[ygagne1008]

I feel like I don't see any good rumors on here anymore of upcoming gear from Pentax. So in light of the big announcements coming out of Canon today...I thought I'd throw out some predictions and questions to the group....

Predictions (ie my wish list)
FF Stripped down K-1 - $1100 - Remove the flippy screen, remove wifi, remove 4k video, and give me a less expensive FF camera. Kind of the Nikon D810 vs D610 roadmap. Making this mirrorless would leap frog them past Fuji too!

Super APS-C camera - $1,800 - now that Pentax is gaining the attention of serious professionals again (are they?), maybe a competitive sports camera that is smaller, lighter, cheaper and better weather sealed than other options on the market but with a huge buffer and frame rate would be interesting.

Mirrorless APS-C camera - $1,100 - Something along the lines of the Sony A6000 with better lenses and a viewfinder. Slap the bodycap 40mm XS on it and you have a Ricoh GR with flexibility and a viewfinder.

FF Lenses - I suspect Pentax will be releasing a slew of new FF lenses in the next year. Tons of primes especially. Maybe dusting off some legendary old glass with new nanocoatings and better, quieter AF motors. Some new lenses that are not as expensive as the FF options with revised SDM for APS-C would be nice too (ie a replacement for the awesome DA* 50-135 especially since you can't get the Sigma 50-150 anymore).

Questions:
Will Sigma ever return to making K mount lenses again?

Is the Pentax Q series dead? Upgrades coming? Something new in this lineup?

Will Pentax ever embrace the vintage history of the K1000 and retro styling that has made Fuji and Olympus popular?

What could Ricoh do to create a wow factor in the market to end run Canikon? I think the Theta is one example of finding these niches and capitalizing on future trends.

What do you want to see from Ricoh in the next year or two?

I would suggest to make a better kit lens than the DA L 18-55 AL WR. This one is deceiving, and should be thrown out. They should vary their offerings, from low to high. Let's say they had a better 18-55 with a 55-300 WR kit. Or an 18-135 with a 55-300, or an 18-300mm lens kit. Be more creative in their packages. But enough of this, just produce fine quality body and the reste will be fine.
Just add some variété to the kits.

[reh321]

I would suggest to make a better kit lens than the DA L 18-55 AL WR. This one is deceiving, and should be thrown out. They should vary their offerings, from low to high. Let's say they had a better 18-55 with a 55-300 WR kit. Or an 18-135 with a 55-300, or an 18-300mm lens kit. Be more creative in their packages. But enough of this, just produce fine quality body and the reste will be fine.
Just add some variété to the kits.

They seem to be kitting the 18-135 with the K-70, which I think is great ... an 18-55 was kitted with my K-30, and the first thing I did was to buy an 18-135 and put the 18-55 on a shelf.

[ivorianebony]

The alternative is that in 2 years when the K1-II arrive the K1 will sell on the market for 1000-1200$ and would be available used for 700-1000$. That may be a better choice for consumer but it mean that the K1-II will not sell well at 1800$, simply because it will be almost the same as the K1 and the K1 will be that much cheaper...

I wouldnt buy a Megapixel-Monster even if it is only 1.200 or 1.700... If i would want that, i would have bought into another system already.


I am pretty happy, with my K-3. Since it offers decent speeds as an allrounder camera... Good for vid.
If you know how to get there, tethering is pretty fast with USB3.0(open source solution)
AF hits most of the time in AF.C, AF is quite good. When i go outside shooting sports i have around 8fps...
Picture quality is OK, but i really liked the K-5IIS results a lot more.


Convincing for instance me to upgrade, it will take a lower-Res FF Sensor(20-24MP), speedy electronics, buffer, real improvements on AF,
... just more in the core. Less glitter. But go on RICOH you'll see.

talking about what leads where:
BTW, has anybody took a look at the stock value of RICOH since the full frame is out?

OK, RICOH is a real big company, that is very profitable and does a lot more than making cameras... many, many branches....
but just because of that fact, the stock value could be an indicator, that many investors would have loved to see a product from "Ricoh-Imaging Inc.", that could be present at the OLYMPICS in Rio for Instance...
the value was increasing, shortly before the FF arrived... now since its here, and people get their hands on it, it seems to decrease...
just take a look.

it increased to above 10 Euro when it was said, that a FF would arrive in Fall 2015.... then it decreased until, the rumors hardened to pretty certainty and again increased to 9,5 Euro but when people saw what hopped out of the hat, the shares dropped below 8 Euro. Than they realized its pretty bad to sell to professionals when you offer USB2.0 when a predecessor already offered USB3.0, especially when files are sized very big. And funny how life is: that also slows down tethering which is now offically supported by this funky USB2.0-36Megapixel-Fun(that offer neither UHS-II SD nor XQD) again(premiere, premiere)since the K20D. yep thats it.
Infatuation of some people will not help out here...

Just look at the stock chart. Sure as hell, that this is no coincidence.
I think, now we are diving somewhere around 7.5 Euro. But i think it will go up again, when the new APS-C flagship is here.

You can tell us, what you want about "literally sold out until Christmas."
Nonetheless i am very, very sure that an investor will see it a bit different, and is very disappointed.

Like I said: Many investors would have loved to see a product from "Ricoh-Imaging Inc.", that could be present at the OLYMPICS in Rio.
But we only see Nikon and Canon.
And to invest into such events and photographers, which have promotional character.... There should be a fast camera with weighed out core-specs. And some decent lenses(tele) with optical stabilization built in. It just doesnt make any sense as photographer to show up pinned to a 4fps DSLR that delivers smeary 36MP results when jittered, or getting noisy already around 1600 ISO . Absolutely no sense in that.
And spare us, the "it will never be a good sports camera" sayings. Nobody who wants to see a future in something, wants to hear or should say things like
"it will never be" PERIOD
ENDOFLINE.

[Barry Pearson]

Like I said: Many investors would have loved to see a product from "Ricoh-Imaging Inc.", that could be present at the OLYMPICS in Rio.
But we only see Nikon and Canon.
And to invest into such events and photographers, which have promotional character.... There should be a fast camera with weighed out core-specs. And some decent lenses(tele) with optical stabilization built in. It just doesnt make any sense as photographer to show up pinned to a 4fps DSLR that delivers smeary 36MP results when jittered, or getting noisy already around 1600 ISO . Absolutely no sense in that.

My user-review of the K-1 links to a lot of action photographs I took with it.

(And I've taken lots more since then). These are not "smeary 36MP results". Nor does it "[get] noisy already around 1600 ISO".

If the K-1 is the wrong camera for you, I suggest you sell it. And buy a top-tier Canon or Nikon sports/action camera, together with their "lenses(tele) with optical stabilization built in".

[interested_observer]

While the idea is good, I'm not sure it would work in praktise. Making a full frame GR with 31mm lens would cost more then 1800 dollar. The number of sold camera's is very low. R&D has to be recoverd from those low numbers of sales. The market isn't enormous. Currently there are a few fixed focal lengths compact camera's in the market (sigma makes them, GR, Sony rx1, fuji x100t and Leica has some). Sharing r&d by making 3 different models, aps-c, full frame and 645 does make sense. They could share a lot of the internal parts that run the camera, but have a different size sensor. I'm not sure if it makes money or that it would end up just bleeding money.

I was just tossing some thoughts out. In the end, it all comes down to costing the product and the market assessment of acceptance across various price points.

• Sony has the luxury of owning the sensor FAB, but having to buy lenses from Zeiss. Ricoh/Pentax has the lens expertise, but buys the sensors from Sony at a markup. Ricoh/Pentax could certainly take the GR approach with a FF sensor, using just about any lens they have that can be adopted - say even a small 40mm pancake, making the body pretty pocketable. They could use the FF GR as an entry level FF to the K1, similar in some ways to the D610, but with a different form factor, enlarge their market and reach. Also, it would start to get more folks to think about Pentax - mind-share is also important concept.

• The key is to at least break-even if the intent is to increase their market, or even enlarge the consideration of Ricoh/Pentax. That is really what a GR based FF and/or 645 is all about. It would even be better to make a nice margin.

Interesting thoughts shared and I am glad to see it created some conversation.
Maybe someone from Ricoh/Pentax is reading along?

While Nikon might not be a good example or model of success (they have been hemorrhaging money afterall), they are able to make a 4 tier system of FF cameras work rather successfully. So why is it absurd to consider the possibility of a lower end K-1 or something above it? Nikon currently has a D610, D750, D810 and D5. The K-1 has been compared to the D810 in that lineup. to me there seems to be a lot of bells and whistles in the K-1 that many will never need, use or want making it possible to add another camera in the lineup with minimal cost to create it.

I would think that multiple FF bodies is a ways away. 10 years ago, there was just the K100 and K10 - entry and advanced. I would have never thought that Pentax would run 4 lines of ASP-c bodies as in the - K500, K30/50/70, K-s1/s2, K3/K3II.

The easy fix to this is to restoring trust. Ricoh-Imaging should give 5 year warranty on lenses. Take responsibility on their products.

They would need to design that into to their products first, then build it into their manufacturing lines, while re-building their approach to repair. Its just not a warranty, but the concept across the entire product lifecycle. But, I absolutely agree - it would be VERY nice!

I'd rather see them finally replacing problematic products with more reliable ones. That's long overdue, IMO...

That would be the first step. Also, biting the bullet and taking ownership of their SDM problem, would be a stunning development.

[IchabodCrane]

....

Like I said: Many investors would have loved to see a product from "Ricoh-Imaging Inc.", that could be present at the OLYMPICS in Rio.
But we only see Nikon and Canon.
And to invest into such events and photographers, which have promotional character.... There should be a fast camera with weighed out core-specs. And some decent lenses(tele) with optical stabilization built in. It just doesnt make any sense as photographer to show up pinned to a 4fps DSLR that delivers smeary 36MP results when jittered, or getting noisy already around 1600 ISO . Absolutely no sense in that.
And spare us, the "it will never be a good sports camera" sayings. Nobody who wants to see a future in something, wants to hear or should say things like
"it will never be" PERIOD
ENDOFLINE.

I imagine most investors couldn't care less Ricoh is in the camera business and those that do care probably wonder why they are in it at all.

[Zygonyx]

Many investors would have loved to see a product from "Ricoh-Imaging Inc.", that could be present at the OLYMPICS in Rio.
But we only see Nikon and Canon.
...
And spare us, the "it will never be a good sports camera" sayings. Nobody who wants to see a future in something, wants to hear or should say things like
"it will never be" PERIOD
ENDOFLINE.

Olympics are ending in a couple of days.
Period, end of line for an oversold ephemeral event.
Yet, if there was any relation with such an event and share values, just look at Nikon or Canon...
Or even, look at Nikon's share evolution since the time they announced Nikon D5, and the time it was released : - 30% !
No need to write rubish.... never.

---

Last edited by Zygonyx; 08-18-2016 at 10:34 PM.

[Kunzite]

A Pentax presence at Olympics would be outrageously expensive.

First, there's the development of the required products - 1D X Mark II-level cameras, and the corresponding lenses (fast long telephotos are missing here). Without this, there can be no official Pentax presence at Olympics.

Then, there's the presence at Olympics itself. Something on a slightly smaller scale than this:
This is Getty Images' Canon Arsenal at the Rio Olympics
and this:
A Peek Inside Nikon's Gear Room at the Rio Olympics
They would need equipment for all their photographers, backups, backups of backups, trained personnel which can take care of all the equipment...

But the most difficult could be getting photographers to shoot Pentax (instead of Canon, Nikon). I assume this is a two-sided issue:
- convince said photographers (or their agencies) that Pentax is at least as good as Canon and Nikon's top of the range products
- give them the equipment for free.

Now, who would pay for those 3 extremely costly operations?

I'm quite sure Ricoh's shareholders would be strongly opposed to an all-out Olympics war with Canon and Nikon (which would likely affect the entire Ricoh Group). They're looking after money, not bragging rights.

[asahi man]

Ricoh has no idea to bring a Pentax EOS 1/ D 5 style camera.
And this is a very smart way.
Pentax cameras are made for high quality like D 810 and Co.
That's the current Pentax way.
Everybody will see this in the next month and years.
Photokina will bring more clarity.
Best regards

[acoufap]

A Pentax presence at Olympics would be outrageously expensive.

First, there's the development of the required products - 1D X Mark II-level cameras, and the corresponding lenses (fast long telephotos are missing here). Without this, there can be no official Pentax presence at Olympics.

Then, there's the presence at Olympics itself. Something on a slightly smaller scale than this:
This is Getty Images' Canon Arsenal at the Rio Olympics
and this:
A Peek Inside Nikon's Gear Room at the Rio Olympics
They would need equipment for all their photographers, backups, backups of backups, trained personnel which can take care of all the equipment...

But the most difficult could be getting photographers to shoot Pentax (instead of Canon, Nikon). I assume this is a two-sided issue:
- convince said photographers (or their agencies) that Pentax is at least as good as Canon and Nikon's top of the range products
- give them the equipment for free.

Now, who would pay for those 3 extremely costly operations?

I'm quite sure Ricoh's shareholders would be strongly opposed to an all-out Olympics war with Canon and Nikon (which would likely affect the entire Ricoh Group). They're looking after money, not bragging rights.

Wow - never thought about how it's ensured to get a lot of wonderful sports images from sport events. Thank you for the links and your additional infos - I got some new insight!

[RonHendriks1966]

talking about what leads where:
BTW, has anybody took a look at the stock value of RICOH since the full frame is out?

OK, RICOH is a real big company, that is very profitable and does a lot more than making cameras... many, many branches....
but just because of that fact, the stock value could be an indicator, that many investors would have loved to see a product from "Ricoh-Imaging Inc.", that could be present at the OLYMPICS in Rio for Instance...
the value was increasing, shortly before the FF arrived... now since its here, and people get their hands on it, it seems to decrease...
just take a look.

There is absolutely no relation between the stock value of Ricoh and the K-1! This is noncence.

---------- Post added 19-08-16 at 10:47 ----------

A Pentax presence at Olympics would be outrageously expensive.

First, there's the development of the required products - 1D X Mark II-level cameras, and the corresponding lenses (fast long telephotos are missing here). Without this, there can be no official Pentax presence at Olympics.

Then, there's the presence at Olympics itself. Something on a slightly smaller scale than this:
This is Getty Images' Canon Arsenal at the Rio Olympics
and this:
A Peek Inside Nikon's Gear Room at the Rio Olympics
They would need equipment for all their photographers, backups, backups of backups, trained personnel which can take care of all the equipment...

But the most difficult could be getting photographers to shoot Pentax (instead of Canon, Nikon). I assume this is a two-sided issue:
- convince said photographers (or their agencies) that Pentax is at least as good as Canon and Nikon's top of the range products
- give them the equipment for free.

Now, who would pay for those 3 extremely costly operations?

I'm quite sure Ricoh's shareholders would be strongly opposed to an all-out Olympics war with Canon and Nikon (which would likely affect the entire Ricoh Group). They're looking after money, not bragging rights.

Well Ricoh-Imaging has no meaning full relation with their photographers. Has no relation with big agency's. So going to the Olympics is not something that was on any agenda. They don't even have a photographer working with K-1 on this years Ricoh Open tennistournament or on the Ricoh Ladies Golf tournament.

---------- Post added 19-08-16 at 10:54 ----------

Ricoh has no idea to bring a Pentax EOS 1/ D 5 style camera.
And this is a very smart way.
Pentax cameras are made for high quality like D 810 and Co.
That's the current Pentax way.
Everybody will see this in the next month and years.
Photokina will bring more clarity.
Best regards

very interested.

[D1N0]

There is absolutely no relation between the stock value of Ricoh and the K-1! This is noncence.

You never know. Stock markets are extremely sensitive to the butterfly effect

[pathdoc]

A Pentax presence at Olympics would be outrageously expensive.

First, there's the development of the required products - 1D X Mark II-level cameras, and the corresponding lenses (fast long telephotos are missing here). Without this, there can be no official Pentax presence at Olympics.

Then, there's the presence at Olympics itself. Something on a slightly smaller scale than this:
This is Getty Images' Canon Arsenal at the Rio Olympics
and this:
A Peek Inside Nikon's Gear Room at the Rio Olympics
They would need equipment for all their photographers, backups, backups of backups, trained personnel which can take care of all the equipment...

But the most difficult could be getting photographers to shoot Pentax (instead of Canon, Nikon). I assume this is a two-sided issue:
- convince said photographers (or their agencies) that Pentax is at least as good as Canon and Nikon's top of the range products
- give them the equipment for free.

Now, who would pay for those 3 extremely costly operations?

I'm quite sure Ricoh's shareholders would be strongly opposed to an all-out Olympics war with Canon and Nikon (which would likely affect the entire Ricoh Group). They're looking after money, not bragging rights.

Yeah, all those cameras would almost certainly have been factory-new, and now they've been shipped to South America, sat around in a storage facility while the Olympics were warming up, and I reckon only a fraction of them would ever have attained any shutter clicks. And now there's no way in hell they can be sold as new. What happens to them? Dealer demonstrator models? Or tax writeoffs? Or just quietly sell them as new and hope the Picture of Dorian Gray absorbs the moral stain when they look at themselves in the mirror? Yet lurking in each one is a lean, hungry Zika mosquito...

Okay, maybe not that last one.

[ogl]

I hope that Photokina 2016 will give us more info about new lenses. And maybe some of lenses will be real till the end of this year.
As for cameras - only K-3II needs the real upgrade. I think it will be later, not this September.
645 with 100 MP is not required just now camera.

DFA lenses line is the most important thing for Ricoh now and to ship more K-1 to the shops (but there is Sony sensor factory's problems)

And I'd like to see new all weather GR with more MP and sharper lens (although, the current lens is very good).

[Uluru]

DFA lenses line is the most important thing for Ricoh now and to ship more K-1 to the shops (but there is Sony sensor factory's problems)

Sony is using a smoke-screen excuse to impact camera manufacturers who use their sensors, and turn the tide in own favour. Beware of Sony even when bringing presents. Sony is the most crooked company in the digital world.

And I'd like to see new all weather GR with more MP and sharper lens (although, the current lens is very good).

If you are unhappy with the GR lens, get a Leica X-E or Leica X Typ 113. 24mm/2.8 Elmarit from X-E and 23mm/1.7 Summilux from X Typ 113 are the best lenses installed in a compact camera ever. And if only one lens must be singled out, then 23/1.7 from X Typ 113 is the best crop lens ever designed. Check the photos taken with that camera, it's unreal.

http://kristiandowling.com/blog/2014/10/11/leica-x-overview-and-field-test

https://www.flickr.com/groups/2695875@N25/pool/page11



---------- Post added 08-19-2016 at 09:45 PM ----------

Originally posted by asahi man

Ricoh has no idea to bring a Pentax EOS 1/ D 5 style camera.
And this is a very smart way.
Pentax cameras are made for high quality like D 810 and Co.
That's the current Pentax way.
Everybody will see this in the next month and years.
Photokina will bring more clarity.
Best regards

very interested.

Reads and sounds like deja vu ...
Yeah, this is typical Asahiman's 'Wizard of Oz' mood in early August.
By mid-September there will be many 'last minute changes' and 'postponements', and then 'we'll all see in Yokohama in 5 months'.