[lithedreamer]

Of course further firmware upgrades would be welcome, but with the K3, K3 II, K50 (yes, it got an update too ), K70, KP and K-1 now all being KAF4 compatible, they have covered a pretty large portion of Pentax users. They updated the K3 and K50 because people were unhappy about being left out, but the K30 and K5 II are now so old that many of those owning these will be upgrading soon anyway. After all, Pentax also wants to sell cameras, and KAF4 could be an effective nudge

Maybe? I did indeed upgrade from a K-30 to a K-1, but I'm not buying any KAF4 glass until I upgrade my K-1, which isn't happening any time soon. I'm not buying glass that won't work on any of my backup bodies.

[cfraz]

We are discussing at Russian penta-club the situation that smartphones already killed P&S cameras and the photo market of DSLR and EVIL decreases every year. The people lose interest to photo equipment.
For example, all my friends and relatives (who had P&S cameras, mirrorless and DSLR just for family shooting) stopped to use all this gear several years ago and use smart phones only.

It seems to me Ricoh looks a bit confused. Q is frozen and I think it won't have any perspectives.
To carry APS-C, FF and MF is rather heavy burden for Ricoh. Everything goes very slow and with risks to lose all.
But to hesitate is more risk than to go very slow and in conservative way.

How to remain afloat ? To launch lenses slowly is wrong way. IMO. The lenses are flesh and blood of system.
New lenses are the bricks of photo brand.

Yes, Ricoh Imaging has been conservative with respect to expansion. Maybe not a bad strategy in a declining market. I doubt RI could survive a downturn in unit sales on the order of what Nikon has experienced.

Did you see that Sigma's CEO said it takes them 2 or 3 years to bring a new lens to market (DPR interview at CP+)? I suppose Sigma has several times the lens development capacity as RI. I'm not sure RI could bring out new lenses faster, even if risk wasn't an issue.

[mee]

Considering they only have official roadmaps for lenses, it must be a lens then

Let the speculation commence!

I'll kick it off with a speculation that the secret is updated DA lenses with PLM and perhaps weather sealing.

[monochrome]

^^ I'll speculate it is something bigger.

[THoog]

^^ I'll speculate it is something bigger.

Updated FA lenses with PLM and perhaps weather sealing?

[Uluru]

The future is bright. Kenspo says so. But he won't say anything else.

Very bright.
f1.4

[lithedreamer]

Very bright.
f1.4

We haven't had a future as bright as the A-50mm f/1.2 in far too long.

[Uluru]

We are discussing at Russian penta-club the situation that smartphones already killed P&S cameras and the photo market of DSLR and EVIL decreases every year.
It seems to me Ricoh looks a bit confused. Q is frozen and I think it won't have any perspectives.
To carry APS-C, FF and MF is rather heavy burden for Ricoh. Everything goes very slow and with risks to lose all.
But to hesitate is more risk than to go very slow and in conservative way.
How to remain afloat ? To launch lenses slowly is wrong way. IMO. The lenses are flesh and blood of system.
New lenses are the bricks of photo brand.

In digital age there will be more photo enthusiasts than during the film age. I would say twice as many at least. Each household will have twice as many proper digital cameras than film cameras — despite mobile phones. The success of mobile phones lie exclusively in one fact: they are obtainable at a plan, paid monthly. But are obsolete much faster than proper cameras. Smartphone market will too stagnate.

Number of sales of digital cameras are currently dropping because for a while they were abnormally high for this industry, but are still much higher than even at best moments during the film era.

Back then, sales compared to current sales were abysmal! Canon was producing mere 1/6 of current EOS cameras! Tell me, how bad was back then?! Yet no one ever cried end of the world, end of camera business, etc. People were normal. Doom&gloom is purposefully broadcasted nonsense in the digital era, by the ill-educated bloggers who have full access to world communication highways, and by the investors, who live by such rapid expansions / contractions of the markets. That is called the shock economy, and it is bad! Everyone wants quick money based on lies and false expectations. Digital photo industry need to get out of that mode, and stabilise itself, become normal — same as bred and butter production is stabile and normal for decades.

Another way to stabilise this market is that number of bloggers and forums drops down, and people rely exclusively on professional insights by industry experts. In film era, we read magazines that were edited by professionals and normal people. Not so today. Today 90% of online information about digital photography is garbage, that would never have been published in magazines.

In essence, only those companies that were fooled by a sudden abnormal growth in digital camera market will suffer, because they had big expectations which never had support in reality. Nikon is one of them. Sony too.

Ricoh Imaging is not one of them, though. They were conservative and they must persist being normal, and have modest expectations, and think outside the box, deliver good value products. And people will come and buy, share valuable information.

That is all.

[mee]

Updated FA lenses with PLM and perhaps weather sealing?

You beat me to it.

[ogl]

Very bright.
f1.4

I think no future

[Mistral75]

I think no future

You are a Russian nihilist .

[wpvv]

^^ I'll speculate it is something bigger.

67D with DFA 55-135 zoom?
Won't be full frame though with a 48x64mm sensor.







[ just to make sure - this isn't a serious guess... ]

[bons]

I'm tired of waiting APS-C wide zoom. From "Pentax Roadmap 2012-2013"... 5 years roadmap. I will buy Fuji X-T20 + 10-24/4

[D1N0]

So you especially registered to tell us that? There are plenty of Tamron and Sigma alternatives in that range. And also the DA 12-24.

[bons]

I'm a photographer with 40 years experience. I have experience in film rangefinder and SLR cameras. Self-manual processing and printing of color negative and positive films. And so on. The first Pentax I have is K5. Purchased in 2012. Even then I planned for it a NEW DA wide-zoom. And DA 10-24 mm is not the same as DA 12-24 mm. Or do not you agree? I tested Sigma 8-16, Sigma 10-20/3.5 - it's bearable, but not very good. I tested Tamron 10-24 - is awful. I have DA 15 - it's convenient, but I do not like the image quality... And K-1 + 15-30mm is too heavy for traveling (by weight), in addition to my K3-II + great DA* 60-250.


So - I do not see any options... With Pentax.