PMA is about a month away so the rumor mill is slowly building steam. The K100D has been cleared from Pentax’s site and I can see why the K200D would replace it, but the Super hasn’t been around a year so I don’t see it disappearing. It’s safe to say that the K100D’s replacement is coming, but the photos of the K200D look pretty fake. They look sloppy. The grip looks shaved down, which is going to suck because that’s one of the great things about the current line. The card access lamp has been taken from below the Fn button to the top of the four-way controller. It just seems stupid to do that. The lens unlock button is a full circle as opposed to a half moon. The rest of the controls look the same. The addition of RAW on the fly would be amazing. There’s a weird button next to the shutter release. Check the photos for yourself.
Pentax K200D Photos Surface [Photography Bay]
Pentax K200D 4 images [DP Review Forums]
FWIW, the K10D has Raw on demand, a circular lens release button, as well as “that weird button next to the shutter release” (which is used to reset Program mode, as well as other functions depending on the mode selected).
If I were Pentax, I would be making the K200D and K20D more and more similar for parts-sharing purposes to cut costs. That would mean the K200 would benefit from some of the advanced features available on the K20, resulting in some of the above-noted controls.
In terms of form factor, it looks a bit like my K10D with regard to grip size, but I’ve not held a K100 so I can’t speak to any differences there.
That’s what the green button does? I’ve seen that on other Pentax cameras, but my K100D S is sans such a thing. I’m thinking this is a PS job. I just don’t see the point of making such small changes to the body when the internals are more important. Am I right?
I know these additions and movements are relatively small, but if it’s a move towards mold/chassis -sharing between the K20/K200, it would make economic sense. I guess we can’t really know until we find some purported pics of the new K20D (which I would have thought would be out first).
By the way, I’m not denying that these are possibly PS jobs, only noting that if they are, whomever created them studied the K10D and implemented a lot of small detail buttons (such as the unmarked one next to the shutter release) when creating the images.
FWIW, some of the other gadget sites are reporting these as real.
Well, that makes more sense. And I agree that the K20D should be out first and the K100D S hasn’t been out a year yet, which makes me think this is PS job. Doesn’t really matter, though. We’re ALL looking at the same sources and others can claim they’re real all they want, but only time will tell.
I really could care less what modifications are being made to the body as long as the previous rumors about upgrades are true. It certainly makes sense for Pentax to streamline the production of both lines to cut down costs. We’ll see what happens in a month, I can’t wait to get my hands on whatever Pentax is going to release.