Originally posted by vZwicky It could be Doctor Boom. I've just visited the local Pentax dealer, some way away in fact, and likely the biggest one in the country. Pentax business for them is "booming" - their word. The K3 is selling extremely well and so, via mail order, are some lenses like the new 16-85mm. In their view, the K3 has done well because "you get one heck of a lot of camera for the money". FF in their view is constrained by cost and by size: not so many folks really need it, especially when it comes to handing over the Amex card and then struggling out with a huge zoom. In fact I had to come away with less than I was hoping for because they had sold out of two Pentax lenses and had display ones only. They were upbeat about Ricoh, saying that from their POV, Ricoh was in effect taking the line, "tell us what you need, give us some kind of plan that makes sense, and we'll provide the funding/support no problem." This is exactly what Hoya did not do. The fly in the ointment for Ricoh is probably the general state of the camera market, not what they have or haven't done with their photography division.