[i83N]

I like what he says about GR.

[Dr Orloff]

I think that Ricoh guy's a Sony mole. It's the kind of interview that will encourage sales of the A7/R.

[monochrome]

I think that Ricoh guy's a Sony mole. It's the kind of interview that will encourage sales of the A7/R.

The history of Ricoh suggests they acquired failing legacy office equipment brands from large manufacturers, cleaned things up, flattened the executive bloat, used what they could of the patents and turned the old company into a "Brand" with Ricoh pasted somewhere on the machine.

What a firestorm it would cause if Ricoh bought the Konica-Minolta camera patents and factories from Sony (Konica-Minolta still owns the name and other optical patents and products), let Sony keep the brand name and remarketed the A7r and Nex cameras as Ricoh-branded.

Instant FF. Instant Ricoh brand SLR form factor. Instant distribution arrangements for Pentax brand cameras. Instant market share increase.

Instant "Most Members online at PF" record day.

[liviuperisan]

K5IIs is better than K3 + NO FF in the near future = Fuji X or Sony A7r.

[Paul the Sunman]

I will still keeping my Pentax but no longer wait for Pentax FF, I'm going for Sony A7r. No need to wait... if FF Pentax is out might be too expensive since it take that long to develop, I'm sorry if you were offended....

You'll still have to wait ... for the lenses to go with the A7r. Not much choice yet.

[H. Sapiens]

If there is one impression this interview leaves me with, it is the growing sense that Ricoh never had a detailed strategy for where they wanted to take Pentax, and worse, they still don't have that strategy. It is like a gambler in a casino considering the options (roulette, black jack, one armed) but never comitting to betting his money at all. To me, this is not disastrous but I honestly this they need to commit to more than aps-c.

Besides. Is this the full interview or how big a part of it? There is very little information here, except some reflections on hifi and baseball.

[monochrome]

K5IIs is better than K3 + NO FF in the near future = Fuji X or Sony A7r.

Different combination of features and sensors. Not better. Different.

But OK - go ahead and do what you gotta do.

[monochrome]

If there is one impression this interview leaves me with, it is the growing sense that Ricoh never had a detailed strategy for where they wanted to take Pentax, and worse, they still don't have that strategy. It is like a gambler in a casino considering the options (roulette, black jack, one armed) but never comitting to betting his money at all. To me, this is not disastrous but I honestly this they need to commit to more than aps-c.

Besides. Is this the full interview or how big a part of it? There is very little information here, except some reflections on hifi and baseball.

A distress buyer never has a detailed strategy at the time of acquisition - there hasn't been time to perform due diligence. That's part of the reason the price was so low - it reflected uncertainty. Having determined the condition Pentax was in, Ricoh created and is actively carrying out its detailed strategy for Pentax.

Trouble is, we don't see most of the steps they're taking because at this time they're not product oriented and secondly, we might not like their detailed strategy for Pentax, and the time horizon over which they intend to carry it out.

[rodneyy]

You'll still have to wait ... for the lenses to go with the A7r. Not much choice yet.

Yes.. True, the Sony Mirroless FF only come with 55mm f1.8 lenses.

[Rondec]

As I read the interview, I am pleased. I do think there will be a full frame camera next year, but they are trying to figure out exactly what niche in the market to target. I also think that they are planning on continuing to support upper end APS-C. It seems to me that this is a segment that, Canon and Nikon have deliberately avoided supporting. I don't think any of the L lenses are APS-C specific. There has been no update to the venerable 7D. Nikon has avoided releasing a D400 camera or, any upper end APS-C lenses.

I do think that APS-C has a future still and even though I want Pentax to make a full frame camera, I also want them to give their full support to APS-C. There is just no reason to ditch the format at this point as demonstrated by the K3.

[Urkeldaedalus]

Ah the Japanese executive translated interview -- nothing better for starting off thinking you know what they are planning before you are led through a maze of cultural references and non-denial denials into questioning your own existence. What is real?! Am I real? Do I like baseball? Fullframe?

My take based on this interview and others:

They're still doing fullframe (I think), they're just dithering on what they should focus their resources on first. He is correct that this is a challenge: APS-C system still needs some holes filled, Q has a loyal following but has a lot of room to grow. The 645D is obviously growing long in the tooth. The GR also could use a slight update with a few tweaks to keep up with competitors (like adding Wi-Fi). I wonder what other focal length they are thinking? I am guessing based on GXR history they would go with 50 mm.

This said, I think they just need to bite the bullet and get FF out. The lens rollout for that thing is going to be slow so they need to get the buy in while there still is buy in to get. Just stick a FF sensor in the K-3 and let us go at it! Also, as someone else noted, once they release it we can finally start focusing on other things.

I am, however, feeling less confident after this interview about my thinking that FF would be out in late 2014. What do you think monochrome? You're the eternal optimist here.

Besides fullframe, I actually think Ricoh has a lot of things going for it. They had a good year this year, the camera division appears to be doing well considering a tough camera market, and I think they have a lot of options going forward. The amount of mounts will be challenging but I think it could turn out to be a strength.

[Urkeldaedalus]

K5IIs is better than K3 + NO FF in the near future = Fuji X or Sony A7r.

I own both the K5IIs and the K3. The K-3 files might need more tweaking due to file size and more apparent noise at high ISOs, but besides this the K-3 is the better camera in almost every regard (and the K-5IIs is still one of the better APS-C cameras all things considered).

[Rondec]

K5IIs is better than K3 + NO FF in the near future = Fuji X or Sony A7r.

Have you used a K3? The only thing that is better on the K5 II is that it has iso 80. That's it. Everything else is equivalent or better on the K3.

[Chris Mak]

This said, I think they just need to bite the bullet and get FF out. The lens rollout for that thing is going to be slow so they need to get the buy in while there still is buy in to get. Just stick a FF sensor in the K-3 and let us go at it! Also, as someone else noted, once they release it we can finally start focusing on other things.

I am, however, feeling less confident after this interview about my thinking that FF would be out in late 2014.

Yes, that's what I'm thinking also. With the ever changing camera market, and Sony and others going at it full speed, there will either always be reasons to postpone FF, or Pentax will simply be left behind.
I don't get the impression from the interview that FF is on hold again (like it always was?), but what's missing certainly, is the thrust forward that e.g. Sony is exhibiting. Just do it and learn along the way, but at least set things in motion. With the backing of Ricoh I would have thought that possible, but obviously we're not as yet safe from the danger of the attitude: "let's wait a bit, research the market, evaluate....".
I get the feeling it's now or never for Pentax, but perhaps there just aren't any waiting for FF around anymore, something similar as with Olympus: by the time they held the enquiry amongst their users whether they should go E7 or OM-D1, there weren't any Dslr users around anymore, they had all switched systems....

Those with Pentax (FF designed)K-lenses wanting a FF camera (like myself), have a way out of eternal waiting thanks to Sony. I will get a Sony A7 this spring when Pentax has not announced a FF camera by then. Then Pentax can take all the time they feel they need, although I may not return from using Sony FF...

Chris

[JPT]

Thanks for the translation. I also bought this magazine and was trying to put together a summary, but this is much better than what I could have done.

I think we have to remember that a company is not going to announce products in an interview like this, so they can only talk in vague terms. They will wait until they are ready to launch for a couple of reasons. They don't want to damage sales of the current generation products and they don't want to let the competition know what they are working on. For Japanese, this means that FF will be "under consideration" right up to the point it is released. The magazine had interviews with 10 other lens and camera manufacturers and they were all equally vague.

Considering this, the language used about FF and MF seemed pretty positive to me. The baseball analogy indicated to me that they don't think it is good enough to just throw out a FF body and see how it does in the market. When it comes, they will have a clear strategy to make it successful and differentiate it from rivals.

I also like what he says about making GRs with other focal lengths. I read so many comments about the GR that amounted to "I love everything about the GR, but 28mm is to wide for me". It seems like an open goal for Ricoh. My vote would be 40mm.

In the magazine, the interviewer Kimio Tanaka goes on to speculate that the 645D successor might be shown at CP+, which is only two months away, but that was not something that the interviewee said directly.

It's also interesting that the person from Ricoh who did the interview this time is a marketing guy, rather than a product development guy. He only joined the company in December 2012 and started his career at Sony, also working for Electrolux along the way. I think this person may be pretty clued up, because Ricoh/Pentax marketing has been much more effective in 2013, in Japan at least.