[RonHendriks1966]

Where do you see that the K-70 has been discontinued?

Pentax K-70 DSLR Camera Body with Accessory Kit (Black) B&H

He means the entry dslr below 500 $ that is no longer available.

[jpzk]

As I said, there wouldn't be any wow from the Ricoh side on Photokina!

And that is a statement from someone who no longer has "committed interest" in Ricoh/Pentax" ?
With all due respect Kenspo, and I do indeed have great respect for your past participation for Pentax(Ricoh) products, why would you say that?

[Spodeworld]

Depending on where the market ultimately goes, that could be a very risky strategy.

I know we're not talking about mirrorless in this thread, but there is some relevance.
Everyone else is walking that path now, I really hope Ricoh doesn't catch this bug...
This is the perfect time to focus heavily on ONE thing and do it RIGHT

Z7 = trash
EOS R = trash

X-T3 = GOAT

Let the mirrorless market do it's thing, Ricoh!

[reh321]

He means the entry dslr below 500 $ that is no longer available.

Pentax has expressed an interest in becoming a "premium" brand - I had thought the K-70 was an "entry premium" camera when they first said that - in fact, I wondered if something even higher would eventually become that {I wondered if the KP was destined for that role when it was introduced}. Today I find myself wondering if they might phase out all APS cameras, and have a 24mp FF camera as the "entry".

[UserAccessDenied]

Depending on where the market ultimately goes, that could be a very risky strategy.

Oh, without a doubt! But that's 10 years down the road.
DSLRs aren't going away anytime soon... And if mirrorless does take off like people expect it to, there will still be a huge market for DSLRs.
Especially when looking at Ricoh's existing market share.

Let the others run with mirrorless. Let them fail and innovate and fail again.
When they start to lose DSLR sales to mirrorless, Ricoh will be there to sweep up their DSLR consumers who refuse to switch and feel neglected by their current company.

Remember, these companies work for US... WE pay them for products that we want.
There will always be the select few consumers who buy into whatever 'Their Brand' tells them to. But the majority of us follow a path of preference and desirability.

When the 'other guys' figure out the mirrorless game and succeed. Ricoh can stomp the DSLR market.

The DSLR to mirrorless era isn't as drastic a change as the film to digital era.
They survived that one, they will survive this.


NOTE: Everything above is my opinion and imagination; please read it as you would a comic book...

[bladerunner6]

He means the entry dslr below 500 $ that is no longer available.

With the camera business in contraction the last few years, there has been a migration out of the low end.

Look at all the high end mirror less FF and the trophy lenses from Sigma, Pentax, Sony, Fuji etc.

This is par for the course for the industry.

[reh321]

And that is a statement from someone who no longer has "committed interest" in Ricoh/Pentax" ?
With all due respect Kenspo, and I do indeed have great respect for your past participation for Pentax(Ricoh) products, why would you say that?

I have seen nothing so far that makes me feel "wow" ....... but I do ask "you are kidding, aren't you??"

I keep hoping they'll pull a rabbit out of a hat at the last minute

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Last edited by reh321; 09-26-2018 at 11:04 AM.

[Belnan]

Letting the competition duke it out over the mirrorless market only makes sense if they continue to innovate on the DSLR side. Which they are not doing.

[photoptimist]

Letting the competition duke it out over the mirrorless market only makes sense if they continue to innovate on the DSLR side. Which they are not doing.

How can you say that?

What other DSLR delivers both tripod & hand-held pixel shift, astrotracer, composition adjustment, and 5-axis stabilization? Oh and then there's the rugged body, weather resistance, awesome multi-way tilting LCD, body illumination, added control wheels, and night-mode LCD. Finally, there's extremely high sensor performance at a modest price.

[squareeyes]

In all honesty, Ricoh can't do it all. So they better figure out what kind of company they want to be...
Get lost in the mirrorless mess? You'll lose to Sony and FujiFilm... Nikon and Canon have practically unlimited resources in comparison to Ricoh, and they've failed miserably on their first attempt. Ricoh can't handle a catastrophic failure at that magnitude.

CANON net sales = 3.401 Trillion Yen 2016
RICOH net sales = 2.063 Trillion yen 2018
NIKON net sales = 0.822 Trillion Yen 2016

RICOH looks big enough to do anything either Canon or Nikon do.

It is just a matter of will

[UserAccessDenied]

CANON net sales = 3.401 Trillion Yen 2016
RICOH net sales = 2.063 Trillion yen 2018
NIKON net sales = 0.822 Trillion Yen 2016

RICOH looks big enough to do anything either Canon or Nikon do.

It is just a matter of will

These figures need more context...
This figure for Ricoh includes IT services, networking services, medical imaging devices, industrial printing, healthcare data transformation services, etc....

When looking at photography alone, Nikon is NOT 39% of total sales compared to Ricoh.

I get what you're saying, Ricoh has money. But they're not going to prioritize medical equipment funding into DSLR development. Just not going to happen; regardless of will.

[Belnan]

How can you say that?

What other DSLR delivers both tripod & hand-held pixel shift, astrotracer, composition adjustment, and 5-axis stabilization? Oh and then there's the rugged body, weather resistance, awesome multi-way tilting LCD, body illumination, added control wheels, and night-mode LCD. Finally, there's extremely high sensor performance at a modest price.

You are right and these are the reasons why most of us use Pentax, and why we stay. However they need work on the areas where they are falling behind. Namely autofocus, video specs and updated da lenses. I would like to believe they are working on these things but they haven't exactly been filling us with confidence.

[Larrymc]

I know we're not talking about mirrorless in this thread, but there is some relevance.
Everyone else is walking that path now, I really hope Ricoh doesn't catch this bug...
This is the perfect time to focus heavily on ONE thing and do it RIGHT

Z7 = trash
EOS R = trash

X-T3 = GOAT

Let the mirrorless market do it's thing, Ricoh!

I would love to see a Pentax APS-C flagship that just destroys the competition while everyone else is fiddling over $3500 mirrorless cameras that should have been released 3 years ago at half the price...

In all honesty, Ricoh can't do it all. So they better figure out what kind of company they want to be...
Get lost in the mirrorless mess? You'll lose to Sony and FujiFilm... Nikon and Canon have practically unlimited resources in comparison to Ricoh, and they've failed miserably on their first attempt. Ricoh can't handle a catastrophic failure at that magnitude.

We'll wait and see what happens. But I really don't want to see Pentax fail.
Regardless of what camera I shoot with... Pentax should be at the top with the rest, just doesn't have to be with their entire product line.

Really well said!!

[Spodeworld]

And that only manifests itself if the business unit competing for those resources makes a more compelling case about ROI than the competition.

CANON net sales = 3.401 Trillion Yen 2016
RICOH net sales = 2.063 Trillion yen 2018
NIKON net sales = 0.822 Trillion Yen 2016

RICOH looks big enough to do anything either Canon or Nikon do.

It is just a matter of will

[Trickortreat]

updated da lenses. I would like to believe they are working on these things but they haven't exactly been filling us with confidence.

Exactly this. I dont need a new body, my k-s1 works just well. What i would deffo need is a updated da35 with a bit brighter aperture (1.8 would do enough) and if the focusing ring would be decoupled during af i'd be happy like a little pig in mud