Pentax is coming with a “Big surprise” next year!

Well known and very reliable Pentax source “Asahi Man” just shared this on the Dpreview forum:

It’s time to put this senseless speculation to an end…
Nope,Pentax will not going out of photo business…
There is a very, very internal roadmap…. Cameras and lenses…
A nice fullframe line up is in sight, no sign for going out of business.
Next year is the big anniversary,don’t forget this point.
I know,the most forum users here, will be surprised.

My speculation is that also Pentax will launch a new Full Frame Mirrorless next year. I hope they will noin one of the existing FF mirrorless systems. I really cannot see them competiting all alone against the big giants.

In three years Sigma expects their lenses for mirrorless to account for 70% of all sales

Dpreview published their Sigma CEO interview. And there is a lot of interesting info but I am only reporting two of them here:

This is what he said about the mirrorless future:

Within three or four years I expect our mirrorless mount lens sales to be much bigger than for DSLR. Maybe 70% to 30%.

This is what he said about the Canon EOS-R

The 50mm F1.2 and 28-70mm F2. Very impressed – and a little jealous! They’re possible due to the wide diameter and short flange back. Otherwise such lenses would be very difficult or impossible. Having the larger elements at the rear of the optical system makes it easier to achieve good performance at large apertures.

He confirmed indirectly what Leica manager said about the E-mount…it’s really not optimal for lens design.

New DPreview and Kai Wong tests of the Fuji X-T3

On top you can watch the new review of the Fuji X-T3. At the same time Dpreview also posted a preview of the new Canon EOS-R:

I suspect that most users that will invest in an EOS R will be mid-level enthusiasts (i.e. Rebel and EOS 80D upgraders) that are most interested in the larger sensor and the fact that it says ‘Canon’ on the front; I also suspect they’ll not be terribly interested in the fact that it’s Canon’s first ‘serious’ mirrorless offering. Unfortunately for those users, if you come to the EOS R with expectation of how a Canon camera ‘should work,’ you’re likely to be frustrated for a bit. You’ll be much better off approaching it with an open mind.
All that said, we’re not meaning to let Canon off easy on this one. There are definitely some aspects of the EOS R that need to be refined or reworked (the default out-of-box action for the M-Fn Bar is to cryptically flash ‘not available’ at you), even for a less demanding audience. We’ll of course be addressing those when we complete our full review. In the meantime, for those of us waiting for Canon to usher in a truly revolutionary camera built around the new RF mount, one aimed at more demanding users and more demanding use cases, I think we’ll just have to wait a little longer.

X-T3 preorders are now open at Bhphoto, Adorama and Amazon. In Europe at ParkCameras, Calumet.de. In Australia at CameraPro.

And here is Kai Won’gs take on the camera: