[beholder3]

Encouraging insights:

The K-1 has been “unbelievably good” for the company, Eguchi says. What’s more encouraging for Ricoh is that half of the customers buying the camera aren’t Pentax loyalists but new customers, Eguchi notes.

Lenses:

As for medium format, the company has no immediate plans to introduce a new model but remains committed to the category, Eguchi says. “We’re thinking of new ways to make it more compact, but this will take time to materialize. Right now, releasing new lenses is the priority” in the medium format segment.

Not wasting effort on gimmicks which only a irrelevant few whine about:

“Video is not our number one priority. In most cases our customers are not primarily shooting video” with their cameras, Eguchi says.

Ricoh Seeks New Platforms for Photography's Future | PDN Online

---

Last edited by beholder3; 04-21-2017 at 08:53 AM.

[RobA_Oz]

Now they tell us! They were a little more forthcoming with the success of the 645Z, than this "unbelievably good" comment for the K-1. It would be nice to know which markets proved the most successful, regardless.

Edit: I just noticed the date of this article - November 2016. I guess that underlines the dubious source of the recent Nikkei article.

[Reed]

That is old interview from November 2016, It was posted here before.

[Kiwipixter]

Thanks for the link. Good to hear the K-1 attracting new customers but half is a cause for celebration, considering they designed the K-1 for us existing Pentaxians mainly. I hope now Ricoh will divert more resources to FF and bring forward the FF lens road-map at the very least. Sony is having even more success, in a declining market, and fully committing to FF as a priority. These are good market indicators for Ricoh to invest more in FF.

[HopelessTogger]

The future.

Make an epic APS-C, an epic full frame and an epic 645.

. . . three models only and nothing else. Just high end yet price beating.

[Imp]

Quote: “Video is not our number one priority. In most cases our customers are not primarily shooting video” with their cameras, Eguchi says.

The circular reasoning!!! In most cases, your customers are not primarily shooting video, because your cameras are not good at video! That's like saying, before the creation of the K-1, "most of our users don't shoot full frame..." - Duh, because you didn't have one!!

Arrrgh!!!

If I could I would! Or, Ricoh, do you want me to go drop $1000 on Panasonic instead. That would also mean I wouldn't be upgrading my Pentax anytime soon because money is finite. And I need both video and photo.

[johnmflores]

Not wasting effort on gimmicks:

Yeah, that whole "moving picture" thing is a fad...

[Na Horuk]

I think we all know Pentax does not consider video a priority. And they shouldn't. But! Video is increasingly important, and the current video capabilities are not just "mediocre", but are pretty bad. So Pentax really should step up their video game. They don't have to be better than Canon or Sony, but they should at least fix things like the digital SR, improve the encoding, allow more manual controls (like EV), and improved external mic compatibility/control. These things would not cost much in R&D. I mean, many smartphones can take full HD video these days..


All that said, glad to see good news! 645Z was a success, and so is the K-1. KP is really interesting, too. More great lenses are on the way. Good news for all Pentaxians, new and old!

[THoog]

The circular reasoning!!! In most cases, your customers are not primarily shooting video, because your cameras are not good at video!

While Pentax may be caught in a negative feedback loop, it is equally wrong to say that in most cases, their customers would primarily shoot video if the cameras were better at it. While I do shoot the occasional video, it's not my primary interest, nor are any of my cameras holding me back. Maybe stills shooters are a dying breed and I'm in the minority here (but based on past threads, I don't think I am).

That's like saying, before the creation of the K-1, "most of our users don't shoot full frame..." - Duh, because you didn't have one!!

Not a good analogy. Poor video is not the same thing as no video. Before the K-1, Pentax cameras didn't have a "FF" setting that people chose not to use because it wasn't as good as Canon or Nikon or Sony. They DO have a video option now. It's not as good as others, but that may or may not be why most of their customers don't primarily shoot video.

For better or worse, Pentax is stuck with an image processor that is years behind Canon/Pana/Sony. They can't change processors without finding another vendor and starting from scratch, which would be prohibitively expensive. If video is your primary interest, you should get the right tool for your needs. Pentax will always be behind in video.

[THoog]

they should at least fix things like the digital SR, improve the encoding, allow more manual controls (like EV), and improved external mic compatibility/control. These things would not cost much in R&D. I mean, many smartphones can take full HD video these days..

True, but not with Milbeaut processors. Some of those those things (like the encoding) are built into the processor, from the Fujitsu/SocioNext whitepapers I've read.

[shardulm]

the circular reasoning!!! In most cases, your customers are not primarily shooting video, because your cameras are not good at video! That's like saying, before the creation of the k-1, "most of our users don't shoot full frame..." - duh, because you didn't have one!!

Arrrgh!!!

If i could i would! Or, ricoh, do you want me to go drop $1000 on panasonic instead. That would also mean i wouldn't be upgrading my pentax anytime soon because money is finite. And i need both video and photo.

.....Spot On......

[Na Horuk]

True, but not with Milbeaut processors. Some of those those things (like the encoding) are built into the processor, from the Fujitsu/SocioNext whitepapers I've read.

I'm sure buffers, chips, sd card write speed are complicated. But when a relatively cheap smartphone can do it, why not an actual camera? I hope the next generation of Pentax bodies addresses this. We still have the same video capabilities since.. what, K-30? K-01?

[shardulm]

While Pentax may be caught in a negative feedback loop, it is equally wrong to say that in most cases, their customers would primarily shoot video if the cameras were better at it. While I do shoot the occasional video, it's not my primary interest, nor are any of my cameras holding me back. Maybe stills shooters are a dying breed and I'm in the minority here (but based on past threads, I don't think I am).


Not a good analogy. Poor video is not the same thing as no video. Before the K-1, Pentax cameras didn't have a "FF" setting that people chose not to use because it wasn't as good as Canon or Nikon or Sony. They DO have a video option now. It's not as good as others, but that may or may not be why most of their customers don't primarily shoot video.

For better or worse, Pentax is stuck with an image processor that is years behind Canon/Pana/Sony. They can't change processors without finding another vendor and starting from scratch, which would be prohibitively expensive. If video is your primary interest, you should get the right tool for your needs. Pentax will always be behind in video.

Defensive and I would want to be too...

Btw I still shoot videos using my K-01 full manual with follow focus sticks. I like how it captures videos at ISO 1100 (maxes out pretty much). Here are the challenges I face.
1. Files are huge for 1080p (Wonder if an improved codec/processor would do better)
2. No battery low warning during the video. I could totally use a more pronounced warning of a depleting battery than a small icon on the top right. I lost a small part of the video for the paid work I was doing. It was utterly embarrassing to have experienced loss of footage because the battery died and the clip did not write to the SD at all and or the file was not closed before the camera shut down. (Yes I tried recovering the SD card etc.. did not work). I was lucky to have a client that was considerate and that the lost footage was the least important of the entire program I shot (about 1 hour).
3. The way it writes file to the SD card needs to be changed. It should finish writing the file before shutting down. If it can show me the "Battery depleted" notice when that happens why cant it write the file and close it properly before it shuts so that it isn't lost or corrupt.

All 3 above means Pentax offers an incomplete implementation of video. I did not try doing the video with the K-1 but I would imagine its no different.

[Winder]

I think we all know Pentax does not consider video a priority. And they shouldn't. But! Video is increasingly important, and the current video capabilities are not just "mediocre", but are pretty bad. So Pentax really should step up their video game. They don't have to be better than Canon or Sony, but they should at least fix things like the digital SR, improve the encoding, allow more manual controls (like EV), and improved external mic compatibility/control. These things would not cost much in R&D. I mean, many smartphones can take full HD video these days..


All that said, glad to see good news! 645Z was a success, and so is the K-1. KP is really interesting, too. More great lenses are on the way. Good news for all Pentaxians, new and old!

Ricoh has been buying older technology sensors. The 36MP in the K-1 is based on the same generation of sensor technology as the K-5. Ricoh is obviously getting excellent results from these sensors in terms of still photography. None of the cameras that use the older Sony 36MP sensor do well at video because that sensor isn't fast enough. That is also why all of the cameras with that sensor have rather slow CDAF.

Everything about 4K is standard. Its all hardware related so there is not a lot to develop for other than the camera firmware. Sony has developed 2 FF sensors with good 4K video. One is in the 12MP A7s and the other is in the 42MP A7rII. When the 42MP sensor becomes cheap enough, Ricoh will probably start using it. I think 8K broadcasting will be coming to Japan next year, and Dell is now shipping 8K monitors. In 3-5 years 8K will be as common and 4K is now. That is probably when we will see a K-mount camera with decent 4K support.

Ricoh is obviously not spending money on the newest sensor, fastest memory/biggest buffer or other support technologies like USB3.0 or SDXC UHS-II.

[Uluru]

It is perfectly reasonable for a company to be faithful to the photography.
Photography is like music; I can listen to same songs and albums for days, months, years, and look at favourite photographs every day. I frame them, and admire them.

But I cannot get myself watching same movie every day; once in several years, perhaps. Even then, it is just too much effort I cannot justify. Even worse, to montage a movie worth watching again, it takes weeks!

Moving pictures are a different story, one that is not at all important. Our mind already works in that mode all the time! We cannot turn movie mode from our heads, and our mind yearns for a moment of stillness that a fine photograph enables. And that moment, uninterrupted with moving pictures, is so precious, because it is the only moment we can consciously experience present tense, and living in now — cessation of time.

That is why photography has a healing, creative power, because it cures us from everyday motion sickness and living by the clock.