Originally posted by monochrome What's their legacy mount?
The issue is legacy brands are capital-bound. Ricoh wrote down ¥8B to account for the shutdown of P&E after the collapse of the compact camera. They can't/won't throw away the existing dSLR tools, patents and corporate engineering catalog and Ricoh won't give them $1B to start fresh. They all hope to smoothly depreciate legacy P&E while they invest in new technology. Sometimes change happens faster than they want.
If they could do it don't you think they would have by now? They tried with K-01 - first MILC ever to use a legacy mount - and Q - smallest MILC at the time - but the market demands thin, shiny ergonomic Frankencameras with a tiny television inside. Sony, Panny and Canon have that skill, too. Where's Ricoh going to buy it?
I think the entry-level dSLR is going the way of the compact, which might actually help Pentax. Canon and Nikon might have serious capital issues. Pentax can keep making small runs of eccentric, high-value cameras for a long time. Then they'll make small runs of eccentric MILC's in their spare time.
What is P&E?
---------- Post added 05-07-17 at 10:47 AM ----------
Originally posted by monochrome My point is Ricoh isn't Sony and the Board won't allocate the money to MILC the way Sony did - they don't have a proprietary technology (sensors) to look to as the revenue source that offsets camera (investment) losses. They don't have a proprietary skill they can draw on at no real current cost (display imaging for Panasonic and Canon AND Sony) because Hoya stripped whatever they had. They don't have their own imaging engine technology; they can barely develop an AF sensor on their own - and even then they have to spread it across viewfinders it isn't suited to cover; they're struggling to develop one FF lens at a time and heaven knows what they're doing with 645; they had to drop Q altogether; their big deal - Theta - was just 'nationalized' by Ricoh corporate to make in the former compact camera Plant (the write down was tactical, not strategic) so Pentax can't even use the cash flow from Theta (while it lasts).
I just don't believe Pentax will can develop a MILC any time in the foreseeable future.
They cannot develop a MILC with a new mount but they might develop a FF K-mount MILC as an alternative/second body to the K1, to test how the market would react. Most of the R&D money to develop this new camera would be about on-sensor AF performance, which they need to do in all scenarios , whether to improve liveview in DSLR, or to incorporate in a future new mount mirrorless.
It would be a niche product but it might stand out, as the only other FF MILC offering is the Sony A7/A9.
It would also strengthen the K1 users base, whereas a new Pentax mount could hurt the K1 and DFA lenses sales.
It would work without adapter with all legacy K mount lenses and, AFAIK, with the existing Canikon to K mount adapters for legacy Canikon glass.