Originally posted by Tesla I think this thread should be renamed "Asahiman Rumors"
There isn't that much interest in "WG-60 rumours," which is probably why the original poster teased us with a vague and somewhat misleading thread title instead.
Let's take it as given that asahiman has good source(s) at Ricoh. Even if we ignore the fact that English is not his first language, there are a few solid deductions we can make from his posts here and on the website that should not be named. One, asahiman does not make decisions for Ricoh Imaging, he sometimes gets the timing or sequence of events wrong, so he has to "clarify" his earlier posts. His source(s) probably don't make those final decisions, either. Two, he doesn't hold back information until everything is confirmed, instead he releases early so he can be first, so we get vague information that is open to different interpretations. Asahiman's source(s) is(are) probably giving him vague information because they aren't in a position to confirm final decisions in advance. Three, most of asahiman's posts are in response to someone making fun of Pentax's future and his posts try to put a positive spin on Pentax. That probably helps his relationship with his source(s) at Ricoh, but "asahiman says" comments are more likely to be overoptimistic than not.
Unlike asahiman, I don't have any sources (good or bad) at Ricoh or any company somehow connected to the photographic equipment industry. All I can do is comment on what Ricoh Imaging is doing right now and what they have done since Pentax was acquired from Hoya. Not too long ago, the president of Ricoh Imaging and his top marketing manager and top product development manager were in Köln. I find it hard to believe that was just to help announce the GR III; if there are bigger announcements imminent, why wouldn't they at least say something about new products that won't be available for several months, like Panasonic did? Not even a 3-D printed mock-up made it to their booth. My speculation is that this high-powered trio came to Köln to ask some questions and check the industry climate before making final decisions on the projects that asahiman is hinting at and it not guaranteed that all or any of them will get the green light. These type of decisions are not likely to be announced to asahiman's source(s) too far in advance, because it would directly affect their employment.
There may not be very many people working on research and development at Ricoh Imaging, but surely they haven't all been working on the D-FA * 50 for the past 18 months. If you were the president of Ricoh Imaging, would you give the green light to finalize a second FF body when at least one more signature FF lens is needed to support continued sales of the FF body you are currently manufacturing and you stopped manufacturing a top level APS-C camera at least six months ago? Don't forget Ricoh Imaging isn't getting major capital investments from Ricoh Company and they are getting slower, not faster, at releasing new products in general. What about the equipment and tooling to build 645 format products, can Ricoh Imaging afford to shut it down and sell everything for scrap? Is Ricoh Imaging making so much money with the K-1 and FF lenses that they can afford to ignore the APS-C market forever? I really don't see how asahiman's comment about two classes can be interpreted as confirmation that Ricoh Imaging is going to manufacture two distinct lines of FF camera.