No AA filter for future Sony models?

Pentax’s new K5 IIs – a 16 megapixel DSLR with a proper glass prism giving nearly 100% view and 92% scale – is a variant of the improved K5 announced overnight (British time) without an AA filter.

You might be interested in Pentax when you learn that their new SAFOX AF assembly goes down to EV -3 sensitivity, which is twice the low light sensitivity of any Sony AF unit so far made – and to date, no company has bettered the low light ability of Sony AF modules. You don’t get anything better than Sony even from Canon and Nikon, when it comes to operating in low light.

But now you do, you get Pentax at twice the sensitivity. You also get the entire SAFOX module offering f/2.8 accuracy, not just the centre spot. Bear in mind that the latest 15-zone and similar assemblies used by Nikon, Sony and others actually only offer a fixed f/5.6 accuracy. Pentax has just leapfrogged AF technology, moving (in theory) from a rather conservative SAFOX to a new design we’d say was more SAWOLF than mere FOX…

And then, from a company famous for softish images (the 645D is the softest medium format camera around) we get a Sony 16 megapixel sensor stripped of its AA filter.

Will there be a Nikon D7oooE or more likely D7100E? Will we get an A37E or – in our dreams – an Alpha 580E?

Got to say that if I was jumping ship Pentax would be the first rope this rat would look to be running up!

– DK