[ogl]

A personal opinion, but substantiated by point #2

It's official thread with questions and answers.

The thread has even mark Advertising. It could be real if the thread starter is the real representative of company.
Otherwise, they couldn't start this thread.

Of course, any opinion is personal opinion.
Anyway, we could see the vector where Ricoh goes.

[ogl]

Do you think that's all that Ricoh Imaging Japan, those who are working on the products, knows? How did they do the K-3, with their eyes tied?

Yes indeed.

[rawr]

as any industrial spy knows

Hmmm. Is there something about your past we should know about?

[normhead]

Hmmm. Is there something about your past we should know about?

No comment except, I neither confirm nor deny.

[k5astro]

FF body will be the same as the K3, and launched in June 2014, but no idea about new lenses or whatever.
Best Regards

I was saying in another thread - "Why are FF cameras so big?"

What you say here makes sense because the K-mount is an FF mount and all the electronic support required for the sensor are in the K3, so all that is needed is a larger sensor within the K3 body. I think the only reason FF cameras are so big is Canikon marketing or simply no competition to provide them otherwise... as yet.

[Rorschach]

These whiners are getting really tiresome...please sell your Pentax gear and buy into another system: everybody will be happier.

[davidsladek]

well, just thinking... could these leaks be a reason why there is no Russian manual available for K-3 yet? /joke

[derekkite]

Hasn't it been obvious that Ricoh was in a pinch? Were there any engineers left in Pentax that could put a project of the size and scope of the K-3 together? There were rumors that a K-3 was ready almost a year ago, but the project was delayed. Maybe it was woefully inadequate compared to the product offerings from the competition. I suspect the 645D upgrade was similar. The technology was not quite there to make it worth while.

I saw the K-50 (and K500) mostly as manufacturing or internal upgrades. The technology for the user is pretty close to what had been used in the K-30 and K-5. There was a photo of a K-5 somewhere, the internals, and it had the look of an old electronics device. Little wires soldered everywhere, etc. It worked, but that kind of stuff is expensive to manufacture. Ricoh knows how to make stuff, make it well and competitive. But those types of re-engineering of processes, investments in manufacturing stuff takes time and costs money.

Pentax is also dependent on the technology of others. The processing engine is based on someone else's technology. Sensors as well. If they want a good EVF, someone else has to invent it.

Where does one find someone who knows how to create lenses that set a market standard? Most of the magic pentax lens designers are gone, either dead, retired or somewhere else. Maybe that is why we haven't seen new lenses yet. They are not only designing lenses but designing the teams to design the lenses.

Pentax under Ricoh is a 15 year project. First thing is to stop losing money. Done. Second thing is to start introducing new products. We are seeing this start to happen. Until you get into a position of being a market leader, you make things that work very well, are slightly better than the other market segment competitors. You start building or snatching the artists in the industry who are looking for a place to make a name for themselves. You let them do it.

Ricoh didn't pay much for Pentax because there wasn't much there. A bunch of decade old lenses, the best people already moved on. If Pentax Russia is a bit annoyed and impatient, imagine the Ricoh management.

From a marketplace perspective Ricoh is going to be an annoying thorn in the side of the two big guys. Nikon got rid of a bunch of service and distribution folks in Canada last year. They aren't having fun either, with a bunch of justifiably upset solid return customers who find shoddy workmanship and purposeful crippled products. Now Ricoh is showing up in market segments that they have taken for granted and forcing them to invest resources. I am less familiar with Canon, but there is a long standing rivalry there in another market with Ricoh's growth coming from Canon's share.

This is great. We have a market participant who is desperate to build a market and business, forcing everyone else to sharpen up and focus or lose customers. How is this bad for anyone? I'm patient. I don't have the resources to jump at every new thing; a D800 with kit, a Sony FF with kit now, $5-6k each time. And in between the Oly body that was the greatest thing since sliced bread and proved that sensor size didn't matter, or did it? I'm getting a K-3 which will fix most of the frustrations of the K-5, and will use the lenses I have to take great shots.

[derekkite]

In some ways Pentax through it's iterations is a reflection of the serious issues facing Japanese industry. At their heyday, they had ample expertise, marketing strength build on world class products produced at prices that made wide distribution possible. They did it in house or in country. The rest of the world was a market. We know the story, we bought stuff they made.

That has all changed. Japan is old. The Olympus saga was about entrenched management cooking the books, a microcosm of the country. Pentax rode on it's laurels until there wasn't anything to ride on, an old story of market leaders. Manufacturing moved elsewhere with attendant quality control issues. The stable of young smart men willing to work day and night to re-invent the world wasn't born.

I suspect that the path for Ricoh to have Pentax as a dominant brand in the market is through more than making nice lenses; it may very well be about challenging some of the assumptions of Japanese industry as they face general decline. It would be a tectonic shift for a japanese outfit to have, oh, a russian lens designer in house. May even be against the law in Japan. There aren't enough Japanese kids.

We live in interesting times.

[monochrome]

Why do you think that; because reality hurts? I have stated above that with the testimonials from Russians, we see the proofs that new development and new funding started 15-18 months after the purchase of Pentax. That means one important cycle missed. I believe no one would be happier than Pentax users, who are always used to little, to see a new owner acting right on time and with a plan. Because what then differentiates it from the previous owner? But now we see, as I had my unconfirmed suspicions, that there was no plan at all even during the last year's Photokina.

Please quantify your last, using real-world facts.

[normhead]

Please quantify your last using real-world fats.

Saturated or unsaturated?.

You can't get away with nothing around here.

[monochrome]

Ricoh didn't pay much for Pentax because there wasn't much there. A bunch of decade old lenses, the best people already moved on.

The real money investment comes over the next ten years.

I suspect that the path for Ricoh to have Pentax as a dominant brand in the market is through more than making nice lenses; it may very well be about challenging some of the assumptions of Japanese industry as they face general decline.

Ricoh's big cultural change - driven throughout the corporation and in all their Vision and Mission statements, is to think Globally. I noticed it, but the import didn't sink in. Perhaps thinking outside Japan for everything, not just sales, is what Ricoh Imagines and will be Ricoh's Change.

[monochrome]

Saturated or unsaturated?.

You can't get away with nothing around here.

Thought I fixed that. Think I'll leave it.*

[normhead]

Or someone stating creative conjecture interpreted by someone else as fact and related as a post here with some additional creative musings. I don't know how many times I have read rumor posts where somebody talked to the Pentax rep (salesperson) who was at a local store servicing his account there and the rep said something vague about what might be coming down the pipe (usually something about a FF camera). The rep's comments are then reposted here with a little window dressing as fact and nothing came of it.

That sort of post has been common here since I first joined in 2007. (Yes, there were FF rumors in 2007...remember when the K20D was supposed to be FF?) Ogl has a long history on this site and also a long history of posting speculation about Pentax direction and possible new products. I supposed it would be possible to tally an accuracy score, but I don't have the time nor the inclination. I generally put his credibility on a par with the never-ending rumor mill located in China.

Steve

Ya well, for some strange reason I started getting excited about the K-3 a week before it's was announced. And it came in as advertised. Teh good old Chinese/Japanese rumour mill. You have be able to cut through the chaff... it's a skill.

[normhead]

Or someone stating creative conjecture interpreted by someone else as fact and related as a post here with some additional creative musings. I don't know how many times I have read rumor posts where somebody talked to the Pentax rep (salesperson) who was at a local store servicing his account there and the rep said something vague about what might be coming down the pipe (usually something about a FF camera). The rep's comments are then reposted here with a little window dressing as fact and nothing came of it.

That sort of post has been common here since I first joined in 2007. (Yes, there were FF rumors in 2007...remember when the K20D was supposed to be FF?) Ogl has a long history on this site and also a long history of posting speculation about Pentax direction and possible new products. I supposed it would be possible to tally an accuracy score, but I don't have the time nor the inclination. I generally put his credibility on a par with the never-ending rumor mill located in China.

Steve

Ya well, for some strange reason I started getting excited about the K-3 a week before it's was announced. And it came in as advertised. The good old Chinese/Japanese rumour mill. You have be able to cut through the chaff... it's a skill.

Ricoh didn't pay much for Pentax because there wasn't much there. A bunch of decade old lenses, the best people already moved on.

Ya, 120 million gets you squat these days.