[Col]

hurrah. Good news.

Well, yes. Though I would like the K3 to have been £100 cheaper

[tuco]

...
I noticed that one of the features was that it didn't have an AA filter. Really? Hmm...what other camera company had a camera without an AA filter?
...

Are you suggesting Pentax was the first without an AA filter?

[NickLarsson]

The funny thing is that, still a few months ago, every camera makers were expecting profits and/or growth in sales in a shrinking market.

Now Nikon and Canon seem to just realize that they finally won't make it.

So I guess that others will probably follow...

Nikon cuts forecasts due to poor mirrorless sales in US and Europe | Nikon Rumors
Canon Cuts Full-Year Forecast as Camera Users Switch to Phones - Bloomberg

Also, Kodak just won $76M in patent dispute with Ricoh:
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/540151/kodak-wins-76m-in-pat...ute-with-ricoh

[monochrome]

I expect Ricoh Imaging was conservatively positioned and will still show a profit versus Nikon and Canon who experienced involuntary inventory build. I expect Ricoh (and maybe Hoya) had reserved for the judgement, so it likely won't affect earnings. During their Due Diligence I expect Ricoh was made aware of the Kodak issue.

[Uluru]

The funny thing is that, still a few months ago, every camera makers were expecting profits and/or growth in sales in a shrinking market.

Market is of same size, and maybe even bigger, but it shifts the preferences — at least temporarily.

Sales of DSLRs were unnaturally over-bloated anyway. Since first forays into digital, DSLRs were selling like crazy, and the trend continued well into the 2010s.
Compared with today's DSLRs sales even in a year such as this, SLR sales from best film years are insignificant in comparison.

So even if DSLRs sales go back to SLR levels from the years of film — which is hard to imagine, but lets presume it — there's still a lot for DSLRs makers to deliver into the market, and those products will always be viable. DSLR manufacturers may not rely solely on DSLR sales to achieve all the same levels of total lucrative profits, but they need to reduce, rethink, innovate and shift preferences.

And we can say that it is exactly because DSLRs were selling so well that such saturation has occurred, and both Nikon and Canon are guilty of it — not mobile phone market. The specific economic model of their DSLR production has cost Nikon and Canon lost sales — and it is not that DSLR as a concept itself is a lost cause. Through similar crisis automotive industry now goes as well — their economic model of production has overstuffed the market. But cars are still viable products and indeed we do need them. But we don't need them in quantities as offered today because market is overstuffed with them.

The economic model of their specific way of production is a problem — not the product itself.

So I see no problem with Pentax DSLR sales at all because they are designed and produced differently. They may in fact grow in DSLR market share by making models derived in a wholly different manner than Nikon's and Canon's, by adding value Nikon or Canon cannot because their model of production and lineup design prevents it. What Nikon and Canon are afraid of, and moan about, is that they now must change the production model they have perfected to maximise profits and saturate the market in the same time. Therefore, they must definitely reduce the number of DSLR models.

Before that happens, and before they re-engineer the production, they must clear out inventories first.

[Kunzite]

The funny thing is that, still a few months ago, every camera makers were expecting profits and/or growth in sales in a shrinking market.

Now Nikon and Canon seem to just realize that they finally won't make it.

So I guess that others will probably follow...

Nikon cuts forecasts due to poor mirrorless sales in US and Europe | Nikon Rumors
Canon Cuts Full-Year Forecast as Camera Users Switch to Phones - Bloomberg

Also, Kodak just won $76M in patent dispute with Ricoh:
Kodak wins

Except Ricoh Imaging measured growth, instead of counting on it happening. It's not inconceivable that Nikon and Canon would shrink, while Ricoh Imaging/Pentax would grow.
We'll have more up to date information in few days.

Even if extraordinary expenses because of the lawsuit (not sure where they put those) would generate a loss in Ricoh Imaging, the business itself remains healthy. Ricoh was sued in April 2012, so there's nothing unexpected anyway.

[Fontan]

Ricoh's balance sheet probably isn't entirely descriptive of how Pentax is doing as one of their subdivisions. If they are indeed in black, my guess would be that they are in black in spite of Pentax, not because of It... Just a guess, based on how big Ricoh is.

[Kunzite]

Some people would always guess against Pentax, not even bothering to search for information.

I'm not guessing. I know that Ricoh's camera division was unprofitable; it's mentioned in this slide (link below), page 7, "review unprofitable business - transformation of camera business".
http://www.ricoh.com/IR/data/pre/pdf/ir_pre2013.pdf
And what happens after you add Pentax?
"As a result of transformation of the camera business, we established Ricoh Imaging by integrating Ricoh and PENTAX. We are forecasting a profit for this business within this fiscal year."
http://www.ricoh.com/IR/pdf/presentation_text_2013.pdf (page 3)

[Mr Spocko]

Transformation is marketing speak for "price increases" lol

[Kunzite]

New financial reports for Q2/H1 of this fiscal year were published.
Nothing much is said about Ricoh Imaging (still grouped in "Others", I guess they would have to grow a lot before being assigned their own category), except that there was an "increase in sales from the digital camera".
http://www.ricoh.com/IR/financial_data/financial_result/data/26_2/flash.pdf