Ultimate Savior for Pentaxians who Had been Hoping for a True K-mount Mirrorless (with Eye-AF etc.)

 A Chinese adaptor manufacturer has announced (Google translated English here) the world first full function K-mount to Sony E-mount adaptor, which will be made available by the end of this year 2020 (and is earlier than the launch date of the upcoming K-3 III)!

This adaptor will have screw-driving AF motor and aperture motor built-in and will support full auto functions of all K-mount lenses (possibly without any aperture block problem ;-P). The manufacturer states that the adaptor will first support A/F/FA/DA/DFA lenses which are screw-driven for the AF and will support SDM/DC/PLM AF function at a later stage via firmware upgrade.

They also mounted the three FA limited onto a Sony A7 III body via their adoptor, of which the combos look really tempting! :-D

And, their also shown a "video" to show the AF in action with the FA77 Limited, which the AF speed seems reasonably good enough, as long as the animated gif was not accelerated. ;-)

After all, I will almost certainly buy this adaptor (as I bought my A7 III two years ago) and still own more than three dozens of the Pentax or K-mount lenses (and most of them are AF ones). Possibly I shall skip and not buy the K-3 III as I found my KP is actually better for my use and shooting style. :-(

Related:  My Pentax Lenses are Given Completely New Lives!

K-New is Delayed

See what Mr Tanaka said a few hours ago:

https://www.twitter.com/thisistanaka/status/1317335422540763136

Google translation of his post as follows:

"It seems that the next model of PENTAX, for example, will be "a little later" than my expected (expected) release date.

I wanted to get it quickly and try it, but I can't help it. Do you want to be patient and wait? As with other manufacturers, given the circumstances surrounding cameras today, we will have to struggle to make better ones."

Pentax (Ricoh) is really helpless and sad these days.

Too Much Bullshit about the K-New by Ricoh Pentax Recently

The talks by Ricoh Pentax become more and more absurd recently. This time they argue on keeping the old body design without any flipped monitor.

This move again disappointed many Pentaxians. Live viewing and framing will become difficult on quite some occasions. Even worse, it is widely believed that the K-New does not even have any GPS module built in. And, they compared the thickness of the K-New against the K-1, which is utterly nonsense.

A Pentaxian at the Chinese Xitek quickly compared the thickness of the K-new and KP and he proved that the two cameras actually measure similarly, even the KP equips with a flipped monitor.

 

 

So, the fact is simply that Ricoh Pentax has been too lazy and too mean to build a newer and better featured body but opted to modify the old K-3/II's one in a very moderate way. Period.

Notice: Copy and Paste of Text and and Saving of Pictures within Blog are Disabled

In order to avoid possible copyrights infringement, which I could see from my Blog log from time to time, the copy and paste of text and saving of pictures and images within my Blog are disabled, with immediate effect.

Thank you for your continuous support and happy reading and viewing! :-D

Yaotomi Camera Speaks More about the K-New (aka K-3 III Now)

Japanese Yaotomi Camera has just twitted yesterday and disclosed more information of the K-New, now tentatively named as the K-3 III.

And the launch/marketing date will be delayed to the year end, but should be within 2020.

Yaotomi originally also wrote about the expected price tag of the K-3 III but it was deleted shortly after that. Their explanation is that it was their own "guess" only so it was improper to write about it.

Nonetheless, Yaotomi still keeps their guess that the K-3 III is positioned between the D500 and D7500 if Nikon DSLR bodies are compared. Hence, we can expect the price should be somehow in between but closer to that of the D500, as it was normal that the Pentax new bodies were selling at higher prices than the competitors' comparable offers.

Last but not least, Yaotomi also disclosed that another two announcements would be made before and after the K-3 III announcement, for the K-1 II Silver body and also the three silver DFA lenses, respectively, in their original twitter post.

EISA Awards 2020-21 for Photo Gear

EISA has announced their awards this year for photographic equipment:

https://eisa.eu/awards/photography/

Without any surprise, there is no Pentax gear on the list. Just because there was only one new product of Pentax last year. And even worse, without any innovation, what achievement is expected? :-(

Ned Bunnell Demonstrates How Good the Old Pentax Glass Could Be (Re: A* 85 F1.4)

Ned Bunnell, ex-CEO of the Pentax Imaging USA (which was named), published some of his recent pictures taken with his A* 85 F1.4 on a K-1 II,. See this Flickr set of his:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/85492092@N03/sets/72157714981262381

I like both the colour rendition and the micro-contrast of the lens reproduced, which could look better than what is produced by the latest D FA*85 F1.4, from the various samples that I have seen so far. I think Ned is also a good photographer, too, as I could feel the mood of his photos in a good way.

Speaking of Ned, he is actually a nice and good guy. I dropped him a few emails for my suggestions and comments when he was the CEO and I was the (in)famous "Pentax basher" decade ago. Whilst many Pentax fanboys did hate me much and had to beat me to death whenever I spoke, Ned did always respond to my every email in a polite and respectful way. I think it is not easy for him, as the top management of Pentax, to not ignore an "enemy" like me and I believe that he is an humble and open-minded guy after all.

DPR's Sample Gallery of the D FA* 85 Published

https://www.dpreview.com/samples/1659227315/pentax-d-fa-85mm-f1-4-sample-gallery

Resolution wise, undoubtedly it is very good, near wide opened and from corner to corner for the whole image frame. Vignetting is also minimal at wide opened at F1.4.

But, it seems that the lens does lack some micro-contrast. The images in gallery do not look that three dimensional or "airy" after all. The colour rendition is also not that exceptional, IMHO. The old FA* or A* might look better in those two specific image quality aspects. My two cents, though. YMMV.

One More Practical Test of the D FA*85, with Full Samples

http://pentaxfans.net/thread-164498-1-1.html

(in Traditional Chinese, Google translated English page here)

Indeed, this set of photos taken just by an ordinary Pentax user does look better than the set created by the Pentax official Japanese professional photographer IMHO. Despite that some pictures taken at high ISO still look soft when viewed at pixel level, which is just the primitive problem of the K-1II and is actually unavoidable.

Note that original full sized samples are available for viewing and download via the user's Flickr album here.

DC Watch Reviewed the D FA* 85 F1.4, with Bundle of Full Samples

https://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/newproduct/1270372.html

(in Japanese, Google translated English page here)

Enjoy! But it looks to me that the photos are a bit odd in tone. And, it seems that they are not as airy, transparent and bright as those images produced by its predecessors A* and FA* 85 ishes. But afterall, I blog, you decide, as usual. :-D