“It’s such a joy to use an SLR, that there is simply no substitute for this style of shooting” Pentax commits future to DSLRs

In an era when every major camera manufacturer is staking their claim on a mirrorless future, Pentax has doubled down on its commitment to DSLRs with an unusual new video and via a new website.

The decision is a bold one for Pentax, which has had offered no new DSLR since 2018's K-1 Mark II, although the Japanese company has hinted a new flagship APS-C DSLR will be available soon.

To help extol the virtues of the DSLR and, specifically, the optical viewfinder, the company has launched a new microsite and published an interview with president Shinobu Takahashi.

In it, he makes clear his affection for the DSLR-unique pentaprism, and makes it clear the company does not choose to make DSLRs or mirrorless cameras based on the technology, but instead on the picture-taking process offered by the pentaprism and optical viewfinder.   

While there's a fair amount of hyperbole in the video, it's clear the company sees DSLR technology as offering a more artistic way of seeing the world, and even goes as far as to subtly imply mirrorless technology can't compete with DSLRs when it comes to creativity. 

When you work with an SLR, the video says, you “view the image with your eyes and feel it with your heart.”

Bizarely, when speaking about the company's vision, Takahashi also simultaneously confirmed that Pentax is both commited and non-committed to mirrorless and SLR cameras.

“As I mentioned earlier, we aren’t prioritising either SLRs or mirrorless models. The thing that matters most to Pentax is developing SLR cameras that will provide our users with the ultimate pleasure of photography throughout the process of picture-taking.”

If Pentax do plan to commit the company's future to DSLR technology, it may be a smart decision considering many photographers still prefer using DSLR cameras, and the competition in the mirrorless space has never been greater.

But on the other hand it's also hard to see DSLRs having much of a future without a number of other players committing to the format, and especially so as mirrorless technology continues to get cheaper and more advanced.