Pentax Q system camera - announced!

[kimchi]

This won't be available in the country I'm in anyway. I never saw a Pentax in the last country I lived in either. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a Pentax in a shop for about the last 5 years or so.

It's kinda pointless releasing something if half the globe will never see it.

It's a shame because I searched high and low for the K-x when it came out, but Pentax was incapable of selling me one.

[Bob Andersson]

I hope this huge marketing mistake will explode in Pentax' face...

Well, you might be right. If this CNET Asia report is to be believed:

None of the ILCs can natively handle lenses designed for APS-C or full-frame cameras,
but they all provide adapters to facilitate backward compatibility.
Pentax has no plans to ship an adapter for old lenses.

Stupid, or what?

Bob.

[Razvan]

This is so much more stupid considering Pentax' strong marketing gimmick of 40 year-old lenses that could be use on their digital cameras. For this system however,you will only have crappy Pentax optics,with distortsions,CA & very limited sharpness.

Think about it! A APS-C sensor takes the middle part of the full-frame designed lenses. How would a compact camera sensor behave with a full-frame lens attached? (considering that there were adaptors for lenses like Zeiss) The same principle with APS-C lenses on a compact camera sensor,it would be a huge waste of money,to end up with mediocre results.

[popo]

Because of the big crop factor, using SLR lenses on this system only makes sense as a cheap manual focus effective long focal length system. For example, a 24mm wide angle is suddenly 135mm effective. I think that is very niche, and who's going to carry around a bunch of SLR lenses to use on a tiny camera? So Pentax not doing an adapter for such seems reasonable. You can guarantee someone in the far east would knock them out regardless so keep an eye on ebay in the not too distant future if you really want to get one.

It would make much more sense for example if they offered a C mount option. Many of which are designed for smaller sensors so will be more logical in use.

I think the Q system needs to be looked at with the SLR hat firmly stowed away. If you judge it as a SLR, of course it can do nothing other than fail.

[Bob Andersson]

.
I guess I'm in a minority, then. But, given the paltry initial offering of glass, two of which are "toy" lenses, if you can't leverage the body with other lenses via an adapter then you might just as well, as was suggested above, go for something like a Canon PowerShot G12 which actually has a slightly bigger sensor which is sealed from both dust and pocket fluff!

Yes, I'm sure third party adapters will be produced if Pentax sells more than a handful of Qs but given the investment needed to launch the Q it seems extraordinary that Pentax won't make an adapter available themselves.

Bob.

[Razvan]

I'll make a bet that the Panasonic LX5 (which I tested from a friend & was very impressed with,both built & overall quality) will make better photos than the Q-thing. I will test them in comparisson,as soon as my country will get the Pentax.

[Bob Andersson]

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But all I want is a Pentax K lens adapter for Pentax Q, something you'd think Pentax would make simply out of politeness to it's existing DSLR customers. Then I could attach the Q body to a telescope via a T-Mount T2 Lens Adapter for Pentax K, a $10 part.

Oh well, the camera isn't even going to ship for a few months yet so there's no point in worrying about it, especially not until we see the reviews. At least Pentax have chosen to go with a back-lit sensor. Rumour has it that it's the same sensor that features in the Nikon Coolpix P300 which has reviewed quite well so far as the sensor is concerned with "reasonably" smooth images up to ISO 800, courtesy of noise reduction (source). Not at all bad for a point and shoot.

Bob.

[Bob Andersson]

Hi folks,

I asked the folks at Pentax UK "Does the new Pentax Q support tethered shooting via USB? In particular, Live View on a computer monitor as well as camera control by the computer."

They answered in the negative. Here is the relevant passage:

In our terminology this feature is called a Remote Assistant and is implemented in cameras like K10D K20D (DSLR).
Unfortunately Pentax Q does not have such feature.

Disappointing as it kind of rules out the Q as a glorified webcam for astronomical purposes. Surprising to me as well as I'd have hoped that with all the connectivity in place it would have been a standard part of any modern camera firmware even though the Q is unlikely to find a home in a professional studio.

Bob.