Goodbye Asahi Pentax cameras?

As I recently wrote, it's become fun to follow camera technology. Pentax now has 2 interchangeable lens cameras, besides its line of digital single-lens reflex cameras (with mirrors). The 1st was the Pentax Q format, which is a flop because the sensor is too small, so image quality is not good.

Yesterday the former Asahi Optical Company announced the K-01 camera, which uses the old and excellent Pentax K mount, meaning that it can take advantage of many of the standard Pentax SLR lenses. This is great, but forces a number of technical compromises that may result in inferior performance. Unfortunately the camera is fairly large, despite the absence of the mirror. It has no viewfinder or manual controls. I fear that it is a victory of form over substance - a selling point seems to be the designer's name. Incidentally, the designer was featured in last week's NYTimes magazine, a badly timed piece if his Pentax design has the expected consequences.

One line of garden variety cameras, one line of too-small cameras, one line of too-large cameras. I fear that the old Pentax brand is doomed.

Perhaps Olympus will come out with a worthy successor to the OM-1 using the 4/3 format, despite the financial shenanigans of its managers. Fortunately, Fujifilm is cooking with gas. And there is Sony if you are more into the electronics that the cameras themselves.