[wkraus]

There is a big difference between the computer tools available thirty years ago and what is available today.

No doubt about that. I suppose the computers used to design 1980s lenses were much bigger and took a lot more time.

[Kunzite]

A smartphone today has more computing power than a 1980s Cray supercomputer. Most of it is wasted on Instagram and Facebook, though

[surfar]

Most of it is wasted on Instagram and Facebook

That's Y you are on Facebook!

[FantasticMrFox]

A smartphone today has more computing power than a 1980s Cray supercomputer. Most of it is wasted on Instagram and Facebook, though

A quote I read some time ago: the average smartphone today has more computing power than the entirety of NASA in 1969. NASA launched a man to the moon, you are launching birds into pigs

[reh321]

There is a big difference between the computer tools available thirty years ago and what is available today.

A smartphone today has more computing power than a 1980s Cray supercomputer. Most of it is wasted on Instagram and Facebook, though

This is about more than just hardware. I worked in a U.S. Government lab using super computers in the 1970's, and developed software for various computers in various contexts in the 1980's. A computer can be only so helpful when you enter a series of numbers on an "IBM card" and then wait for it to generate results; interacting with the computer using mouse, track-ball, or pad and seeing it produce results on a screen is so much more productive.

[TwoUptons]

Has anyone heard an update on the rumored wide angles?

-Eric

[mee]

This is about more than just hardware. I worked in a U.S. Government lab using super computers in the 1970's, and developed software for various computers in various contexts in the 1980's. A computer can be only so helpful when you enter a series of numbers on an "IBM card" and then wait for it to generate results; interacting with the computer using mouse, track-ball, or pad and seeing it produce results on a screen is so much more productive.

What Kunzite was saying is these portable computing devices we have now are not used seriously yet have much more computing power than of decades ago with huge computers with small computing ability. It is ironical.

[mee]

Has anyone heard an update on the rumored wide angles?

Mid to late next year at the earliest. No, I don't know more than you.. but looking at the speed of getting this 50mm out the door, and knowing there is an 85mm following after it, I can fairly safely say the wide angle won't be released anytime soon.

[clackers]

Has anyone heard an update on the rumored wide angles?

-Eric

The next two lenses are 50mm and 85mm, Eric ... there is no other update from Ricoh.

Kenspo simply hinted that others are being worked on.

[FantasticMrFox]

At that speed DSLRs will have died out completely before Ricoh gets even half of these lenses out the door ...

[clackers]

At that speed DSLRs will have died out completely before Ricoh gets even half of these lenses out the door ...

How cheerful you are, FMF!

It was claimed that half of K-1 sales are to people leaving other brands to come to Ricoh.

IIRC, new members to this forum in the last couple of weeks include one leaving Olympus and another one abandoning Fuji.

Another has put up for sale his entire Samsung mirrorless outfit.

[FantasticMrFox]

How cheerful you are, FMF!

I'm simply disappointed that we've been waiting for a new road-mapped APS-C UWA for about seven years now and that almost 1.5 years of having put the five new DFA primes on the roadmap (February 2016) none of them has materialised. The last Pentax lens was released a year ago.

I know, I know, they're smaller than the big names, but that doesn't change the fact that this kind of speed just doesn't really cut it.

Another has put up for sale his entire Samsung mirrorless outfit.

Very surprising, considering Samsung completely abandoned the consumer camera business and released its last camera in early 2015, and last lens in 2014

[Winder]

I know, I know, they're smaller than the big names, but that doesn't change the fact that this kind of speed just doesn't really cut it.

It makes you wonder what happened? It looks like Ricoh didn't even start working on these lenses until after the K-1 was introduced and that doesn't make any sense. The 50mm and 85mm are two of the easier lenses to design. With computer modeling a huge percentage of the work these days it shouldn't take more than 2-3 years to produce a great piece of glass. Right now it looks like the 50mm will be released 3 years after the K-1 was announced. Its hard to believe that was part of the original plan. Seems to be typical for Ricoh. The K-1 was released a year late. The D-FA* 70-200mm was a year late.

[RobA_Oz]

It makes you wonder what happened? It looks like Ricoh didn't even start working on these lenses until after the K-1 was introduced and that doesn't make any sense. The 50mm and 85mm are two of the easier lenses to design. With computer modeling a huge percentage of the work these days it shouldn't take more than 2-3 years to produce a great piece of glass. Right now it looks like the 50mm will be released 3 years after the K-1 was announced. Its hard to believe that was part of the original plan. Seems to be typical for Ricoh. The K-1 was released a year late. The D-FA* 70-200mm was a year late.

I assume that, given the D-FA* nomenclature, these two unifocals are going to be extremely good, and their prices are no doubt going to reflect that. As not all K-1 users are going to want to part with that much money, at some point Ricoh will have to release a lower-priced range, to satisfy those who want to buy new, but at lower prices. The D-FA 28-105 indicates that they're capable of doing that, and it seems that it was designed and built in the same time-frame as the two non-Tamron high end zooms.

However, the glow from the K-1 launch isn't going to last much longer, and the slow pace of release of the 50 and 85 premiums isn't encouraging to new users with the resources to buy them. If there aren't new budget lenses out soon, other potential buyers will be lost. If, as others have said, premium lenses are the future, that's telling me Ricoh has given away its previous ambition to bring its market share up near the big two, and that's a shame, if so.

[Reed]

They are quite busy on emptying their stock of DA 35/50 and old FA50 right now, and keep in mind that budget lenses were never(as I can remember) roadmapped or presented prior to official release. My guess is we will see new or updated aps-c glass as their next move.