The answer could come from Samsung, forever-partner of Pentax for digital SLR photo cameras. The network of informers in direct contact with Samsung keeps repeating that Samsung is ready to launch a new SLR camera, probably to be named GX-30, as soon as next 7th of July. Of course, this is soft music to the ears of Samsung lovers (I have to admit that they are more numerous in Asia than in Europe, by far), but it’s also source of wonderment in the Pentax lovers ranks. They immediately rushed to the near-obvious conclusion that the Pentax K30D is around the corner (since, usually, Samsung launches its copy of the Pentax design a few days or a few weeks after the Pentax original).

So, a Pentax K30D before the end of June? Then, a Samsung GX-30 right after that?

It’s not so sure. Pentax and Samsung could well be on the verge of splitting their strategies and going on different roads. Instead of sharing all of their SLR camera designs, the two brands could start diverging in 2009 and 2010. That would give a Samsung GX-30 which would not be a Pentax K30D…

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The most obvious point was the appearance of an ad for it.

Pentax new K7D

And a German user informed us that the name should be Pentax K7D. This would be good to start what is expected as a significantly new product line in the Pentax SLR cameras.

The proclaimed price tag is €1500.

Two locations on the Internet published notably different (though precise) feature sets:

From PentaxForums.com:

• Square (?) sensor 1.3x crop factor.
• A new, overhauled AF system
• Continuous shooting: 5fps or more
• 1.0x viewfinder
• 720p video with audio
• 1/8000s shutter
• 2.7 or 3.0 inch VGA res screen

From 43rumors.com:

• Same sensor as the K20D
• Sensitivity: Up to 6400 ISO with better noise treatment
• Continuous shooting: 5 images/sec
• 100 % viewfinder
• Better weatherproofing
• Mirror lockup
• Liveview and HD Video
• Better stabilizer.
• Better DRE mode
• 77 zones light metering
• Much better AF system even with non-SDM lenses
• 3 inches/ 920,000 pixels screen with in-body editing (crop, …)
• 1/8000s shutter with 1/250s flash sync

We’ll have to wait until 21 May…

Thanks to Mash and NeutralDay.

New Pentax on the left

Things are getting more and more difficult to understand in the rumour coming from Shanghai about the possible new Pentax SLR. After a first blurry image, we now get a photo which shows a group of Pentax SLR photo cameras and the one on the left cannot be identified as one of the existing products.

One would start thinking that there is somebody with a good information available and actively leaking information. In short, something like “The new Pentax will have…

• a new K20D-class body,
• but a smaller body,
• EV compensation,
• ISO buttons similar to the newest 645D prototype,
• and green button on the back as 645D as well.

From what was voluntarily leaked before by Samsung, Hoya and Pentax people, we can also assume that it will contain anything trendy like video capture, HDMI output, etc.

Now, there is something definitely weird. To me, this source of information seems too organized, too clean (despite the blurry look of the first image), to be an accidental leak. It smells a lot like viral marketing, or marketing exploiting the powers of the Internet to distribute whatever information the manufacturer wants us to know and understand.

I’d say that whatever is taken as fact from the photos is probably true, but any extrapolation or approximation must be forgotten. And, in the end, all this amounts to what has been made available by Pentax (and friends) already: A new smaller body, but no Full Frame in 2009.

I’m afraid we will have to wait.

Pentax SLR

We know from multiple sources that Pentax is preparing a new digital SLR photo camera that could be bringing a number of surprises including a significant change in the body form.

Rice High has actually found on a Chinese forum a blurry image that would be showing part of a new Pentax SLR photo camera. So, is it the Pentax K30D, the Pentax K3D?

It is difficult to be sure, but Rice High rightly points at issues that are deeply interesting. He pointed at the differences with a Pentax K20D to ensure that it’s not an existing model.

And he noticed that the original image was removed bringing credibility to the genuineness of the original images probably stolen during some beta-tests of the new photo camera.

But a question is still here: Is it really an SLR camera with this very small viewfinder block? It could be a bridge. If not, we are possibly looking at the Pentax K30D with an electronic viewfinder. Or more.

Pentax K20D

FotoMagazin, German monthly photo magazine, tells us the news in its lastest (April) issue: Pentax joins Olympus in the non-race. After Nikon whose Nikon D700 had shown an honorable restraint with its 12 mega-pixels only digital sensor (in 24×36 Full Frame sensor format), here is Gabriele Remmers, Marketing Communication Manager of the Division of Imaging Systems of Pentax Europe, who revels that today it is more important to bring out image quality, low levels of noise and deep details rather than a pixels explosion. End of the show! Let’s start being serious about quality.

I have to say that I fell in love with this Gabriele. In the interview, we can surprise her defending optical viewfinders (as the pentaprism of our SLR cameras) against Electronic View Finders (EVF).

But, for the most entrenched pentax lovers like some of our readers, she may have a surprise in store when she is questionned about the upcoming cameras. Speaking of 35mm Full Frame, she tells us that you will have to be very very patient. There’s nothing on the drawing table, Pentax is stuck with its range of APS-C “small sensor” lenses. No Full Frame before creating (shoudln’t I say “re-creating”) a full range of lenses targetting this sensor format (some extension of the current D-FA and FA ranges). And if you look into mid-size format, Pentax is still thinking about it but with a low priority (nothing to be expected in the short term).

So, what will be the next Pentax K30D? Quite certainly an APS-C SLR camera with a 12 to 15 mega-pixel sensor optimized for image quality, with an optical viewfinder looking through a nice pentaprism.

This is DC.Watch.Impress who was able to interview Taku Sendai, Product planning manager at Hoya (Pentax mother company).

Pentax 645 (Saquan Stimpson)

First of all, we get the confirmation that the 645 range of large format cameras will be the answer from Pentax to the Full Frame cameras from its competition. Let’s hear this again: No Pentax Full Frame, but 645 cameras (so, this is even better in terms of IQ, but more expensive and bulkier. Is it really better for all of us here?)

Furthermore, there will be a new photo camera before Summer 2009. Ah! Not really at the high-end of the SLR range (Rather an extension of the Pentax K200D) but with very advanced photo features and looking at the “consumer” level of requirements. So, probably neither a K30D, nor a K3D. Maybe some Pentax K300D, maybe a Pentax K3000D… As there seems to be no significant change in the lens range, the sensor should not change its size either (in my humble opinion, APS-C is still a very good option and dropping down to 4/3 sensor format would not be sensible for Pentax who got its fame with the APS-C sensors).

It’s clear that the SLR body will have a surprising form factor. Pentax decided to shock us all and I think it could go as far as dropping the usual SLR aspect either in favor of a bridge-like shape (let’s hope this would not come with an electronic viewfinder and its poor quality frightening the “serious” customers) or a HD-video-camera shape.

So, this is both good news for Pentax lovers and it may be disappointing for the those waiting for a natural extension of the current Pentax SLR range. Will it loosen contacts between Pentax and Samsung? Not sure. But 2009 could well be the year when Samsung and Pentax will cease to share the exact same model under different names and badges, splitting some of their design efforts.

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Who will be the first to bring this innovation? And I really think it is inevitable that it will come soon on our reflex cameras. Even if only because it reduces the number of needed buttons and it brings a certain flavor of technical progress that should appeal to most of the camera enthusiasts buying SLR cameras (just think about the unrelenting success of video modes which should -as a matter of fact- only be considered as anecdotal on a photo camera).

I think that it’s possible to list the best candidates for this:

• Low- to mid-range camera at Sony, like a Sony Alpha 400
• Entry-level camera at Nikon, like a Nikon D65
• Lowest price cameras at Samsung and Pentax, Pentax K3000, Samsung GX-3000 (and maybe even a mid-range option for these brands are striving to distinguish themselves technically from the market leaders)
• A complement to Panasonic DMC-G1 under the name of DMC-G2 or DMC-G3

This is all mere observation of technolody presence among the compact models (such point-and-shoot cameras like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T77, the Nikon S60 Coolpix, the Samsung NV34HD or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580). And there is more reality to these remarks than to most predictions about the launch of presumed major products at the next PMA fair in Las Vegas.

Visibly, the Nikon D400 is considered more worth of rumours and comments than any other possible future camera.

Scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of nikon d800 in the last 12 months.

pentax k30d 0  canon 500d 0.75  nikon d800 1.00  nikon d400 1.80

All the details on the Google Trends page comparing pentax k30D, canon 500D, nikon D800, nikon D400.