Article by: Miserere
The best perfumes come in small containers. I'm not sure who coined this phrase, but it has been long used by petite women while wooing men. As if men needed help noticing women. I'm sure we will see this phrase in one form or another being used in the market campaigns for one of the new large-sensor compact cameras starting to appear on the market. As if photographers needed help being tempted by new equipment.
When Panasonic and Olympus announced the new micro 4/3 standard in the first week of August 2008, the internet was abuzz with speculation and ideas. As with all vapourware announcements, activity died down rapidly as attention shifted to items that we may actually see in our lifetime. Then, out of the blue, Panasonic announced the Lumix G1 some 5 weeks later. Whoah! When did developments start happening this quickly? And why am I talking about a Panasonic camera on a Pentax blog?
Shortly after the announcement of the micro 4/3 standard, Samsung announced their new hybrid digital camera system, which will feature a 14MP CMOS APS-C sensor (like that in the K20D) and a new lens mount. Like the micro 4/3 cameras, they will be compact, mirror-less cameras and feature EVFs (electronic viewfinders). And they will be small. Did I already say that?
No mention was made of Pentax, but with their ongoing partnership (Samsung produces sensors for Pentax digital cameras, Samsung’s DSLR’s are clones of Pentax’s models, featuring K-mounts, and their lenses are also Pentax clones), we have to wonder whether Pentax will be involved somehow. I would find it unlikely that an electronics giant like Samsung would jump, alone, into a new camera system (in a new market niche) where its competition will be Panasonic/Olympus, another electronics giant backed by (or leading) a well-established camera company.
I, for one, am hoping Pentax will be involved in the hybrid camera project, a type of camera that photographers have been clamouring for since large DSLRs became the norm. After all, Pentax holds the honour of having built the smallest DSLR system ever, the Pentax 110, so it is no stranger to miniaturisation. Pentax also prides itself in offering some of the smallest lenses on the market through their pancake line of primes.
This hybrid camera could use a smaller version of the K-mount, and without a mirror, would allow the distance between lens and sensor to be significantly reduced enabling the design of a much smaller body. Via an adapter, standard size Pentax lenses could still be used, which would undoubtedly attract many current Pentax shooters. It would make sense for Samsung to build on an existing user base, and they would be foolish not to use Pentax for that. Although it might not have the numbers of other systems like Canon or Nikon, Pentax users are loyal, and are often attracted to the system in the first place because they value compact cameras and lenses, which Pentax started offering when they introduced their M lens series.
Of course, the hybrid camera would be launched together with a system of lenses, probably a mixture of compact zooms and even compacter, faster primes. Samsung would need the help of a company like Pentax to produce these optics. No matter how good the camera might be, if the lenses are not of the highest quality the product will crumble and fail in the market.
I look forward to a line of small Samsung bodies with micro K-mount lenses. A camera I can take with me when the size and weight of the K10D make it impractical, but I still want better image quality than I get with my P&S. This wouldn’t be a substitute for my full-size DSLR, it would be a complement.
I could be completely wrong and Samsung has decided they are strong enough to develop their own mount, start a system from the ground up and earn followers from scratch. They could very well hire a third party lens company, like Tamron, Tokina or Cosina, to design and manufacture their lenses. But would this be the most efficient way to break into this emerging market?
The new camera is slated to hit the stores in Spring 2010. As such, it will lag some 15 months behind the micro 4/3 system’s first offering. If Samsung is serious about dominating this camera segment (as Executive Vice President Byung Woo Lee has stated), they must offer a much better product than Panasonic/Olympus, and do so in a relatively short amount of time. Can they accomplish this without Pentax…? We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime I’m left wondering…will a Pentax in any other size still click as sweet?
When Panasonic and Olympus announced the new micro 4/3 standard in the first week of August 2008, the internet was abuzz with speculation and ideas. As with all vapourware announcements, activity died down rapidly as attention shifted to items that we may actually see in our lifetime. Then, out of the blue, Panasonic announced the Lumix G1 some 5 weeks later. Whoah! When did developments start happening this quickly? And why am I talking about a Panasonic camera on a Pentax blog?
Shortly after the announcement of the micro 4/3 standard, Samsung announced their new hybrid digital camera system, which will feature a 14MP CMOS APS-C sensor (like that in the K20D) and a new lens mount. Like the micro 4/3 cameras, they will be compact, mirror-less cameras and feature EVFs (electronic viewfinders). And they will be small. Did I already say that?
No mention was made of Pentax, but with their ongoing partnership (Samsung produces sensors for Pentax digital cameras, Samsung’s DSLR’s are clones of Pentax’s models, featuring K-mounts, and their lenses are also Pentax clones), we have to wonder whether Pentax will be involved somehow. I would find it unlikely that an electronics giant like Samsung would jump, alone, into a new camera system (in a new market niche) where its competition will be Panasonic/Olympus, another electronics giant backed by (or leading) a well-established camera company.
I, for one, am hoping Pentax will be involved in the hybrid camera project, a type of camera that photographers have been clamouring for since large DSLRs became the norm. After all, Pentax holds the honour of having built the smallest DSLR system ever, the Pentax 110, so it is no stranger to miniaturisation. Pentax also prides itself in offering some of the smallest lenses on the market through their pancake line of primes.
This hybrid camera could use a smaller version of the K-mount, and without a mirror, would allow the distance between lens and sensor to be significantly reduced enabling the design of a much smaller body. Via an adapter, standard size Pentax lenses could still be used, which would undoubtedly attract many current Pentax shooters. It would make sense for Samsung to build on an existing user base, and they would be foolish not to use Pentax for that. Although it might not have the numbers of other systems like Canon or Nikon, Pentax users are loyal, and are often attracted to the system in the first place because they value compact cameras and lenses, which Pentax started offering when they introduced their M lens series.
Of course, the hybrid camera would be launched together with a system of lenses, probably a mixture of compact zooms and even compacter, faster primes. Samsung would need the help of a company like Pentax to produce these optics. No matter how good the camera might be, if the lenses are not of the highest quality the product will crumble and fail in the market.
I look forward to a line of small Samsung bodies with micro K-mount lenses. A camera I can take with me when the size and weight of the K10D make it impractical, but I still want better image quality than I get with my P&S. This wouldn’t be a substitute for my full-size DSLR, it would be a complement.
I could be completely wrong and Samsung has decided they are strong enough to develop their own mount, start a system from the ground up and earn followers from scratch. They could very well hire a third party lens company, like Tamron, Tokina or Cosina, to design and manufacture their lenses. But would this be the most efficient way to break into this emerging market?
The new camera is slated to hit the stores in Spring 2010. As such, it will lag some 15 months behind the micro 4/3 system’s first offering. If Samsung is serious about dominating this camera segment (as Executive Vice President Byung Woo Lee has stated), they must offer a much better product than Panasonic/Olympus, and do so in a relatively short amount of time. Can they accomplish this without Pentax…? We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime I’m left wondering…will a Pentax in any other size still click as sweet?
Thank you for reading and let us know your thoughts and comments,
Pentax DSLRs
8 comments:
Although no Hybrid camera or new venture with Samsung will be announce at Photokina, let me tell you that there will be good news and introduction of several new...I can't tell, but you will like the new stuff.
On Monday September 22, 9:00 A.M. Cologne Gernmany time, Pentax will announce their new products. That will be 3:00 A.M New York time or 12:00 A.M California time. Check this blog site as we will simultaneously post the new products on the blog.
As for the Hybrid camera, I too hope that Pentax gets involve in developing such camera.
All the best,
Yvon Bourque
I have an Auto110 and really enjoy it -- the lenses are really beautiful little things. (Both in the pictures themselves and just as objects.)
But Pentax -- and Samsung, for that matter -- have never produced anything really great in the point & shoot digital camera space, which makes me a bit skeptical. It's pretty unlikely that the theoretical new system would work with the Auto110 lenses -- not enough out there to make that a worthwhile design concern.
And if the lenses aren't compatible with my existing Pentax equipment, there's no reason for me to not go with Panasonic or Olympus (both of which have a history of making very good P&S digitals, even if Canon outsells them).
Hmmm. Although if it could act as a wireless controller for the Pentax P-TTL flash system, that'd be a draw.
Those were precisely my point, Matthew. If Samsung doesn't use the K-mount as a starting point (make the mount smaller, but based on the K-mount specifications), then they will not make a K-mount to micro-K-mount adapter that would allow us to use our current lenses. If we cannot use the lenses we have, then we, the Pentax community, have no added incentive to buy the new camera.
Panasonic and Olympus have been smart here. Even with the adapter, an Olympus pancake lens is still going to be quite small, and it's the body that takes up most of the space in a DSLR, not the lens, especially if it's a prime.
I don't think Pentax without a mirror would 'click' at all. But it'd be great nevertheless. I don't see Canon and Nikon doing it for quite a while (they're too big to enter a new niche so easily).
I have read about the Panasonic G1 using the micro 4:3 mount. In comparison to Olympus, there is a difference, and that is Oly uses in body stabilization while the Pana G1 uses lens based stabilization.
If Samsung and Pentax were to go this way, using a micro K mount, I believe that if they used a common stabilization of the in-body type, there would be a great deal of synergy to this.
The other aspect to this is the Pentax lens design capability however coupled with Tokina's design and possibly lower cost production, there may be an even greater advantage here.
While I am still here, Pentax and for that matter Hoya who purchased Pentax wants a profit. There is greater profit to be made by upscaling P&S to a hybrid dSLR type camera system, than there is moving current users from an APS-C format to a full frame format. I would think that FF is not in Pentax's current sights. Hoya is now vertically integrated lens, optic design, camera design, third party lens, and a very good camera name. The association with Samsung provides an extremely good IC foundry (a foundation for digital optic/camera systems), so everything is in place. I would think that this would be an very nice move, Samsung establishing the risk free market entry for Pentax (essentially, a beach head), with Pentax ramping up with a full family of a camera body and lens (Pentax/Tokina design and production). Pentax taking the advanced market with Samsung taking the lower part.
All of this done with out risking Pentax's brand at all - though I really doubt that it would fail.
If they share a common stabilization system, then all the Pentax lenses with an adapter to the micro K mount would work as a bridge into the smaller lighter newer lenses.
I see my body and lens investment safe with this strategy and will thus wait for the first micro body. I was liking very much what I was seeing with the Panasonic G1. I would think that a Samsung/Pentax micro K would have everything I am looking for.
I don´t know, but a Hybrid camera concept is very different than DSRL.
Samsung need Pentax for the K-mount, just K-mount and this is for DSLR, if Samsung launch a system like Panasonic don´t would need K-mount.
The two most famous and important superzoom compact camera were the Panasonic FZ50 and Samsung Pro-815 with a very good Schneider-Kreuznach lens.
The NV series is very elegant and useful and I have not doubt he new Hybrid camera will have that concept.
Samsung could use the Tamron or Schneider lenses for this new system, the mount is new and don´t necessary must be "micro K-mount".
Like Panasonic, this Hybrid System will be only of Samsung...
PS: Olympus is follow Panasonic...
Anonymous, we agree pretty much on everything.
Alexander, I'm not predicting that Pentax will be involved in Samsung's new project, I'm *hoping* they will.
The m4/3 system is not only Panasonic's. Not only will it's cameras accept Olympus lenses (via a converter) but Olympus will also be releasing m4/3 bodies and lenses.
All we can do is sit and wait...for about 12 months :-)
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