Exclusive Photokina 2012 Interview with Pentax

9/19 Interview about the recent announcements, a full-frame, and more!

By PF Staff in Photokina 2012 on Sep 18, 2012

Now that Photokina has officially started, things at the event have changed quite a bit!  Today near the Pentax booth, we saw dozens of Pentax executives representing nearly all of the company's global divisions.  Among the people who we met was Mr. Jim Malcolm, the new Executive Vice President of Pentax in the US.  He seemed to be a very pleasant individual who was truly enthusiastic about the future of Pentax Ricoh, and we are therefore looking forward to seeing him in action and working with Pentax under his leadership!  After having talked to him, we now believe more than ever that Ricoh will get Pentax to make a very strong comeback in the photo industry, delivering exciting products to enthusiasts and newcomers alike.  Malcolm assured us that Ricoh would continue actively developing products for all three Pentax camera systems (the K, 645, and Q mounts) in the future, just as we had been told in the past.

We also had a chance to talk to Mr. Hiraku Kawauchi of Pentax in Japan, whom we interviewed at CP+ earlier this year. He will be joined by Mr. Andre Dierickx as well as other Pentax representatives in an exclusive PentaxForums.com interview to be conducted at Photokina tomorrow!  We will be asking the interview questions together with Mika Cruz, owner of the Spanish Pentax store "Pentaxeros," and co-author of the official letter to Pentax about making a full-frame camera.

The interview will consist of a total of twenty questions, some of which are very technical in nature, while others relate to more general concepts.  We will be posting the full interview transcript and video as soon as possible- likely tomorrow in the afternoon (US time).

When we interviewed Mr. Kawauchi earlier this year, we learned the following:

"Pentax DSLRs will continue being a key part of the Pentax lineup, despite the fact that no new DSLRs have been announced so far this year.  We expect to see two new DSLRs later this year: an intro-level replacement for the K-r, and a replacement for the K-5 (likely to be on display at Photokina)"

At the time of the interview, Pentax had not announced any new DSLRs for almost a year and a half, which was getting a lot of Pentaxians worried.  However, just a few months later, what our interviewee told us turned out to be true.  Kawauchi also told us that the prospect of a Pentax full-frame camera was not a mere myth, and we are sure that this will also prove to be true at some point in the very near future.  We'll be sure to ask for updates on the topic tomorrow!

The Pentax K-5 II / K-5 IIs Report

Very positive findings at Photokina

By PF Staff in Photokina 2012 on Sep 20, 2012

We have to admit that prior to arriving at Photokina, we were not overly-impressed by Pentax's announcement of the K-5 II and K-5 IIs.  The two new cameras seemed to share almost everything in common with their predecessor except for a few minor changes, and they were already outclassed in some areas by Pentax's mid-range K-30, which was launched this summer.

Pentax K-5 IIs

However, after trying the camera out and gaining a deeper insight into the hardware after our interview with Pentax, we're confident that the K-5 IIs is in fact a significant upgrade over the K-5 in terms of not only autofocus and handling, but also, and most notably, image quality.

In total, four major changes distinguish the K-5 II from its predecessor:

  • A new autofocus system with improved accuracy and reduced latency, able to make measurements in as little as -3EV ambient light
  • A new air-gap-less LCD screen designed to be easy to see when outdoors
  • Improved firmware with better stability and new AF features, including AF area expansion
  • Removal of the anti-aliasing filter from the sensor, resulting in greatly increased resolution at the risk of seeing moire in images (K-5 IIs only)

Here you can see that the K-5 II LCD has much lower reflectance than that of the original K-5, and consequently you'll be able to see it much more clearly even in bright light.  Thanks to this, the viewing angle is also much bigger.  Click on the image to enlarge.

Pentax K-5 II LCD

Pentax Engineer on SDM Failure and Pentax DC

A brief conversation answers all our questions

By PF Staff in Photokina 2012 on Sep 17, 2012

Today was press day at Photokina, meaning that we were able to take a tour of Koelnmesse and see many of the exhibition halls that will officially open tomorrow.  We be making a post and uploading videos from this tour later today, so stay tuned!

Once the tour started, we of course proceeded almost immediately to the Pentax booth, which, unlike many other exhibitions, was practically ready to go and fully manned.  There, we had a conversation with a very friendly German Pentax engineer and repair technician.  He seemed to know a lot about the hardware found in Pentax lenses, so we asked him a few questions and also shared our findings from the SDM failure survey.

Below are the questions and answers, all paraphrased from the conversation.

Q: Our survey found that the Pentax DA* 16-50mm and 50-135mm were the most prone to SDM failure.  Do you know why this was?

A: One could say that the AF components used in these lenses was prone to failure from the get-go due to their design.  The 16-50mm and 50-135mm lenses share the same circuitry and motor, which is why they both have such a high failure rate.  Other SDM lenses don't fail as much.

Q: Has this SDM quality control issue been resolved?

Interview with Pentax at Photokina - The Video

Just posted - video interview with 3 Pentax Ricoh representatives!

By PF Staff in Photokina 2012 on Sep 22, 2012

On September 19th, 2012, we had the opportunity to interview three Pentax representatives at the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany.  The gentlemen we spoke to were Mr. André Dierickx, Managing Director of Pentax Ricoh Imaging Europe, Mr. Shigeru Wakashiro, leader of the Pentax Product / Camera System Planning Team of Pentax Ricoh Imaging Japan, and Mr. Genichiro Takaoka, also a part of the Product / Camera System Planning Team.  The full video of the interview is available later in this post.

Questions were asked in English by Adam Oest, administrator of PentaxForums.com, and repeated in Spanish by Mika Cruz, administrator of the Spanish community Pentaxeros.com.  Mika's help was integral to the coordination and preparation of the interview, and we'd like to extend a special thank-you to him as well as his Spanish Pentax community!  Mr. Dierickx replied to our marketing-related questions in English, while Mr. Wakashiro replied to our technical questions in Japanese, which were then translated into English by Mr. Takaoka. In the interview, we allude to a letter that we sent to Pentax about the prospect of making a Pentax full-frame DSLR.  You can learn more about the letter here.

Wakashiro (left) and Takaoka (right)

In total, we asked Pentax 19 questions, including the "full-frame question", of course.  The video interview lasts 33 minutes, and subtitles are available.  Read on to watch the video interview and to learn more about how the actual interview went!  Here is a quick summary of the questions:

  • Which of the 9 new products announced at Photokina is the most important to Pentax Ricoh?
  • What's new in the K-5 II and Q10?
  • In what areas is the SAFOX X autofocus system going to be better?
  • Why does the K-5 II lack the PRIME M processor?
  • How will the image quality of the K-5 II and K-5 IIs differ?
  • How does HD coating differ from SMC, and will it be replacing SMC?
  • What cameras / users are appropriate for the 560mm lens?
  • Are there plans to more significant DSLR upgrades for current Pentax users?
  • What happened to that mysterious lens with a protrusion that we saw at CP+?
  • Is any of the technology found in the Ricoh GXR going to be used in Pentax cameras?
  • How about a Pentax K-mount module for the GXR?
  • Will the Pentax K-mount ever be "de-crippled" (i.e. will the aperture ring coupler be restored?)
  • How has the Q system evolved since last year?
  • Will the Q's 1/2000s flash sync make its way into other cameras as well?
  • How well as the K-01 been received by customers?
  • When is the Pentax full-frame finally going to be announced?
  • Do you have anything else to say to our users?

We were very happy with how thorough Pentax's replies to our questions were, and after the interview, we started to appreciate Ricoh's contribution to Pentax Ricoh Imaging even more, even if they are still in their infancy.

Photokina 2012 in Pictures: A Tour

A deep look inside the whole exhibition as well as the Pentax booth

By PF Staff in Photokina 2012 on Sep 17, 2012

Photokina, the world's largest photo industry trade show, kicks off tomorrow!  Today we had a chance to preview the event by going on a press tour, during which we visited a variety of exhibitions and stands, including of course the Pentax booth.

Let's start with some pictures from the outside. As always, click on any photo to enlarge, and use your arrow keys to cycle back and forth:

Photokina North Entrance Photokina North Entrance
Photokina Ad

Photokina has four entrances, with one located at each of the cardinal directions.  The facility itself is huge, with 11 large exhibition halls, 7 of which are in use for Photokina.  The press center is located near the north entrance, so that's where we started.  Upon entering the press center, we were pleasantly surprised that Pentax made their press kits readily available early on, while most other big companies did not, and simply left a note instructing those interested to head over to their stand.

Pentax press materials

Within the press kit we found hardcopies of all of Pentax's recent press releases, updated roadmaps, and a CD with official images and specification sheets.  These materials contained nothing which we hadn't already seen, which means that no new product announcements will be made by Pentax at Photokina.  That's not to say that the event won't be worth our while, however, as there is still much to learn about these new products, and plenty of interview questions that to date gone unanswered.

At 10am, the press tour officially started, and we proceeded over to the main event space.  The first stop was Sony's "Jungle" booth, which included a large hands-on area with all current Alpha and NEX models, a stage, and plenty of palm trees!  A single RX-1 (full-frame point-and-shoot) was showcased near the entrance, and remained the center of attention for at least 10 minutes while photojournalists crowded around it to get a good view.

Sony Jungle Sony RX-1

We had the opportunity to toy around with the a99 and NEX-6, and after doing so it was time to proceed to the Fuji exhibit, where a handful of models joined us to show off their cameras.

Fuji Lens Bar Fuji Model

The Fuji cameras ended up being a real hit...

Photokina model Photokina model Photokina model

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