Originally posted by HillCountryRick New member here and apologies in advance if I'm posting in the wrong place. After many decades being too busy to seriously pursue my photo / art passions, finally have the time and desire to dive back in head first. I've spent the last month or so reading tons to catch up on the current state of equipment before opening up the checkbook big time, (well big time for me anyway). Top of my camera 'got to have' list is the K-1, deciding to shun the CanoNikon path, scared to death of terrible Sony service reports and as much as I like Olympus and the m43 equipment, the megapixels just aren't there for me yet. The K-1 wins the spec /price battle for me, but before I dive in, the release timelines indicate to me that a K-1 level II should be in the works before too long (<6 mo's?). Or maybe I'm laughably delusional on the current state of affairs at Ricoh/Pentax?
The status of the K-3 II being slowly moved to the 'has been' pile, with no official info forthcoming on the replacement for over 6 months now, has me pretty concerned that maybe Ricoh is backing away from the serious DSLR market in general, throwing all my equipment research back into a tizzy. Are there any book makers offering odds on Ricoh/Pentax survival / commitment over the next 4 - 5 years at least? What do ya'll think?
I wouldn't worry too much. Pentax has been gradually releasing new equipment and has some nice lenses coming out the end of this year and next year. They aren't as fast at releasing stuff as some of the other bigger companies are, but they feel pretty committed to the k mount.
The company that feels uncertain at this point is Nikon, who is at least playing around with the idea of going with a new mirrorless mount.
---------- Post added 07-11-17 at 04:35 PM ----------
Originally posted by photoptimist Thanks for the update!
The signals don't seem that mixed. They are consistent with the manufacturer discontinuing production and the distributors and retailers clearing the remaining stock. The pattern of kit availability probably reflects the relative popularity & inventory levels of those lenses. And there may be some shops that have no K-3ii's in stock but have not bothered to update the status or might be willing to try to find a unit somewhere if a customer makes a special request.
Sure. The goal for any company is to have old stock gone by the time the new product is released. Traditionally, camera companies haven't done too well at that, but if you make a press release saying "awesome new camera coming in 6 weeks!" then a lot of folks will hold of buying the current generation product till they see what that looks like.