[quote name='popo' timestamp='1324297999' post='13907']
Only quickly skimming the blog, but the term "mirrorless" is thrown around a lot, not DSLR (or SLT). I get the impression it is a mirrorless camera they're talking about. I long thought there was a gap in the market there for something more modern than the Leica offerings.
More interestingly there is a suggestion in there Canon will finally be joining the mirrorless party, although I've not dug into it yet to see what was actually said.
[/quote]
A mirrorless K-mount camera would have the same lens-mount register distance as a DSLR/SLR K-mount lens, so it would have more in common with the mirrorless Sony Alpha bodies (than the Sony E bodies). That is, both have an unnecessarily deep and empty space where the mirror used to be (whether it's filled with a pellicle mirror is moot). It's not as optimized or as flexible as a new mirrorless specifc mount.
That said, we are seeing that the short flange distance of the E mount is only an advantage for relatively moderate focal lengths. For the wider-angle lenses, performance improves alot with retrofocus designs which lengthens the effective mount distance. For telephoto lenses, the total length of the lens-to-sensor converges with increasing focal length.
So, and considering that Pentax already has the smallest SLR lenses in the market, a mirrorless K-mount system would still be pretty small. A K-x/K-m/K-r with the penta-mirror hump lopped off would still be pretty small. Even the old ME-Super film bodies were pretty small. A penta-less ME-Super sized digital body with the current DA Ltd pancakes would be a very attractive system.
Only quickly skimming the blog, but the term "mirrorless" is thrown around a lot, not DSLR (or SLT). I get the impression it is a mirrorless camera they're talking about. I long thought there was a gap in the market there for something more modern than the Leica offerings.
More interestingly there is a suggestion in there Canon will finally be joining the mirrorless party, although I've not dug into it yet to see what was actually said.
[/quote]
A mirrorless K-mount camera would have the same lens-mount register distance as a DSLR/SLR K-mount lens, so it would have more in common with the mirrorless Sony Alpha bodies (than the Sony E bodies). That is, both have an unnecessarily deep and empty space where the mirror used to be (whether it's filled with a pellicle mirror is moot). It's not as optimized or as flexible as a new mirrorless specifc mount.
That said, we are seeing that the short flange distance of the E mount is only an advantage for relatively moderate focal lengths. For the wider-angle lenses, performance improves alot with retrofocus designs which lengthens the effective mount distance. For telephoto lenses, the total length of the lens-to-sensor converges with increasing focal length.
So, and considering that Pentax already has the smallest SLR lenses in the market, a mirrorless K-mount system would still be pretty small. A K-x/K-m/K-r with the penta-mirror hump lopped off would still be pretty small. Even the old ME-Super film bodies were pretty small. A penta-less ME-Super sized digital body with the current DA Ltd pancakes would be a very attractive system.