Pentax K-02
K-mount fans will be looking for reasons to keep the faith
SADLY, there’s not been a lot for Pentax fans to celebrate in 2018. The K-1 Mark II was a relatively minor update to its fine flagship DSLR, and while the high- end Pentax FA* 50mm f/1.4 SDM AW announced back in 2017 is finally on sale, its £1,200 price point is £300 higher than the Tokina Opera 50mm f/1.4, the optical design of which it appears to share.
As with Olympus, though, this year’s apparent inactivity may be something of a smokescreen. Because 2019 will mark the centenary of the foundation of the firm that went on to become the Asahi Optical Co Ltd and later the Pentax Corporation, before it was acquired by Ricoh in 2011. Hopefully the current owners will deliver some suitably attractive new products to celebrate this momentous birthday and prevent the demise of this much-loved brand.
Last year we asked for an affordable full-frame ‘Pentax K-2’, and we’d still love to see such a camera. This would be a lighter, simpler version of the K-1 Mark II, perhaps using a design more like the mid-range APS- C Pentax KP, and pitched around the £1,400 price point. It would be great for loyal Pentax users who still own a treasured collection of film- era lenses.
A vintage lens vehicle
The snag, though, is that old lenses without any electronics don’t work very well even on the K-1 Mark II, requiring manual exposure and stop- down metering. But one solution to this would be to make another camera, using broadly the same body design as the ‘K-2’ but without a mirror, and using an electronic, rather than optical viewfinder. Experience has shown us that old manual-focus lenses can work really well on mirrorless bodies, with accurate focusing and metering.
This wouldn’t be the first Pentax K-mount mirrorless camera – that was the strange, boxy K- 01 from 2012. But modern technologies and a more conventional design could make the concept worth revisiting.