Originally posted by 2351HD Chris, really, you sold your Z because you have cause for concern about the direction of Ricoh.
Jeez.
Not only did they launch the Z, re-release all FA lenses into all markets for sale, released a 90 DFA portrait lens, a 28-45 weather sealed landscape lens, have a roadmap for replacing the 45-85 and 80-160 zooms, they dropped the price of the body to $6999, they released a pro support program, they worked directly with a 3rd party company to release a fast flash sync product to the market, now they did a cheap refresh of a FA lens amongst everything else they are working on.
Cause for concern, that's a bit of a cheap shot in my view. What more do people want, MF is a small user base and is treated accordingly.
I didn't sell my Z because I was concerned about Ricoh. I was getting fed up using dual cam setups once I had the resolution from the 5DSr's to keep me happy. Having 10K+ tied up in a system I was using less and less didn't seem practical or smart considering. What with the rumors of a full frame MF option in the works it seemed sensible to jump ship until a newer body becomes available.
I'm a strong advocate for Pentax / Ricoh but just like how I raved about the 645z in my online review that has convinced a lot of fence sitters to buy into the system (and still does) I'll be equally critical when I don't like something I see too.
They've done a lot as you say. If someone wanted to be crabby about it you 'could' say that the Macro was launched in 2012 and the ultrawide 28-45 was launched in August 2014. So 15 months later we have the refreshed 35mm? With the current lens spacing being in the 14-18 month time frame does that mean the 35mm is it for another year? (granted I don't think it is). The price drop is welcome but that's what comes from a maturing product and is something that happens across the board. The pro support program while welcome has had no mention yet of being extended to Europe (I waited 3 months for a lens to have some work done on it) and the flash solution is ace.
Frankly I'm excited what the future holds with Pentax, the full frame body looks great, but I do have a cause for concern with certain things because a camera system is just that, a system. If a certain component isn't that great then it brings the whole thing down with it. That has nothing to do with their financials and certainly isn't a cheap shot.