Like whoa! There’s a ton of stuff swirling about Pentax’s Photokina lineup and multiple sites are reporting on it, so try and stick with me here. The German Pentax site “leaked” images and specs for a brief period of time and many of those at the Pentax Forums and dpreview forums were quick to gobble them up.
Gunning for the true entry-level DSLR audience, Pentax will announce the K-m along with some lenses next week in Germany. The K-m appears to be smaller than the current crop of K-series bodies, but it packs the same Sony sensor that’s in the K200D, 10.2-megapixel. It’s unclear whether or not Pentax has made the move to rechargeable batteries and it seems to be a point of discussion, but we’ll have to wait and see. The ISO was bumped up to 3200, it still has a 2.7-inch LCD and there’s still no Live View. But the fps was bumped up to 3.5, which should make some folks happy. The pricing on the kits for the K-m seem to be extremely competitive, but it’s all in Euro at the moment. A new DA L 18-55mm lens with plastic bayonet and weather sealing will run 499 Euro while a dual lens kit that includes the DA L 18-55mm and a DA L 50-200mm lens will increase the price by 100 Euro. There’s mention of a “help” button and I’m curious to see what that’s all about.
Also leaked was an smc DA* 55mm F/1.4 prime portrait lens for 549 Euro. A new ring flash, the AF160FC will also be announced for 399 Euro. A DA* 60-250mm lens is also slated for 1299 Euro. A DA 15mm f4 lens and an SDM 1.4x rear converter were also mentioned. Again, like whoa!
1001 via RiceHigh via dpreview via Pentax Forums via dpreview via Pentax Forums