Rumours are loose on the Internet about what will be the next generation of digital SLR photo cameras at Pentax. Even more, after some leaks organized by Pentax, it seems possible that the Pentax K30D will be a Full Frame camera, rushing to compete directly with the latest pro offers from Canon, Nikon and Sony. If we can judge from the previous products from Pentax, like the Pentax K20D, its price could be quite competitive and Samsung should integrate it into its own camera range.
A feature list can be extracted from the various elements currently available even if it is difficult to split between dreams and under-development reality.
- CMOS 21 MP Full Frame sensor (under development at Samsung)
- Sensitivity: 100-3200 ISO or more
- Improved Autofocus (faster)
- Continuous shooting at 3.5 fps (6.5 fps in reduced resolution)
A few important-to-mention contradictory comments:
- An interview of Mr Kitazawa (leader of development of Pentax K-m) suggests that instead of going Full Frame, Pentax would try to reach the 20+MP mark with an APS-C sensor, trying a technology breakthrough in image quality. But I don’t see why such an advantage would be more than temporary (if it can be done).
- In November 2008, there were a lot of talks about the use of a sensor in APS-H format (1.3x) with only 14MP resolution, but it’s source is uncertain and it was too precise to be exact for a product arriving only in mid-2009. Note that such an APS-H format has only been seen before on the Canon 1D series.