[biz-engineer]

Guys, Ricoh Imaging cannot do everything at the same time nor can they spend as much on R&D (and marketing) as their competitors

How much R&D and marketing efforts are being spent on K3 II ?

[surfar]

How much R&D and marketing efforts are being spent on K3 II ?

Not much seeing its finished!

[ffking]

They teased the K1 how long?

KP appeared out of 'nowhere' otoh - people might have been expecting K3ii replacement, but KP took us by surprise to all intents ad purposes.

[ebk]

may be there is coming a brandnew Pentax Q

[Andrea K]

In my humble opinion PENTAX (RICOH), due financial results, wants to do an ALL IN: at the CP+ I think that we will see a new FF, a new APS-C and a new MF. Obviously at various stages of development, perhaps only the APS-C ready to sale.

Who want to bet with me on this?

[Chris Mak]

Guys, Ricoh Imaging cannot do everything at the same time nor can they spend as much on R&D (and marketing) as their competitors. By far.

As far as cameras and lenses are concerned, Canon are thirty-five times bigger than Ricoh Imaging. Indeed, in 2017, the sales of Ricoh's Smart Vision division amounted to ca. ¥20bn whilst those of Canon's camera (and lens) activity amounted to ¥703bn.



Ricoh Imaging have to find other ways than massive R&D (and marketing) spendings to stay alive and afloat.

Besides, judging by the regular roll-out of new versions of Ricoh Theta firmware and apps (more than three per month, see News | RICOH THETA), whatever R&D money is available goes primarily to the fast-growing VR / AR / 360° video markets.

It may sound logical what you are saying, but it simply does not work like that. In order to generate sales, the APS-C line up has to be kept healthy. If not, sales will collapse no matter what, and the only way then, is to simpky discontinue the whole of APS-C alltogether. What use would it be to sell a few KP's and the odd lens here and there?
It's either invest to stay relevant and alive, or whither away, there is no inbetween. Or Ricoh/Pentax would have to start making exclusive products for a few loyal buyers like Leica. But that won't happen, they're in it for the mainstream audience, so discontinuing a five year old K3 (never mind the "II") and not replace it with a successor is pretty much end of line for APS-C other than the odd buyer here and there.
Anyhow, if no K3 successor, I will myself move to Nikon/Sigma.

Chris

[blende8]

No K3-III announcement in 4 weeks, says someone "in the know", but other "nice things".

[Chris Mak]

No K3-III announcement in 4 weeks, says someone "in the know", but other "nice things".

Given that there has not been a shred of rumor on a pissible K3 successor, I suspect you will be right, sadly so, it will be end of Pentax for me.

---------- Post added 02-02-18 at 11:00 AM ----------

They have not.

I should be happy with this statement and thank you for some positive news.
However, it is not about abandoning or not abandoning, it is about releasing or not releasing.
They may not have abandoned APS-C high end, but they are not releasing a (five year old) K3 successor either at CP+ and pribably not Photokina either judging by the complete absence of news/snippets of info/rumors or whatever on a possible APS-C high end body.
So what does not abandoning then practically mean? The DA*11-18mm?

Chris

[D1N0]

They have not.

This must mean a successor is imminent.

[beholder3]

This must mean a successor is imminent.

"must"? why?

"imminent"? why?

APSC is covered with the K-P. Beyond that is only personal taste.

They could easily wait until end of year (I would assume end of september before Photokina is most probable) if they dont see priorities in the K-3 type line. They probably have some data on demand and profitability to make informed decisions.

Limited resources explicitly means that you wave some low priority customers goodbye and have no remorses about it.

[beachgardener]

APSC is covered with the K-P. Beyond that is only personal taste.

no not at all, there is more to the apsc-c story than just the KP, look at the specs, it has some new things but falls short on others, although a good camera we need a higher end aps-c camera in the likes of the K-3 line, no it is not just taste but a need.

[D1N0]

"must"? why?

"imminent"? why?

APSC is covered with the K-P. Beyond that is only personal taste.

They could easily wait until end of year (I would assume end of september before Photokina is most probable) if they dont see priorities in the K-3 type line. They probably have some data on demand and profitability to make informed decisions.

Limited resources explicitly means that you wave some low priority customers goodbye and have no remorses about it.

You are right your opinion is more important than mine. Ignore me.

[beholder3]

no not at all, there is more to the apsc-c story than just the KP, look at the specs, it has some new things but falls short on others, although a good camera we need a higher end aps-c camera in the likes of the K-3 line, no it is not just taste but a need.

What you say applies to absolutely any camera out there including items which cost 5x as much, but it just expresses a single personal preference.

I just said that it is very unclear if an early K-3 successor is making business sense given all the constraints. We do not know the "need" or the "benefit" of such a model (any product).
Maybe the user group is just too small and irrelevant? Maybe it is the most important thing in the world?
We have space for one GR, 3 APSC lines, 2 FF lines, 2 MF lines. That is 8. Now what if they only have resources for 2 or 3?

[ffking]

The KP was specifically marketed as being to go with the Ltd lenses. The 11-18 is not a Ltd - its is part of a new generation of high quality Pentax lenses looking forward to newer sensors. The K3ii is discontinued, we hear. There is a new flagship Pentax APS-C well down the pipeline, it just depends what Ricoh are waiting for and how soon they choose to let us know.

[Belnan]

What difference does it make if its on the discontinued list or not. Last I checked it was still widely available for purchase. Someone mentioned photokina next year and that seems logical to me. The biggest grip against Pentax has been the autofocus whether people here agree or not. Ricoh seems really determined to provide high quality products on all fronts. The higher end models have to come first, FF get update then APSC. I suspect the new K-3 was delayed because someone at Ricoh deemed that the k-1 autofocus needed to be improved upon. Anyway we will like know more a month from now.