[surfar]

Queen K-1

Kween?.....I thought Kmount signified the King of mounts?

[Rondec]

OK...I'm not a financier, a stock market speculator who can look at company financial reports and read between the lines....or even all that knowledgeable about how the camera retail sales market is doing. Not my forte, at all.

Maybe someone out there that has much more ability/skill than I have, can let me know in simple terms (so I can understand)...is Pentax paying their way within the huge Ricoh company, is Pentax in any danger of being shut down...etc.

I'm not a doomer and gloomer...I just want to try to figure out will I have an orphan camera line (Pentax) in a few years...or does everything ;look rosy at this time for Pentax to continue making and selling DSLR product ?

There's no danger as far as I can see of Pentax going away.

I think the big fear (if there is one) of anyone of the main brands with full frame mounts (K mount/F mount/EOS mount) deciding that Sony is right and they need a short registration full frame mount. At that point their current mount would become a legacy mount with the lenses supported with an adapter, but little else. The alpha mount is pretty high and dry at the moment, even though there are still plenty of folks who own A mount lenses. Ricoh has shown themselves to be pretty conservative and I expect the K mount to stick around for quite awhile yet.

[totsmuyco]

There's no danger as far as I can see of Pentax going away.

I think the big fear (if there is one) of anyone of the main brands with full frame mounts (K mount/F mount/EOS mount) deciding that Sony is right and they need a short registration full frame mount. At that point their current mount would become a legacy mount with the lenses supported with an adapter, but little else. The alpha mount is pretty high and dry at the moment, even though there are still plenty of folks who own A mount lenses. Ricoh has shown themselves to be pretty conservative and I expect the K mount to stick around for quite awhile yet.

I really hope the k-mount stays for a long long time. Before I took the plunge on the k-5II, I looked at how the mount has evolved through the years. That's one of the reasons I went into Pentax besides the the many others. As many have here have noted, a lot of the members are still shooting their old cameras and I would like to continue using my old dslr cameras until they die on me and I know it won't be a quick death. Going into a camera system is an investment for me. I expect to grow into a system upgrading little by little allowing me to use new lenses on old cameras.

[beholder3]

Tamron sales are down -16,9%
Tamron profits are now less than half of last year. If the continue next year they will be loosing money.

TAMRON | Investor Relations

This fits to the overall picture of lens sales dropping in conjunction with camera sales.

All ILC (DSLR and MILC) are just not convincing customers any more.

---------- Post added 5th Nov 2016 at 11:49 ----------

Japan's Canon Inc said on Tuesday its third quarter operating profit fell 48 percent

Canon Q3 operating profit nearly halves on post-Brexit yen strength | Reuters

Canon Camera sales down -19,5%
With DSLR units up +8%
Meaning a major shift to cheaper units --> APSC

Canon : Investor Relations | Financial Announcements

[Kunzite]

Tamron sales are down -16,9%
Tamron profits are now less than half of last year. If the continue next year they will be loosing money.

I can see how they definitely don't need those K-mount sales

[Nicolas06]

Canon Camera sales down -19,5%
With DSLR units up +8%
Meaning a major shift to cheaper units --> APSC

Canon : Investor Relations | Financial Announcements

Or simply that they count in yens, not dollars. They didn't change their dollars price that fast and so got the -16% exchange rate over last year fully. The sales are only down 3.5% if you count the exchange rate. They may just have sold a bit older cameras counting that newcomers like 5D mark IV are maybe too new to make yet a difference.

As for tamron loosing, money, company will reduce their variable cost and increase price to compensate for exchange rate. it already occured. things are now more expensive. But this will not help drive sales up for sure.

[beholder3]

Nikon plans to eliminate about 1,000 jobs in Japan, or 10% of its domestic workforce, as the company shifts resources away from once core businesses to medical devices and other growth areas.

Nikon to cut 1,000 jobs in Japan- Nikkei Asian Review

Not good for the poor people.

[reh321]

Nikon to cut 1,000 jobs in Japan- Nikkei Asian Review

Not good for the poor people.

And the last paragraph mentions that Ricoh is closing a plant, but doesn't say what is done in that plant.

[Kunzite]

Obviously, not the Pentax plants from Vietnam and Philippines.

[monochrome]

OK...I'm not a financier, a stock market speculator who can look at company financial reports and read between the lines....or even all that knowledgeable about how the camera retail sales market is doing. Not my forte, at all.

Maybe someone out there that has much more ability/skill than I have, can let me know in simple terms (so I can understand)...is Pentax paying their way within the huge Ricoh company, is Pentax in any danger of being shut down...etc.

I'm not a doomer and gloomer...I just want to try to figure out will I have an orphan camera line (Pentax) in a few years...or does everything ;look rosy at this time for Pentax to continue making and selling DSLR product ?

Yes. No.

[monochrome]

And the last paragraph mentions that Ricoh is closing a plant, but doesn't say what is done in that plant.

MFP plant; Production moved to the new $1.4B plant in China.

[beholder3]

Nikon to cut 1,000 jobs in Japan- Nikkei Asian Review

... and Sony seems to be circling them (remember the Nikon fans whining about Pentax on similar things):

Check which camera Nikon chooses to take images of their management:
https://www.dpreview.com/files/p/articles/4455533041/DSC09568-1180px.jpeg
SONY ILCE-7RM2

Here is more: Nikon reportedly eliminating 1000 jobs in Japan: Digital Photography Review

Best comment so far:

I would imagine it's 1,000 coolpix employees. But it's probably more like the remaining 200 customer service employees, 799 coolpix employees, and the lone quality control employee.

[biz-engineer]

Yes. No.

You were being optimistic, and recently very pessimistic. The furture of Pentax depends on next plans, always it may not be obvious what to do with the current camera market saturation.

[monochrome]

You were being optimistic, and recently very pessimistic. The furture of Pentax depends on next plans, always it may not be obvious what to do with the current camera market saturation.

How many times do we have to say it?

Ricoh is committed to 'Imaging' (Pentax) - the Brand of cameras and lenses.

The USA market Division, however, is a disaster. I don't believe they have a working plan for the USA.

[monochrome]

Asahi Holdings has submitted a bid for a package of beer brands to be sold by ABInBev as required to complete its merger with SABMiller.




Oh. Wait.