Originally posted by Winder It depends on the steps. Ricoh is slow and methodical. Arguably too slow. They have a lot of patents that have yet to see the light of day. IF they can conquer AF..... IF..... That is the Achilles heal.
That's right. Number of steps is not so important. What is important is which steps are perfected.
First issue is the AF. Now entering the sixth year of Ricoh's ownership of Pentax, we can confirm the Pentax AF is now the overall worst in all camera world. Overall means combined AF-S and AF-C performance. Worse is only AF in manual focusing cameras. Sony, Fuji, Leica with SL and Q, Olympus, Panasonic, Canon, Nikon, etc. are now all well ahead.
Now this could be a butt of a joke in some pub downtown Tokyo, but it is a tragedy, in fact. What is the cause of this?
Two reasons, in fact.
- To build an AF Ricoh needs to mobilise users, seriously, and work with them, seriously accepting their feedback. Ricoh does not do that. Ricoh Imaging, now it seems, does not even work with own brand ambassadors and leaves them up in the wild.
- Then mobilising serious money is needed for serious hardware, computing power, algorithms, etc. but that never happened in the amount that was needed to (A) bridge the gap that existed even 5 years ago between Pentax and competition, and to (B) foster all future needs.
The money they invested barely covered the gap in the lower tier cameras of the 5 years ago, not even medium or higher range. For the future performance investment, there is none. So roughly, out of 100% necessary commitment for the AF problem, Ricoh delivered 25%.
Solving AF problem is not a cost — it is investment and pure future profit. Just one top performing AF is easily implemented in different cameras.
Second issue are the lenses. Ricoh has created a situation in the market that Pentax solely relies on Ricoh now to deliver AF capable lenses for Pentax. Sigma retreating, Tokina gone, Tamron not delivering for Pentax mount but Ricoh rebrands only some Tamrons. Lenses do not come out when users want them, (and they wanted them even before 2011) but at Ricoh's whim. Although they could have done much worse job than they did, they did not their best job they could either. So their performance there is some 50% of what was possible and needed with just a better thinking.
They failed to talk to customers about lenses for five (5) years, but started only recently, in a survey organised by their European distributor.
So 25% work done in AF department, and 50% work done in lenses department … well, anyone could do that. If Pepsi bought Pentax they could do the same. My grandmother too. Therefore, the Ricoh's management is nothing special in that regard, it only shows that investment in Pentax came with problems they do not understand at all. Ricoh had no plan nor strategy whatsoever, for why would they wait five years to finally ask customers about something so crucial as the lenses?
Turning the AF problem into an advantage
Now the question: is the AF performance, especially tracking, really what photography is all about? Surely not. It's a fad. But, if Ricoh thinks they can't do anything in that area, and are not willing to invest at all, they could turn the caveat into an opportunity.
Just forget the modern shaped DSLRs then which Canon and Nikon already make, and instead produce cameras that are undoubtedly retro. Manual focusing stuff, just 1 point AF, and build a very interesting eco-system of extremely good lenses and dedicated cameras that restore much needed photographic experience and premeditation.
Market is full of guys who all do same. Just move aside.
Then get rid of the entire crop line or just leave it as it is. Issue one new camera there every 3 years.
Let every
Pentax new way DSLR be:
- an FF with a 36MP chip,
- strip the AF to its bare bones,
- install huge pentaprisms with 100% field view and 1.0x magnification,
- offer pixel-shift,
- astrotracer,
- make lenses that have brilliant MF feel,
- make cameras that look like old Spotmatics, or whatever old else.
- then work on touch screen UI, or,
- have one camera with no screen whatsoever.
- strip the DSLR weight down to some 700-800g.
- make thing weather-resistant,
- let the camera looks and performance be different totally from the rest of industry.
Just reinvent the entire game for yourself, and stay out of any possible comparison with anybody else. Things in world move in circles, and soon enough people will be sick of complicated cameras, and smartphones, and will crave for simplicity and beauty of photography.