Ricoh Japan has announced that the Pentax K-1 Mark II release date will be April 20, and the company’s new full-frame K series camera will begin shipping.
Chief among the Pentax K-1 II’s new features is an upgrade to the K-1’s Pixel Shift Resolution System, which is now called Pixel Shift Resolution System II and includes a Dynamic Pixel Shift Resolution mode. Of this upgrade, Pentax says:
In addition to the innovative Pixel Shift Resolution System — the super-resolution technology that uses the camera’s in-body shake-reduction mechanism to capture four images of the same scene by shifting the image sensor by a single pixel for each image, then synthesizes them into a single composite image — the PENTAX K-1 Mark II also features the Pixel Shift Resolution System II, which obtains RGB colour data for each pixel to produce super-high-resolution images with finer details and more truthful colours than those produced by ordinary full-frame sensors. In the new Dynamic Pixel Shift Resolution mode, which can be used during handheld shooting, this system can be used jointly with the camera’s shake-reduction mechanism, since it synthesizes the captured super-high-resolution images by detecting the slight fluctuations of the subject’s position during continuous shooting. The camera also provides ON/OFF switching of the Motion Correction function, which detects moving elements of the continuously captured images to minimize the effect of movement during the image synthesizing process.
Other features include a top sensitivity of ISO 819,200 and Pentax’s PRIME IV image processing engine.
Interestingly, while Ricoh’s website lists an April 20 release date, Pentax Rumors notes that B&H Photo Video and Amazon in the US both list the K-1 Mark II as shipping from April 11.