Originally posted by Rondec
As to the reason for the delay, it is hard to say, isn't it? Either there was hardware issue that wasn't solvable in the time they had, a software problem, some feature that they wanted to be there that wasn't there, the lenses weren't done, or maybe they want the video on this camera to be decent and it isn't yet. Whatever the case, there has been a delay..
6 months delay is
delay by design, not by a missing part. Japanese have introduced to the world many concepts, and meeting deadlines is one of them.
There is no way any planing or design has been done before thorough discernment about dates, checked at every step of the production.
Sloppy westerners may think by default this is some kind of normal postponement, but for anyone who has ever visited Japanese factory, no, it is not. This is
impossible to happen. 1-2 months are hardly allowed in any out-of-ordinary circumstance, but 6 months?! Only a tsunami or a volcano eruption in the backyard can postpone something 6 months in Japan. Or something
done by design to buy necessary time.
Therefore most of forum members who are not Japanese think of all sorts of crazy excuses typical to their cultures, but I am 100% certain this is a deliberate decision. In short, Ricoh was almost 2 years too late to the FF market explosion, but needed to address 645Z first to steal FF craze some thunder, and then, of course, came too late with their own FF to keep own customers changing systems. And to address English speaking users, they came up with a strategy suitable and plausible to their mindsets.
And you are buying it, big time.