetheless, the Pentax lens has much better coating than the Tamron, see this side-by-side comparison:

For the rest of his findings, just go read yourself. Note that Google translation is not working well as all the linked test pictures will become broken, anyway.

Leaked D FA*85 F1.4 Samples (in a Japanese Photo Book)

(Click to Enlarge)

Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/g9vW9Oc3xVI0zWJsx8qKZw

(in Simplified Chinese)

Partial Workaround for Body Aperture Block Problem with Lens Aperture Ring

First, you need to enable this in the Custom Function:

 

Second, you need to set the aperture ring of your K-mount lens out of the A position, provided that your lens has it:



Now, your semi-dead Pentax camera will work in the Av and M modes with correct exposure, as long as a non-A aperture position is selected. The credit of this clever method belongs to Mr M R Padmaraju of the DPR Pentax forum, the thread of his original post can be found here.

"There Will be No K-3II Sucessor, but a K-New Body of a New Line"

See what the Japanese Pentax insider Tanaka says:

http://thisistanaka.blog66.fc2.com/entry/1202/
(Google translated to English)

What we shall get is a K-3II based body with new sensor, new image processor, camera menu and much improved image quality as a result. No new feature of any is mentioned, though, e.g. the guessed new-type hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder.

Ricoh Will Release More Info of the New Flagship Soon

A post at the Chinese Xitek forum reveals that Ricoh is going to release more info about their new APS-C flagship via some channels and by phases, subsequent to the cancellation of the CP+, claimed source is from the Japanese Yaotomi Camera:

It is mentioned that Ricoh is still working hard to materialise the launch of the product, although it is delayed.