[reh321]

So... the camera is "delayed" against your wish that it would be launched sooner/already?
And by running into problems you don't mean any actual technical issue, but the failure to work on the camera when and as fast as you wanted them to?

Let's be happy that Pentax is once again moving forward, and wait the few months until the announcement.

I mean that the “K-3 shelf” has been empty for some time now. Ricoh is partly responsible for that; I understand / feel empathy for those who wish that it were not so, and I am wondering why it is so. This condition has lasted so long I believe either that they had not initially planned on a “K-3ii replacement”, or something ‘went wrong’.

[fsge]

Not really interested in the crop sensor but for everyone else I hope it's released sooner rather than later … then we can focus on what really matters -- the k-1 iii

I hope they also do not forget K70 and 645z replacements !
K70 should be very easy with KP and Knew technologies
645z I do not know really as there is a sensor question mark...
K1 ii has been launched Q2 2018 so I do not see anything new before 2021 best case or 2022

[travelswsage]

K1 ii has been launched Q2 2018 so I do not see anything new before 2021 best case or 2022

oh my gosh -- I'll be over 60 by then .... maybe I should pay more attention to the lighter APS-c models ....

[zapp]

This news is a couple days old. It contradicts nothing already published by Pentax. The positive news is that there is a development going on that Pentax still wants to deliver certain lenses.
After the first announcement the big guys announced big gear, so Pentax jumped up early and may need more time - maybe not, we don’t know. Good move by Pentax.
A new APSC increases my interest in the 150-450 zoom - compared to a D500 with 200-500. I am also waiting for the promised Dfa 85. Some of us are waiting for a dfa 4/80-200. As soon as deliveries start, life will be good. Pentax just has to keep us happy enough to ensure that we are still using Pentax gear when they are delivering.

[tvdtvdtvd]

Not really interested in the crop sensor but for everyone else I hope it's released sooner rather than later … then we can focus on what really matters -- the k-1 iii

I am very interested in the K-New and not really in the immediate market for FF. As much as I wish a speedy development cycle for
all those who are wanting the next FF, I have my fingers crossed we'll see 645 developments next.

[jpzk]

K-FC? The Colonel approves!

I ain't gonna buy $2000 worth of chicken nuggets!

[TwoUptons]

As part of the new customization scheme, Ricoh is going to let buyers pick their own two letters...

So Karen might pick KRN, for example...

People who think it should be called the K-New could do KNU

People who live in New York... KNY

I'd say the possibilities were endless, but then someone would point out there are only 26 letters...

There are worse ideas...

-Eric

[c.a.m]

Ricoh is going to let buyers pick their own two letters...

As a Canadian, I guess I should ask for K-eh? .

[stevebrot]

That ↓↓↓ is not.

Google image search found it on Ricoh's site...my mistake in assuming Ricoh as the source.


Steve

[Kunzite]

I mean that the “K-3 shelf” has been empty for some time now. Ricoh is partly responsible for that; I understand / feel empathy for those who wish that it were not so, and I am wondering why it is so. This condition has lasted so long I believe either that they had not initially planned on a “K-3ii replacement”, or something ‘went wrong’.

Delays in product development - even more so those due to technical issues - have nothing to do with the rhythm we feel they should release.
As far as we know, there is no delay.

[clickclick]

Gads, looks like another round of chicken guessing names and what not

[reh321]

Delays in product development - even more so those due to technical issues - have nothing to do with the rhythm we feel they should release.
As far as we know, there is no delay.

but we feel one; during CP+ almost a year ago, a member here corrected a comment I made. He said that the year which had gone since the K-1ii was not a “Pentax record” ... but he would be worried if got into summer without another Pentax camera. Assuming Karen is right, the next camera is a year later even than that. The “K-3ii shelf” will have been bare for something like two years. I do not believe Ricoh planned that. Perhaps they did have something unexpected happen. I have acknowledged that as a possibility - but I still feel empathy for those who say neither the K-1ii nor the KP meets their needs; I believe Ricoh should provide better guidance about the future. If a K-5/3 unexpectedly dies in the coming months, they will not know what to expect in the near future, and I believe Ricoh should put down their inscrutable barriers and proved some kind of guidance.

[TwoUptons]

I thought there were some comments from some Ricoh folks a couple of years ago that they were expecting the “K3ii shelf” to not need filling because the professionals and high end amateurs would go to the K1... they were surprised when the KP came out that folks wanted a higher end APS machine.

The implication was that the KP wasn’t meant to replace the K3ii but rather be the enthusiast’s camera it turned out to be. They seemed caught by surprised by the need, so they’re behind...

None of the delay seems all that surprising in that context...

-Eric

[kwb]

Based on the Google translate, the summer date is an assumption based on the blog author's (Nozomi Tanaka, not Kimio Tanaka*) notion of development cycle and the nature of the display model. I smell the fish of well-aged guesses and conjecture.


Google Translate | Digicame-info...which is a rehash of...

Google Translate | Photo of the Day Blog

Notice that they claim to have handled the demonstration model and peeled back the tape and found the name "unpleasant".


Steve

* Are these the same person?

Steve, google was just confused about Nozomi = 希 (nozo) 美 (mi) vs Kimio = 希 (ki) 美 (mi) 男 (o). These are both proper nouns.

男 means a male or a man, it almost seems as if google decided that 希美男 means "Nozomi, a man", and ignored "a man". It's extremely rare that a man is just named 希美 i.e. precious beauty, but google cannot know everything. Not yet.

[Mistral75]

but we feel one; during CP+ almost a year ago, a member here corrected a comment I made. He said that the year which had gone since the K-1ii was not a “Pentax record” ... but he would be worried if got into summer without another Pentax camera. Assuming Karen is right, the next camera is a year later even than that. The “K-3ii shelf” will have been bare for something like two years. I do not believe Ricoh planned that. Perhaps they did have something unexpected happen. I have acknowledged that as a possibility - but I still feel empathy for those who say neither the K-1ii nor the KP meets their needs; I believe Ricoh should provide better guidance about the future. If a K-5/3 unexpectedly dies in the coming months, they will not know what to expect in the near future, and I believe Ricoh should put down their inscrutable barriers and proved some kind of guidance.

Remember what the Ricoh Imaging representative told to Pentax Forums staff during their CP+ 2017 interview:

'A successor to the K-3 II is being researched.'

Source: CP+ 2017 Pentax Interview: Part 1 - CP+ 2017 | PentaxForums.com

and then during their CP+ 2018 interview:

'We are now starting to develop a new DSLR which can be positioned as the successor for the K-3 series.'

CP+ 2018 Pentax Interview - YouTube

Taking these two statements into account I see two possibilities:

1. Either Ricoh Imaging didn't intend to give a single successor to the K-3 II, thinking the K-1 and KP would be proper successors (*)
   xxx
2. Or they intended to but couldn't launch the development of the K-3 III together with the ongoing development of the KP, K-1 II and GR III; they could only launch it at the beginning of 2018 when the almost-ready K-1 Mark II (it was announced on 22 February 2018) unlocked a slot in the development pipeline.

That would mean that, apart from Theta products that are developed by a separate team (originally emanating from Ricoh, not Ricoh Imaging), Ricoh Imaging can only work on two cameras in parallel:

• K-1 and KP until early 2016 (K-1 announcement)
• then KP and K-1 Mark II until early 2017 (KP announcement)
• then K-1 Mark II and Ricoh GR III until early 2018 (K-1 Mark II announcement)
• then Ricoh GR III and K-New until early 2019 (GR III announcement)
• currently K-New and another camera, until the K-New announcement sometimes in (early) 2020.

(*) In 2015 Ricoh Imaging executives could have supposed, wrongly as subsequently proven but not without reason at the time, that the market for a flagship APS-C camera could be segmented (split): the high-end customers would migrate to the 24x36 camera whilst those potentially ready to go the mirrorless route would be sufficiently interested in size and weight gains to gladly go for the KP, welcoming its IQ advantage over the K-3 line and its smaller size as more than fair trade-offs for the few things that had to be given up to achieve that compactness.