[monochrome]

RICOH CES PRESS RELEASE

[mikemike]

https://fundanything.com/en/campaigns/versatile-dynamic-color-eink-pictures

I don't think that this is a realistic product development plan. I think this will cost a good bit more than this to develop. I did a little bit of googling and the most viable eink products that I see are:

"Triton" - 16 shades of greyscale and 4096 colors (Ectacto JetBook Color uses this 9.7" 206 ppi)
"Pearl" - 16 shades of greyscale up to 9.7" at 300 ppi (kindle DX uses this but at 150 ppi)
"Carta" - 16 shades of greyscale but with whiter whites (kindle paperwhite uses this at 212 ppi)

4 bit palletes aren't going to cut it for photography purposes. If they could do 8 bit greyscale at 300 ppi, that would be a viable product. 16 bit would be nicer but 8 bit would be viable.

To really make it really marketable you would also want an order large enough for a panel manufacturer to make a 3:2, 5:4, or 5:7 ratio screen that would be "normal" photo sizes.

[mikemike]

RICOH CES PRESS RELEASE

I think the first bullet point really highlights their purpose at the trade show:

Retail Solution - Ricoh Imaging will demonstrate the strength of Ricoh Co. LTD’s global business solutions through a fully merchandised retail area. Visitors will learn about Ricoh Imaging’s profitable partnerships, founded on innovative products with healthy margins, enhanced merchandising and support programs for dealers, and sales associate and consumer education programs.

[ElJamoquio]

I don't think that this is a realistic product development plan. I think this will cost a good bit more than this to develop. I did a little bit of googling and the most viable eink products that I see are:

"Triton" - 16 shades of greyscale and 4096 colors (Ectacto JetBook Color uses this 9.7" 206 ppi)
"Pearl" - 16 shades of greyscale up to 9.7" at 300 ppi (kindle DX uses this but at 150 ppi)
"Carta" - 16 shades of greyscale but with whiter whites (kindle paperwhite uses this at 212 ppi)

4 bit palletes aren't going to cut it for photography purposes. If they could do 8 bit greyscale at 300 ppi, that would be a viable product. 16 bit would be nicer but 8 bit would be viable.

To really make it really marketable you would also want an order large enough for a panel manufacturer to make a 3:2, 5:4, or 5:7 ratio screen that would be "normal" photo sizes.

Not arguing with you at all, just mentioning that 'someone' is working on it. I think it'd be a great project, myself, and you made me think that maybe that's what my next job should be!

[RGlasel]

I don't think that this is a realistic product development plan

Agree in the strongest possible terms. Multi-billion dollar companies like Sony and Samsung are still searching for the "electronic ink" holy grail. To get somewhat back on track, CES seems to be a distributor's trade show masquerading as a public event. If a manufacturer truly wants to promote new products at CES, it will have started its PR campaign months earlier, so it can refer to news articles and reviews in their sales pitch to distributors. For most CES exhibitors, it is a matter of demonstrating that you are serious about moving existing products for the upcoming Christmas consumer frenzy, preparing the ground for taking booking orders later.

[crewl1]

The thing that I get disappointed isn't shown off every year is a high resolution color (or even a greyscale one optimized for b/w photos) digital picture frame. Glowing LCD picture frames are just gross and require a wall wart. E-ink with a frame that either has a few solar cells integrated or has an integrated battery that can last a long time (i.e. change a picture once an hour for a year) between charges or changes.

Are there any electrical engineers out there in pentax land want to make this a reality?

How many people would want buy an additional single purpose device when you already have a thin large screen TV hanging on the wall in the living room that can do more than just show static pictures? (Most have thumb drive support.)

Would the needed price point to get people to buy it make it a losing proposition for a manufacturer?

[monochrome]

I think the first bullet point really highlights their purpose at the trade show:

That release, or reprint of the release, is actually confusing, if not inaccurate.

Ricoh Imaging is the B2C Company, globally. Ricoh Company, Ltd. is both the parent company and the B2B company, which might have a small retail presence in Office Supply Stores but is not distributed by Ricoh Imaging and is totally separate from them. I would not characterize office copiers as consumer electronics. Read through to the featured products.

IMHO Ricoh Imaging plans to use CES to present Brick&Mortar Dealer Agreements to camera retailers in the real conference room - and demonstrate the full line of consumer products in the real Booth. Ricoh Company demonstrates strength and staying power - and the capital to support Dealer Credit Arrangements ("Partnerships").

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Last edited by monochrome; 01-08-2014 at 10:33 AM.

[monochrome]

How many people would want buy an additional single purpose device when you already have a thin large screen TV hanging on the wall in the living room that can do more than just show static pictures? (Most have thumb drive support.)

Would the needed price point to get people to buy it make it a losing proposition for a manufacturer?

The problem with photoframes in general is you ahve to constantly update them. Even if there are 500 images, you see repeats very quickly. Doesn't matter how good the image or the frame is - repeats suck.

At our recent Christmas bash my wife asked me to put a loop of a burning fireplace on a thumb drive. She stuck that in the 40" television in the family room. Was actually prety cool for what I thought was a dubious idea.

Then I found out Netflix has the same thing 24/7.

[mikemike]

How many people would want buy an additional single purpose device when you already have a thin large screen TV hanging on the wall in the living room that can do more than just show static pictures? (Most have thumb drive support.)

Would the needed price point to get people to buy it make it a losing proposition for a manufacturer?

The problem with photoframes in general is you ahve to constantly update them. Even if there are 500 images, you see repeats very quickly. Doesn't matter how good the image or the frame is - repeats suck.

At our recent Christmas bash my wife asked me to put a loop of a burning fireplace on a thumb drive. She stuck that in the 40" television in the family room. Was actually prety cool for what I thought was a dubious idea.

Then I found out Netflix has the same thing 24/7.

I was recently thinking of buying a photo printer for the convenience factor of not having to send my pictures off somewhere else. I would view this kind of thing in the same category where I would want something print quality 300 dpi, not screen quality. E-ink presents things in such a radically different way than an LCD, OLED, or plasma much more like something that has been printed and it is just more appropriate for static content than traditional screen tech, especially since it can maintain it's image passively - no flicker, no refresh rate, no glow - it doesn't need to be intrusive to your decor and it doesn't need to call attention to itself or distract the viewer from what they are viewing.

I don't want the pictures to be updated or rotated constantly, my personal use case would probably be changing them once a week and maybe having several of them around my house and office. Keeping them updated could be best accomplished through a wifi connection via API or cloud service which manages your frames. A photographer could use them for example to showcase their client's pictures when they come in so that they could see how it would look framed and hanging on a wall.

[Mistral75]

[
(...)
CES simply isn't used for big camera announcements.

Indeed :

• Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R
• Nikon D4s (+ D3300 + collapsible 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 DX VR II + AF-S 35mm F1.8G)
• Panasonic 4K Lumix Mirrorless + Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm F1.2 Asph.
• Sigma Art 50mm F1.4 DG HSM (+ Contemporary 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM)

to name a few...

[RGlasel]

changing them once a week

It seems to me that a major department store once rented framed prints that you could hang on your wall when you had company you wanted to impress. If you have images of high enough quality that you won't be turned off by looking at them constantly for several days straight, get them professionally printed on quality paper and hang one of them at a time on the wall. No power required and you get such a natural looking display you will think it's real paper and real ink.

[mikemike]

It seems to me that a major department store once rented framed prints that you could hang on your wall when you had company you wanted to impress. If you have images of high enough quality that you won't be turned off by looking at them constantly for several days straight, get them professionally printed on quality paper and hang one of them at a time on the wall. No power required and you get such a natural looking display you will think it's real paper and real ink.

LOL, yeah like I said, I am on the fence about getting a photo printer. I print out a good bit of my stuff but when I go to print something I always spend time to get it ready for printing and have to go pick it up and you really feel it when you actually pay money out to get that print or can hear the expensive ink getting blasted out of those inkjets. It is a process that if I stress over so that I don't mess it up. As a result, I change out the pictures in my frames maybe once a quarter or less but I would like to do it more frequently.

[boriscleto]

Indeed :

• Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R
• Nikon D4s (+ D3300 + collapsible 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 DX VR II + AF-S 35mm F1.8G)
• Panasonic 4K Lumix Mirrorless + Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm F1.2 Asph.
• Sigma Art 50mm F1.4 DG HSM (+ Contemporary 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM)

to name a few...

And Nikon announced the D5200 in 2013 and showed the then pre-release D4 in 2012. But all the other announcements were of mirror less or compact cameras.

[jogiba]

11.37pm GMT An attendee takes a picture of a display of Pentax cameras in the Ricoh booth at the 2014 International CES at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Best pictures of the day - live | News | theguardian.com

[boriscleto]

Sailor Moon is posing with the RICOH THETA today at ‪#‎ces2014‬