Sorry for being little late.
Was a hard and long double day.
Photokina.
My number one visit was Pentax,of course.
A couple of ours like every year,visit at my bodies
I checked the firmware 1.30 and could get it on my camera,but nope thanks....forgot my antia bug spray
Had a lot of small talk with Pentax stuff and Pentax customers and newbies.
Talked about sports,high ISO,durability and all the stuff and showed them my pictures for examples.
Every visitor was positive in his reaction,Pentax got a very nice reaction of the public.
Behind the lines.
I talked again with different bodies and with Ricoh stuff,2 years ago a short talk with Saiki san,this year he was stressed up
Had no time
But,I have more contacts and much better and more intense contacts.
The result for me of couple of hours at Pentax :
Q is still in action,but in the second row this time,full frame is the first.
!!! Attention !!! Q is out of production !!!
!!! Project Q is on ice,maybe over,maybe paused !!!
I asked different persons again,cause of the interview with the informations it is off.
New fullframe body next time?
NOPE and double no!
Fullframe lenses?
Yes,5 lenses!! in 17 and later new zooms.
Pro and consumer in the class of 28-105.
Than there is the developers roadmap,it's different to the public roadmap.
Public roadmap inserts the ready and clear projects,currently in production.
No fiction,full reality.
In production or pre production,but in direct line to the market and sale.
The developers roadmap,here we have lenses in development,ideas short before to be a prototype,check ups if it's good enough for the market or only a good idea.
But it shows what the development team is thinking and will figure out if it's needed or not.
But,not for public.
Mirror less fullframe,nothing about this,no idea,no information,no comment,not in right or a absolute high class secret.
It looks more like a project,if it's anything.
Pentax is in full progress lens production,maybe first look at cp+.
Pentax hoped they could show anything this year,but Ricoh decided for a big nope
At the weekend before the Photokina,Pentax Japan was sending a mail with a roadmap inside,but....it was the current one
The other thing is,Pentax is still looking inspiration for the lens roadmap,Pentax is still figure out what the customers are wanting,so it could be changing everything.
Pentax knows that not only the old community is in love with the Limiteds,also the newbies are fans.
That was a big surprise for Ricoh that the Pentax style is so special and the reactions are so positive.
Same with K-1,I remember the talks all the years and month before fullframe made by Asahi
The result is,Ricoh gives a lot of financial power to the development team in Tokyo.
The new APS-C high end model,K-3ll replacement...
Here we have the same big problem like Nikon have.
Only with the different that the Pentax is still invisible and not ready for show but existing.
Only,not currently in full production.
So,Ricoh decided to show and tell nothing.
Absolute nothing,only maybe cp+.
But nothing about what and how,only a maybe and we hope....
Nothing to keep in the hand.
Video will be not the important thing in a Pentax,so it looks not like that we get an cinema Pentax like red or Sony A 7s.
Pentax will give us photo machines with video function nearby
The other result of the Sony sensor production disaster is,Pentax will have no K-1 on stock till end of this year!
Only small numbers are going direct to the shops and than direct to the consumers with pre order,Pentax will see the K-1 only on paper.
No stock because of the small sensor production.
At last,the numbers of sales are much better than the years before and Pentax is the only company with a little increase in dslr!
The Ricoh theta is still a big success,lots of new consumers and areas.
Google bought a couple of thousand theta and lot of different companies in different branches also.
The 645 is also still a nice success and a very important line in the Pentax portfolio.
What can we do for Pentax?
The marketing and development teams are watching us,hearing us and follow us if we give them real and usable points and ideas for new stuff and lenses.
So let us stay clear and positive in arguments and wishes,Pentax will follow us if it's profitable and feasible.
So,not so much the big news,but my little insides of the Photokina.
Maybe I will find anything more in my brain memory,than I will come back.
Best regards
Last edited by asahi man; 09-29-2016 at 05:14 AM.
Reason: changed 5 primes in 5 lenses,cause one is the fish eye zoom.