> > As I've said before, I think Pentax has plans for electrical contacts > (for USM, electronic aperture control, etc.) in places where the > "aperture simulator" is located on the original K mount . . .
I'd be very surprised if they used that part of the lens mount for new purposes; it would probably make mounting *all* existing lenses impossible. I think the mechanical aperture sensor was dropped for purely pragmatic reasons; it wasn't necessary - there was already an alternative control on the body which was just as good as the aperture ring (and, in fact, superior in the case of variable-aperture zoom lenses). This meant that all exposure settings were directly made on the body using electronic controls, rather than physical settings. I wouldn't be totally amazed to see a bidirectional remote control that replicated the info display & thumbwheels, and talked to the camera using a bluetooth-enabled grip. One thing that argues aginst this scenario, though, is that they've dropped the power zoom contacts from the mount. While I personally won't miss them I'd have thought it might have been something you'd want in an electronic remote. There again, though, that would really need a remote viewfinder to see the framing - not really feasible, even at the pixel count of the LCD display.
