Apple Raw Support Updates for K-7 and K-x

About time! Get the update 3.1 For Digital Camera Raw Compatibility here (sorry, Mac OS 10.5.8 and 10.6 only!). Not just for Aperture, it will make iPhoto and Preview App play nice with your PEFs. But oh man, Lightroom 3 can't come fast enough.

Imaging Resource Interviews Pentax USA President Ned Bunnell

"If you take a look at some of our new offerings, whether it's the Kx in four different colors, or some of our new compacts such as i10 or H90, one of our beliefs is we can focus on the advanced amateur who really wants to explore and expand their photography, but they also want to have a fun time; photography should be fun. We also think that from a positioning standpoint, Pentax's history and knowledge of building small, well designed cameras bodes well for us. Products like the Kx and K7 being the smallest SLRs out there, they match really well with our Limited lenses, our really small, fixed focal-length lenses. And that's an area that really, we don't think anyone else is focusing on right now."
- Ned Bunnell @ Imaging Resource

Read the whole interview at Imaging Resource, here. Plenty of good questions from IR and sharp answers from Ned.

K-7 Limited Edition in Silver, Available March 1st, 2010

It seems that like the Cliff Swallows returning to 6,000 miles Capistrano each year, Pentax loves to return to its metallic finishes. Pentax Japan is prepping 1,000 limited edition K-7's in Silver (press release here). It'll ship in March with the K-7 firmware 1.03 (just released last week), a special "golden ratio" focusing screen (uhm, this is awesome... and I do want that), a reinforced back panel LCD glass plate, a gold "SR" stamp on the front, and a more leather-like grip.

Pentax 645D Fever

Pentax Japan has started running a teaser (pictured above, link here), and there appear to be some rumors and unofficial materials floating around about a KM-2 (12.4MP), some upcoming lenses (DA*10-16 f/4, DA*20 f/2, DA*28 f/2) and the 645D.

Granted, Pentax is likely working feverishly to build up to an official announcement about any or all these items early this year, and nothing's solid yet until that time. But it's certainly buzzworthy. Looks like another great year ahead (yep, last year Pentax JP crunched the numbers and is back in the black - link here).