And here it is the new Pentax NC-1 mirrorless system camera. It will come in different colors (Black, Silver and White) and three new lenses. Two lenses will be announced along the camera in May and a third lenses will be released 2-3 months after. It has a small 1/2,33″ sensor with 14 Megapixels.

The other good news is that there will be also a second APS-C sensor mirrorless system. That will be announced in late summer!

Pentax will be the first company to offer two different mirrorless system. What a surprise!

Photorumors found a leak inside an unnamed asian website. Those are supposed to be the specs of the lens:

• built-in hood lens
• built-in filter holder
• weather proof
• some kind of a special coating/lens element
• aperture range: f/4 – f/32
• 12 lens elements in 8 groups
• minimum focusing distance will be less than 0.5m
• internal focus
• 96° angle of view
• 25mm in medium format is actually very wide - aprox. 20mm in 35mm equivalent.

Image of the K-5 sensor spots

Pentax Japan announced that all users having a defect K-5 will receive free repair at our service center:

“We deeply regret that the first shipment of our PENTAX K-5 digital SLR camera included some products with a stained image sensor — a problem which we believe was caused during manufacturing — causing them to occasionally produce images with spots which look something like water drops, and which users cannot remove with ordinary cleaning methods.

All users of these defective products will receive free repair at our service center.

We sincerely apologize for any trouble and inconvenience this problem may have caused. We also promise to do all we can to achieve the highest level of quality control in the future, and eliminate any worries our customers might have about our products. We sincerely appreciate your kind understanding and cooperation regarding this issue.”

Meanwhile the silver K-5 gets leaked at Photorumors.

The picture above shows the first design of a mirrorless digital camera made by Pentax in 1997!!!

Photorumors reports that the first Pentax mirrorless camera could be the “NC-1″. We are wondering what the “N” and the “C” could stay for but that’s all Photorumors got. If the rumors we heard the last months are correct the NC-1 will be a camera featuring a smaller than APS-C sensor.
Let’s see if that rumor turns out to be true. We don’t have to wait much time, the first camera should be announced soon (March?).

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What a coincidence! First there was that statement on Dpreview: “Pentax on mirrorless: ‘we never rule anything out“. The day after Photorumors posted a new mirrorless rumor: “Pentax is currently working on two different cameras with interchangeable lenses. The first one will be a digital version of the [shoplink 1807]Pentax Auto 110[/shoplink] wich is actually a tiny SLR type camera (pictured on top).”

And now we form k-rumors received a rumor saying that the camera will be announced within the next 2-3 months and feature a smaller than APS-C sized sensor. The “real” APS-C sized mirrorless system will be announced late 2011.

I am surprised to hear that Pentax “could” announce two different mirrorless systems. It’s a real huge step (and risk?) but I like the fatc that Pentax is trying to have a different and multiple approach on mirrorless! Let’s see, soon we will know if all those rumors were true…

Ned Bunnell dropped a line to The Online Photographer and keeps adding fire to the mirrorless and fullframe speculation:

“I noticed a few reader comments suggesting you should have asked about our full frame and mirrorless plans. I hope your readers know that until a product is officially announced, there’s really not much that I or any other employee of Pentax can say about what is or is not in the labs. I should add that we do keep a constant eye and ear on the market and provide these insights, trends and user needs to our folks in Japan.”

Ned, we have no doubts the mirrorless cameras are coming

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The Online Photographer had the priviledge to interiew Ned Bunnell (President of Pentax USA). Ned gives us a lot of info about the product the K-7, K-5, K-x and 645D development history. He also unveils the existence of a new lens for the 645D medium format system: “We did announce at Photokina (although it might have been lost in the noise with other releases) that in addition to the new D FA 645 55mm which is shipping now, we’ll ship a 25mm ƒ/4 lens early next year. While I’m not at liberty right now to discuss any specs, we’ll keep you and your readers updated as soon as details become available.”

Thanks Ned, we all missed that Photokina news

P.S.:

The dutch forum pentaxian.nl just noticed a group of new lenses on a Pentax prenetation (See the image at Flickr). There seems to be a new 135mm f/1.8 lens. That lens looks quite different than the older [shoplink 3617]Pentax SMC PENTAX-A* 135mm f/1.8[/shoplink] Lens. There are also two new pancake (you can’t read the lens focal lenght and aperture). I have no clue now what those lenses could be…