[vector]

The comments, and the article, completely fail to understand all key issues. Thinking the word "sharp" as well as the anti zoom GR comments were about IQ. Again people who dont understand GR are also unable to understand Pentax.

I don't disagree, that's why I used the word "interpretation" there. There are so many challenges with accuracy of translation and then interpreting the meaning from a pseudo accurate translation. The comments on the article are almost laughable, but whatever. My takeaway is "We will continue to make products for those who want to make a lifelong hobby." which is reassuring if I want to continue to invest my money in Pentax gear, they are committed to supporting and producing it into the future.

With all the mirrorless buzz I have to admit I have looked around and weighed my options. Thing is I like my current gear. Now if the K1 hadn't come out I likely would have adopted FF from Nikon a while back, but the K1 does what I want, and I like it. Image quality wise there isn't anywhere I could get better without doubling the price of the body not to mention the hefty price for new lenses. If I were to go somewhere right now it would be a Nikon Z5, but I don't gain anything there. I lose some resolution for about equivalent quality so it's a net loss. Eye tracking AF is the only thing, but I mainly shoot landscapes and casual family shots where quite honestly I can nail eye focus often enough and when I can't I just increase the depth of field a little. I just want to know if I invest in more Pentax glass that I can keep replacing a K1 like body every 3-5 years and keep going.

[Sandy Hancock]

Moved from "News and Rumours" (because it's neither) to "Industry and Professionals"

[kwb]

Thanks for the link, this is a fascinating read. What Takahashi-san had to say about the brand value was remarkable, though not everything makes sense to me.

PetaPixel's article is inaccurate here and there, e.g. when Takahashi-san talked about China and Korea, he was talking about his experience as a former executive at audio and visual electronics manufacturer, not really saying anything about cellphones nor Ricoh. He didn't mean that the brand value of Ricoh was lost. Also the article completely misses the point of being "pointed" or "sharp-tipped", which is a Japanese expression that doesn't have anything to do with photography, but PetaPixel confuses that with photographic sharpness.

So here's my rough translation. My comments are in parentheses, Italic and underlined (like this).

BTW ???? ??? ???? ????????? | Alfa Romeo????? ???? is the official site of Alfa Romeo Japan.

---

GR ?????????????????? | Mondo Alfa
(Title of the article) Pursuing values that can only be provided by GR III
Alpha Romeo x RICOH GR III campaign will start on Nov/18/2020. We interviewed Shinobu Takahashi, CEO of Ricoh Imaging Co. Ltd. which manufactures GR III, a product to pursue to "capture the moment", about his beliefs and passion for manufacturing.

(Section Title) You should not tailor your hobby products to the customers too much
"For those who'd like photography to be their life-long hobby."

That's what Shinobu Takahashi told us about raison d'être of the products of his company. He is the CEO of Ricoh Imaging Co. Ltd. which manufactures GR, a product to pursue to "capture the moment" that is said to be the essence of photographic expressions. To understand that, you have to know the unique characteristics of GR.

GR as a series of compact cameras has never had a zoom lens since the first analog=film era GR1 in 1996. Current digital version has a prime lens with 28mm ff-equivalent focal length and F2.8. You cannot capture with any other viewing angle. Despite that, it still enjoys #1 popularity in the compact digital camera market. Why?
That's because Takahashi's "those who'd like photography to be their life-long hobby" responded to how GR series almost single-mindedly adhered to the concept of "capturing the moment", in addition to good IQ which is an essential performance as well as being lightweight and quickness of operations which are necessary specifications for compacts. Using other words again, it could be said that GR is raising those who can have photography as their life-long hobby. (This implies that the pool of such people is growing because of GR.)

Takahashi, a man who's entrusted to steer such a unique product or a brand, joined Ricoh Imaging in 2014 April, and after 3 years he got into the current position. He used to work at a Japanese Audio/Visual product manufacturer as the manager responsible for the sales in European market, so he says he already had an above-average understanding of hobby products.
"Besides the performance and the price of a product, when it comes to hobby products I knew that more important is (to understand) what to enjoy using said product and how. Because of that, when I changed job to handle cameras I was still confident that I'd do well. Hobby products, this is a wonderful business that can directly touch the things that our customers like. For example, in my previous job, I met many customers who told me that they wanted to watch DVDs that cost several thousand JPY (several tens of USD) on a million-JPY (10 thousand USD) home theater, that it needs to be done with this tool. It could be said that that's similar to customers who pursues photography that can only be captured with GR. However..."

After a pause, Takahashi started talking about hardship Japanese manufactures experienced in his former industry. "In my previous industry, for 20 years they operated on a principle to provide what customers want with lower price. But eventually we couldn't compete with then-upcoming Chinese and Korean products, and we got ourselves into a negative spiral. In the end, the result was that the brand value was lost. OTOH, Japanese camera manufacturers continued to provide high quality products even when the market shrunk. Among them, I knew that Ricoh Imaging's GR and PENTAX always tried something new, establishing themselves as niche players in the market. Considering these, I suppose that hobby products cannot be too much tailored to the customers who want convenience. Manufactures should keep proposing the enjoyment (using Takahashi's previous words, "what to enjoy using said product and how"), and that effort is the key to keeping the brand value, I think."

(Section Title) What the merger of GR and Pentax brought.

Of course, when Mr. Takahashi talks about how the brand value should be, he also talks about activities by his own company. The reason why the current CEO of a company can make such a statement is probably because of the history of Ricoh Imaging itself.

Ricoh Imaging Co. Ltd. was founded in October 2011 as the result of merger with Pentax, a Japanese camera brand dating back to Asahi Kogaku founded in 1919, and changed its name to the current one in March 2013. It's a Ricoh group company, developing, manufacturing and selling consumer-oriented camera products. Ricoh is a company famous for its office products, but it also has a history of making cameras from as early as Asahi Kogaku. The key to making success out of two rivals now working under the same roof is, Takahashi says, "practicing cooperation".
"Ricoh and Pentax each had products in development since before the merger, but continuing separately won't be any help. So we made a roadmap for practicing collaboration, and we refined plans to absorb strength from each other, especially in the field of technology. In fact, GR III, a camera that took 4 years to finish, the longest so far, uses Pentax's SR technology while making things smaller. We also moved manufacturing plant from Chinese Ricoh plant that was used up to GR II to Hanoi plant that used to make Pentax lenses. Through this process, there are technologies that were brought from GR back to Pentax cameras, too. GR and Pentax, they are made by the same people. Development is done alternately. I see that a feeling of togetherness was born there. Since our staff members all love cameras to their bone, they're working just wanting to make a better product."

That feeling of togetherness brought differentiation of brands. The main product of the old Ricoh, GR, will pursue the timelessness of adhering to single purpose of "capturing the moment", and the new Pentax will advocate "creating the future of DSLR". Further, they produced brand books of both after making clear distinctions between the two. According to Takahashi: "Let's say we define 5 characteristics of a brand, some will say the fourth one is good, some will want to bring in the 6th one that is not on the list. None of these are wrong, but we need to be able to talk with each other using the same language in order to share the vision of the brands vividly. That's why brand books were more necessary for people inside." Takahashi is the person who approved and executed these plans.

(Section Title) The most important thing is to be "pointed".
(In Japanese, 尖っている, literally "pointed" or "sharp-tipped", could be used for many different things and meanings e.g. edgy mentality and behavior, but in this case and context, it usually refers to something designed and/or optimized for very specific, often niche, purposes nobody else offers.)

"To be "pointed". That's what's most important for us. To make something "pointed", we need to shave things off as much as possible, but our distributors would say things like "you can sell 10 times more if you make a GR with zoom". As a CEO, that tempts me to change my mind, doesn't it? (Laughter.) But GR has been with a prime all the way, not only insiders in our company but also fans share the image of what GR is. As for Pentax, people say we'd better do mirrorless. We do have the technology to go that way, but we cannot abandon the fun intrinsic in DSRL, to shoot directly looking through the viewfinder."
Mr. Takahashi's claim of product-out over market-in is a beautiful one. However, at his position he should have a mission to achieve more sales, and furthermore the camera market has shrunk considerably because of smartphones. Is it possible to keep being "pointed" in such a time?

"Recently, major artists like Aimyon (a popular Japanese pop singer) are releasing analog (vinyl) records on purpose. Analog records are selling 10 times more than at some point in time because they say analog disks sound more tasteful. That's not simple retro, that's an example where something was accepted as a new value especially by young people. It's true that the sales of compact cameras is only 1/10 compared to the peak, after smart phones got popular. Likewise, DSLR market shrunk by half. That doesn't mean that the number of people who listen to music or take pictures decreased. Therefore, there certainly exist things that cannot be done with smartphones, values that could be offered only by GR and Pentax. We will pursue that, making "pointed" products for those who'd like photography to be their life-long hobby."

Ricoh Imaging's vision of manufacturing told by Mr. Takahashi, isn't it similar to Alfa Romeo's in that both pursues the supreme experience produced by excellent products? It might be almost impossible to put numbers to the users' experience during R&D. Nevertheless, both passionately pursue to provide something that the users would say "it needs to be this tool", to provide unique world view.
Before closing. When I asked Mr. Takahashi about his own hobby at the end of the interview, he said violin. He started playing as a boy, and he still plays in an orchestra in Ricoh group. On hearing that I thought that I can trust this company, as the top executive knows first hand that a hobby can enrich the quality of somebody's life. Alfisten who cannot stop pursuing richer quality in life would surely agree, don't they?

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[c.a.m]

So here's my rough translation. My comments are in parentheses, Italic and underlined (like this).

Thank you very much for your effort to provide a sensible translation!

- Craig

[The Squirrel Mafia]

So here's my rough translation. My comments are in parentheses, Italic and underlined (like this).

Thanks for the translation. I can read & understand some of the original Japanese text, but there are still many kanji characters that I can't read & phrases used that I don't quite understand.

[Zygonyx]

Which is why this discussion is ridiculous and irrelevant, focusing on Tesla, while ignoring all the electric Toyota ‘Prius’, Nissan ‘Leaf’ and Chevrolet ‘Volt’ cars actually on the road.

You seem to ignore what a "pure player" is

[reh321]

You seem to ignore what a "pure player" is

Like the ‘Leaf’?

This discussion is still irrelevant.

[Zygonyx]

"Pure player" is not relevant to a product, but to a corporation/company.
Btw, i would advise you to go to public equities markets, if you want to finance more of your gear

[ffking]

As for Pentax, people say we'd better do mirrorless. We do have the technology to go that way, but we cannot abandon the fun intrinsic in DSRL,

I don't actually think this is a likelihood, but it occurred to me in a random moment that this doesn't rule out a Ricoh branded mirrorless, even using the K-mount (he talks a lot about integration)

[Kunzite]

I don't actually think this is a likelihood, but it occurred to me in a random moment that this doesn't rule out a Ricoh branded mirrorless, even using the K-mount (he talks a lot about integration)

It doesn't make sense to rule it out completely, as in "we'll never make a mirrorless!". Never is a long time.
But that doesn't mean anything.

K-mount will stay Pentax, though - and as we discussed many times, to go K-mount mirrorless (not an one off product, but truly go mirrorless yet keeping the SLR mount) makes no sense.

[reh321]

It doesn't make sense to rule it out completely, as in "we'll never make a mirrorless!". Never is a long time.
But that doesn't mean anything.

K-mount will stay Pentax, though - and as we discussed many times, to go K-mount mirrorless (not an one off product, but truly go mirrorless yet keeping the SLR mount) makes no sense.

It makes total sense. No new lenses have to be developed. Do not think like a DSLR guy. The power of MILC is not in the lenses - it is in what can be done with EVF. Period.

[Aussie Matt]

I understand exactly what he's saying and stands for: It's so hard to communicate that though. He's right that some one from a low cost manufacturing company can 'break through' into the mass market, and to compete with that is difficult: In my field we say "it's hard to be more profitable than your biggest d#$%@#$d competitor".

So they are removing Pentax from the commodity, price and feature driven race/competition. And plopping themselves fair and square as unique, focused on still photography for those who appreciate it: Not those who do it. That's where the Alfa vs. Golf thing comes from: Sure Golf's drive great, safe, economic, reliable.... but have you ever driven an Alfa??? Now you're talking. You commute in a golf, you drive in an alfa.


FWIW, I'm a car guy: Yes, the porches are great, the lambo's are sick etc etc... but It's gotta be a Ferrari. So I totally get the Alfa comparison.

Whether talking about it is a wise move, I'm not so sure. Going down this path, I can totally see a day when Pentax/Ricoh drop a new film camera... Can you image... I reckon you'd see people camping out for that thing like they do iPhones... anyways.

Luckily for me: I understand, I'm the limit to my photography: Buying the newest K1 for me isn't justified by the results... Although that said, I can see a time when I do grab that BNIB Pentax full frame.
It's a gutsy move by the CEO, but I reckon, he could be onto a winner that sees Pentax move through this decade just fine.

[Kunzite]

It makes total sense. No new lenses have to be developed. Do not think like a DSLR guy. The power of MILC is not in the lenses - it is in what can be done with EVF. Period.

It makes no sense, because I am not thinking like a DSLR guy. I'm not thinking, "no new lenses have to be developed".
Of course they would have to. Of course they would have to get rid of the then-useless extra space, formerly known as a mirror box.

But, this is a moot point: Pentax is a DSLR brand, and there's not even a hint of Ricoh trying to enter the overly competitive mirrorless market.

[reh321]

It makes no sense, because I am not thinking like a DSLR guy. I'm not thinking, "no new lenses have to be developed".
Of course they would have to. Of course they would have to get rid of the then-useless extra space, formerly known as a mirror box.

But, this is a moot point: Pentax is a DSLR brand, and there's not even a hint of Ricoh trying to enter the overly competitive mirrorless market.

Look at the K-3iii discussions.
There are no discussions about its size.
There are discussions about power.
Appropriate power needs to be the focus of Pentax discussions.

[house]

I've said it years ago, mirrorless makes no sense under the Pentax brand. Ricoh however, could well make one. Ricoh is imho the perfect brand for milc. It would be very bad timing to release a new milc now so I don't think it's going to happen soon. If and when there is a niche to be filled perhaps Ricoh will do something. Ricoh cameras, just as Pentax cameras, have a tradition of being different.