[reh321]

My own reaction to the KP was that I couldn't see it as an upgrade to the k3. However my biggest objection was that from an ergonomic perspective it seemed to fail to meet my expectations. But that was as a potential buyer. I've never owned one.

I do own one, and I love it, even though it is larger than my “Super Program”, even with smallest grip. I have never had top LCD {except on Canon film camera} or double memory; I don’t ‘miss’ them, and I have not filled buffer. I have become very attached to graceful high ISO setting, though.

[enoeske]

If I could afford one, I would totally get a GRIII. Perfect travel camera

[Class A]

Perfect travel camera.

With a fixed focal length lens?

I don't know; there are other very compact options that provide more versatility.

I'm not trying to bash the Ricoh GR III, but I think it is very good within a rather small application area only.

[UncleVanya]

With a fixed focal length lens?

I don't know; there are other very compact options that provide more versatility.

I'm not trying to bash the Ricoh GR III, but I think it is very good within a rather small application area only.

I'm in this camp. I used an LX-7 Panasonic on my family trip to UK and France. The image quality was exceptional for such a tiny package (Q7 sized sensor) and the lens really was versatile. The speed of the lens helped a lot given the small sensor's low light performance.

[mlt]

.....is very obvious: K-10 (I guess they didn't want to use K-9 ), K-7, K-5, K-3... hazard a guess.

K10 has already been used, albeit with a “D” suffix. A very well received Dslr in late 2006. It would be interesting to see them recycle that number.

[reh321]

If I could afford one, I would totally get a GRIII. Perfect travel camera

For you, perhaps. I depend as much on zoom on the road as I do at home - and the GRRR has a wide lens at that - so it would be a terrible travel camera for me. I did afford a Q-7, so if I travel with just one camera, that is the one I take with me.

[Mistral75]

Antagonism, of course not - but there is contradiction.
Ricoh Imaging (including Mr. Takashi Arai, one of the deciding factors) didn't decide after the fact that no, the K-3's replacement isn't the K-3's replacement after all. They made it as something separate from the "standard" K-number line.
Everything else is speculation, misinterpretation or the truth... told from a certain point of view

There is no contradiction either.

Act I (sometimes in 2015).
The KP development is launched. Design brief: to become the next top-of-the-line APS-C camera. Not a flagship (this role being devoted to the K-1, also under development) nor a K-3 III. People interested in a camera with the flagship specifications of the K-3 are supposed to go the 24x36 route and buy the K-1 in due course.

Act II (January 2017)
KP launch. The feedback is... lukewarm. Ricoh Imaging become aware that some (many) K-3/K-3 II users want an APS-C flagship with high frame rate, deep buffer, dual SD cards and more.

Act III (CP+ 2017 - Interview with Hiraku Kawauchi, Shigeru Wakashiro, Keiji Ohkubo and Takashi Arai)
No decision has been taken yet. The KP is presented as a 'high performance yet compact and light-weight camera', 'a quality compact body that can be a good match for the Limited series lenses', 'a K-1 alternative' (emphasis added).
'Compactness and quickness are advantages of the APS-C format compared to full-frame. We feel that there is a need for an APS-C flagship model with these advantages. A successor to the K-3 II is being researched.'

In short: wait and see.

Act IV (CP+ 2018 - Takashi Arai interview)
The K-New development has been approved. Takeshi Arai explains that the KP is 'a separate product' and that they 'are starting to develop a new DSLR which can be positioned as the successor to the K-3 series'. He couldn't possibly say otherwise (sorry guys, we made a mistake when we thought that... therefore...) without losing face.

Act V (November 2019 - Philippe Farreng interview)
Almost three years have passed since the KP launch. Dust has settled. Philippe Farreng admits that the KP was designed as a replacement for the K-3 Mark II. Not a similar camera, an APS-C flagship camera, but a camera meant to be the top of the APS-C line, which the KP has been, still is and will be until the launch of the K-New, which will be the true K-3 II successor.

[Kunzite]

K10 has already been used, albeit with a “D” suffix. A very well received Dslr in late 2006. It would be interesting to see them recycle that number.

I imagine lots of "K10"s would be sold, just like the "GR III"s - which are actually GR Digital IIIs.

Maybe we'll see a new naming scheme? Not that I care, I trust myself to be able to remember whatever the identifier they'll choose, there are so few of them anyway...

---------- Post added 12-12-19 at 07:21 PM ----------

There is no contradiction either.

Act I (sometimes in 2015).
The KP development is launched. Design brief: to become the next top-of-the-line APS-C camera. Not a flagship (this role being devoted to the K-1, also under development) nor a K-3 III. People interested in a camera with the flagship specifications of the K-3 are supposed to go the 24x36 route and buy the K-1 in due course.

Act II (January 2017)
KP launch. The feedback is... lukewarm. Ricoh Imaging become aware that some (many) K-3/K-3 II users want an APS-C flagship with high frame rate, deep buffer, dual SD cards and more.

Act III (CP+ 2017 - Interview with Hiraku Kawauchi, Shigeru Wakashiro, Keiji Ohkubo and Takashi Arai)
No decision has been taken yet. The KP is presented as a 'high performance yet compact and light-weight camera', 'a quality compact body that can be a good match for the Limited series lenses', 'a K-1 alternative' (emphasis added).
'Compactness and quickness are advantages of the APS-C format compared to full-frame. We feel that there is a need for an APS-C flagship model with these advantages. A successor to the K-3 II is being researched.'

In short: wait and see.

Act IV (CP+ 2018 - Takashi Arai interview)
The K-New development has been approved. Takeshi Arai explains that the KP is 'a separate product' and that they 'are starting to develop a new DSLR which can be positioned as the successor to the K-3 series'. He couldn't possibly say otherwise (sorry guys, we made a mistake when we thought that... therefore...) without losing face.

Act V (November 2019 - Philippe Farreng interview)
Almost three years have passed since the KP launch. Dust has settled. Philippe Farreng admits that the KP was designed as a replacement for the K-3 Mark II. Not a similar camera, an APS-C flagship camera, but a camera meant to be the top of the APS-C line, which the KP has been, still is and will be until the launch of the K-New, which will be the true K-3 II successor.

It's right there, in the "Act V".
Everything points out to the KP not being a K-3 replacement, including the product itself; except for the Sales Manager's claim.

Act I is the one defining the KP; Act II didn't change anything about it, and it's mostly speculation. The product itself forgoes K-3's "flagship" features like 2 SD slots, higher frame rates, buffer; it looks exactly like what Mr. Takashi Arai later described, something separate.
At Act III Ricoh Imaging Japan already (basically) said the KP is not the K-3's successor. I've made a mistake earlier with the timings, but that interview is what I vaguely remembered as Ricoh Imaging saying this, shortly after the KP's launch.
Act IV is further reinforcing the above - the "losing face" is speculation on your part so I'll ignore that for the facts.
Act V, as I said, Ricoh Imaging Japan's Product Planning and Development trumps some foreign Sales Manager. End of story.

[cartesio]

There are way too many awards out there.

I definitely agree. Not only in photography.

[Mistral75]

(...)
It's right there, in the "Act V".
Everything points out to the KP not being a K-3 replacement, including the product itself; except for the Sales Manager's claim.
(...)

'Au départ, nous l’avions conçu comme un remplaçant du K3 Mark II' doesn't mean that the KP was designed to be the new iteration of the APS-C flagship (which it obviously wasn't), simply that it was meant to replace the K-3 II, to take its place at the top of the APS-C lineup (which it definitely has taken).

May be it's a difference between French and English but in French one can say 'j'ai remplacé ma berline diesel par un SUV électrique' (I've [changed cars and] replaced my diesel-powered sedan with an electric-powered SUV) without implying that the latter is the same thing and renders the same services as the former. Simply it has taken its place.

[Kunzite]

'[I]May be it's a difference between French and English but in French one can say 'j'ai remplacé ma berline diesel par un SUV électrique' (I've [changed cars and] replaced my diesel-powered sedan with an electric-powered SUV) without implying that the latter is the same thing and renders the same services as the former. Simply it has taken its place.

Something like this?

It's not a matter of credibility but of position within Ricoh Imaging. And, perhaps, of perspective - as a Sales Manager, he might see a similarly priced DSLR as a successor/replacement of the previous camera; even though as a product it isn't.

A camera to sell in the absence of a K-3 replacement? Yeah, quite likely.
But this isn't what we're accusing Ricoh Imaging of doing.

[Mistral75]

The fact that, at the end of February 2017, more than one month after the KP's launch, no decision had been taken yet as whether or not to give a proper successor to the K-3 II (then three-year old) confirms what Philippe Farreng is now saying: that the KP was initially meant as a replacement to the K-3 II, meant to replace it at the top of the APS-C line-up as 'a K-1 alternative', the K-1 being the only K-mount flagship.

Then, considering the feedback from retailers and end customers, went the time of 'researching' a successor to the K-3 II (whether or not to develop and launch one), then the decision 'to develop a new DSLR which can be positioned as the successor to the K-3 series', then the announcement of its development with the exhibition of a 'reference product' and eventually, and hopefully soon, the proper announcement (with full specifications and price) and the launch of the so-called K-New.

In the meantime, some three years, the KP has had the difficult task of replacing the K-3 II as top K-mount APS-C camera.

[Kunzite]

The fact that, at the end of February 2017, more than one month after the KP's launch, no decision had been taken yet as whether or not to give a proper successor to the K-3 II (then three-year old) confirms what Philippe Farreng is now saying: that the KP was initially meant as a replacement to the K-3 II, meant to replace it at the top of the APS-C line-up as 'a K-1 alternative', the K-1 being the only K-mount flagship.

Then, considering the feedback from retailers and end customers, went the time of 'researching' a successor to the K-3 II (whether or not to develop and launch one), then the decision 'to develop a new DSLR which can be positioned as the successor to the K-3 series', then the announcement of its development with the exhibition of a 'reference product' and eventually, and hopefully soon, the proper announcement (with full specifications and price) and the launch of the so-called K-New.

In the meantime, some three years, the KP has had the difficult task of replacing the K-3 II as top K-mount APS-C camera.

And how do you know whether a decision has been, or has been not taken at that point?
What makes you think that "researching" merely means thinking about if to make it at all or not? It doesn't make any sense; what, do you think they could've said, one year later "we researched and the answer is no, we won't do it"?
No way, the decision was already made; but likely, the details - exactly what kind of camera they'd be making - were subject to "research".

The KP doesn't replace the K-3 II more than Nikon's 7xxx series replaced the D300s.

[Class A]

The main thing is that all APS-C fans will buy the K-new.

Ricoh needs encouragement.

Personally, I hope a respective FF update will follow soon.

[reh321]

The main thing is that all APS-C fans will buy the K-new.

Ricoh needs encouragement.

Personally, I hope a respective FF update will follow soon.

I hope that Pentax will broaden their FF line; they will maintain the K-1ii and release at least one other - either above or below it - and release a few more DFA lenses.