Originally posted by Jonathan Mac Personally I think crowd-funding would reflect badly on a company such as Ricoh and would only fan the flames of the "Pentax is dead!" crowd by suggesting they don't have the cash to properly fund the lens.
I see where you're coming from, but crowdfunding alone is unlikely to be perceived as a sign of doom at least in their home market, Japan. When Sony, Sharp, JVC-KENWOOD, Konica-Minolta and other established brands used Makuake, THE most successful crowdfunding platform in Japan that Pentax also used for their bino/monocular project, people didn't suggest that those brands were doomed or didn't have cash just because of crowdfunding.
To me, it's a good thing that Ricoh is willing to make unconventional products such as these bino/monoculars, exploring unconventional venues for market research and funding, without losing money. (Well, let's hope that that's the case.
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