[Serkevan]

The A99ii, again, costs 3200 bucks. The A7Riii with the same sensor costs also a lot of money more than a K-1. Remember that Sony did NOT give anyone else that particular sensor. You are thinking of the A7Rii sensor which, *again*, does only 5 fps.

Get me a camera that beats the K-1 at anything other than action and doesn't cost substantially more. Come on, give it a try.

[2B1]

Its is clear where the money is coming from.
Ricoh GRiii is selling between 7 to 8 times more than the GRii....."Huge Sales Increase" and Profits.
Theta .....No1 in its class
and B2B sales increasing.

Pentax sales declining, but is Pentax profitable?

[Cerebum]

Canon seem to believe the DSLR isn't dead and they are all refreshing their ranges. Our photographic society has doubled in numbers, we now have over 70 so I would suggest the market is out there, it just needs to be fished very carefully, and not the way Nikon seem to be doing it.

[totsmuyco]

Its is clear where the money is coming from.
Ricoh GRiii is selling between 7 to 8 times more than the GRii....."Huge Sales Increase" and Profits.
Theta .....No1 in its class
and B2B sales increasing.

Pentax sales declining, but is Pentax profitable?

Only Ricoh knows. Financial figures are presented but we need to look at the notes to financial statements. Besides, since Pentax is a small segment, the notes to financial statements might not be enough to specify how good the brand is doing.

[Serkevan]

The financial statement, indeed, doesn't specify Pentax at all. They do mention the success of the GR and Theta lines, in comparison.

---------- Post added 12-03-19 at 01:45 AM ----------

+1

The same applies to plot holes in movies.

Many modern scripts are marred with staggering problems in the writing, spanning from in-scene logic to overall plot.
The advice to "just enjoy the movie without analysing too much" doesn't fly for some people because they don't have to analyse at all; these problems are so in their face that they are taken right out of any immersion.

Off-topic, but true.

I am EXACTLY this, get outta my head!
A running joke among my friends is that I'm a grumpy old man inside because I basically cannot gloss over glaring plot holes or logical inconsistencies (or plots that run on "everyone is dumber than a dumb brick"), be it with books*, movies or videogames, although I massively enjoy, for this very reason, "senseless" entertainment such as Pacific Rim: it's so honestly, unwaveringly, unabashedly dumb in its premise that it can devote itself to give you COOL ROBOTS punching AWESOME MONSTERS. Also applies to EVFs, it's so obviously different from my visual reality and so... unresponsive, that I have to focus just to be able to think about the composition instead of the EVF itself.

*I sometimes try my hand at writing, and tend to focus on 2-5 page mini-tales precisely because keeping a tight narrative for long stories is very, very complicated. I don't have any of the talent needed to, well, "go along" with whatever flows out the pen.

[MarkJerling]

+1

The same applies to plot holes in movies.

Many modern scripts are marred with staggering problems in the writing, spanning from in-scene logic to overall plot.
The advice to "just enjoy the movie without analysing too much" doesn't fly for some people because they don't have to analyse at all; these problems are so in their face that they are taken right out of any immersion.

Off-topic, but true.

You have no idea how often I say one word in my head when watching movies: "Continuity". Don't know if it's because I've worked in movies but I instantly notice any dress, make-up, continuity or plot issues.

[xmeda]

On the other hand, I wonder how much point there is in competing in that area.
Ricoh essentially doesn't advertise (at least outside Japan) and Pentax cameras have vanished from most camera store shelves. So who will notice these improvements if they are not already a Pentax customer (for other reasons)? DPReview will still complain about a Pentax DSLR not prioritizing the same areas as a Sony MILC, so I don't see them doing the advertising for Ricoh.

Many guys switched to D500 when KP was released and no hi-end K3 replacement was in sight. Keeping customer base is the most important thing.

Advertising is marketing problem. They need to improve it instead of throwing the towel in the ring.
FB + Instagram activity. DPReview activity and advertisements. Time to time stir waters with some "new product" at least. Even if it is painted K1II anniversary edition or something similar.. but they need to show that they still exist. Show some prototypes, ideas.
Recently they tried with modified KP. It is ugly, but it drags attention. Also the quick mod of FA35/2. Then the K-new prototype was shown.. good job! I've asked for that several times on several forums and they did that. I bet this move alone kept several thousands customers from jumping finally to other brand before x-mas as now we see some hope at least instead of "xx development is being considered" statements.

But this must continue. Even short interviews with some designer or marketing guy can feed forums with brand presence for weeks. And they should do it more often and be smart.

Concerning presence in shops - unlike canon, nikon, fuji and sony they stopped lending display cameras to shops. So shops removed Pentax stuff. On the other hand I can see canon and nikon cameras even in computer component shops unrelated to photography. Simply dragging attention and customers. But if I want to grab some Pentax body or lens in hands and feel it... it is almost impossible. I have to order that thing, pick it up.. and only if I decide that it does not fit, shop will pack it again and return back to supplier.. that is insane.

[Rondec]

Its is clear where the money is coming from.
Ricoh GRiii is selling between 7 to 8 times more than the GRii....."Huge Sales Increase" and Profits.
Theta .....No1 in its class
and B2B sales increasing.

Pentax sales declining, but is Pentax profitable?

Pentax is a brand name now and part of Ricoh Imaging as a whole. If Ricoh Imaging is doing OK, then Pentax is doing OK. As far as their (small) segment, my guess is that they have turned a profit on most, if not all, of their releases, but those have been few and far between. We'll see how the K-new sells, but my guess is that it will do fine because we have all been waiting for it for so long.

I guess that is one benefit to just dribbling new releases out versus flooding the market with new releases.

[Mistral75]

It all depends on how Ricoh Imaging's fixed costs are shared among the various products.

[dicki]

Why they show us the new camera and don't sell it now?

[Mistral75]

Why they show us the new camera and don't sell it now?

Because it isn't fertig. The cameras showcased at 100th anniversary events are prototypes.

[Serkevan]

Wasn't there a report of someone talking to one of the Ricoh officials where they said "the hardware is done, we need to fine tune the software"? (Or so I recall).
Of course, if the processors and software are new, getting the firmware to prim and proper condition is not a trivial task.

[Mistral75]

Wasn't there a report of someone talking to one of the Ricoh officials where they said "the hardware is done, we need to fine tune the software"? (Or so I recall).
(...)

Indeed and this someone is yours truly.

[ThorSanchez]

I’ve always maintained that analogue and digital media are simply different, in the face of people who have constantly asserted the superiority of one or the other. Neither is completely like the live experience, no matter if you’re talking about music or photography.

As for streaming or downloads having the same information as CDs, the reality is that they can, but only if you can choose the same lossless format. Much streamed music is still compressed, whereas CDs aren’t. Even my Sonos system playing ripped CDs over Wi-fi loses some noticeable information, compared with the direct CD original.

It is possible to have a digital file so poorly encoded or compressed that it's immediately obvious. But I think those are edge cases. Most music is listened to in fairly noisy environments like cars and offices and houses full of people doing stuff. Not in hermetically sealed anechoic chambers on $30,000 high fidelity systems. As others have said, it's kind of like photography, where we argue about purple fringing and slight aberrations on 100% crops of 36 MP files while usually viewing on commercial grade monitors that max out at a few megapixels in resolution. For the vast, vast majority of use cases the difference between a pristine master audio file and the mp3 you just got off Amazon is almost completely meaningless.

---------- Post added 12-03-19 at 08:46 AM ----------

+1

The same applies to plot holes in movies.

Many modern scripts are marred with staggering problems in the writing, spanning from in-scene logic to overall plot.
The advice to "just enjoy the movie without analysing too much" doesn't fly for some people because they don't have to analyse at all; these problems are so in their face that they are taken right out of any immersion.

Off-topic, but true.

You could remove the word "modern" and you'd be fine. I'd bet that (as a percentage of total movies made) there were more continuity errors in 1930 or 1950 or 1980 than today.

[edri]

Because it isn't fertig. The cameras showcased at 100th anniversary events are prototypes.

Did you talk to Manager Philippe Farreng after the opening of this thread? Has he managed to convince the Japanese bosses to start work on the L-mount ML? Please tell him that I agree with him, L mount is the future solution for a Pentax/Ricoh ML