[Mistral75]

As of April 2020 the Pentax Ricoh Photo School, the lectures of which are held at Ricoh Imaging Square in Tokyo and Osaka, will be renamed Ricoh Photo Academy and include additional courses.

For more details see:

新しいフォトスクール「リコーフォトアカデミー」開講のお知らせ｜RICOH IMAGING

Notice of New Photo School “Ricoh Photo Academy” ｜ RICOH IMAGING (Google translation)

[normhead]

Interesting, but do they have courses demonstrating the use of Pentax gear?

[c.a.m]

The change in name could simply mean that the Academy covers the full range of Ricoh's cameras, not just the Pentax line. Makes sense to me.

- Craig

[biz-engineer]

The change in name could simply mean that the Academy covers the full range of Ricoh's cameras, not just the Pentax line. Makes sense to me.

"Pentax Ricoh" or "Ricoh Pentax" is too long anyway. And Ricoh is the mother company, so it makes sense to make it Ricoh, short and simple.

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Last edited by BigMackCam; 02-20-2020 at 10:19 AM. Reason: Updated quoted post

[normhead]

"Pentax Ricoh" or "Ricoh Pentax" is too long anyway. And Ricoh is the mother company, so it makes sense to make it Ricoh, short and simple.

Does anyone know if Pentax is actually shrinking and losing customers?
Last I saw with actual numbers, they were increasing their market share, by staying pretty much the same. You can't assume any given company is on the same curve as the rest of the market. Seriously, you can't discuss a specific company based on general trends. That would be unethical, illogical, and inaccurate. And I don't like it.

[Madaboutpix]

'Workshops scheduled to be offered in 2020 (examples): "Landscape", "Portrait", "townwalk-Walking around town", "Let's make a photo book", "Monochrome world", "Starry sky photography master course", "Thorough use of limited lenses" etc'

The above examples of Ricoh Photo Academy workshops are quoted directly from the Google translation. Neither "Starry sky photography master course" nor "Thorough use of limited lenses" sound like typical "Ricoh territory" to me, if there is such a thing at all. Those, for the time being, should remain among the fortes of Pentax DSLRs.

It seems that just about anything will do for the so-inclined to trigger another bout of Pentax-is-doomed conspiracy theories.

[reh321]

Interesting, but do they have courses demonstrating the use of Pentax gear?

If the courses are well-designed, they will apply to all brands of equipment, but it would be nice if they use their own equipment.

[normhead]

'Workshops scheduled to be offered in 2020 (examples): "Landscape", "Portrait", "townwalk-Walking around town", "Let's make a photo book", "Monochrome world", "Starry sky photography master course", "Thorough use of limited lenses" etc'

The above examples of Ricoh Photo Academy workshops are quoted directly from the Google translation. Neither "Starry sky photography master course" nor "Thorough use of limited lenses" sound like typical "Ricoh territory" to me, if there is such a thing at all. Those, for the time being, should remain among the fortes of Pentax DSLRs.

It seems that just about anything will do for the so-inclined to trigger another bout of Pentax-is-doomed conspiracy theories.

All the circumstantial evidence that Pentax is doomed has yet to produce any credible empirical evidence.

[taktoon]

If my camera names were RICOH K-1 and RICOH K-70 they would work exactly the same.

[Mistral75]

Does anyone know if Pentax is actually shrinking and losing customers?
Last I saw with actual numbers, they were increasing their market share, by staying pretty much the same. You can't assume any given company is on the same curve as the rest of the market. Seriously, you can't discuss a specific company based on general trends. That would be unethical, illogical, and inaccurate. And I don't like it.

There haven't been 'hard' data concerning Pentax in ages. The last ones were published when Ricoh bought the Pentax imaging business from Hoya: the revenue (¥15bn) and operating income (0-) generated by the Pentax imaging business during the half-year period between the 1st of October, 2011 and the 31st of March, 2012.

The impact of PENTAX Ricoh Imaging Co. for FY2012/03 was 15.0 billion in net sales and no impact in operating income.

Source: https://www.ricoh.com/-/Media/Ricoh/Sites/com/IR/data/pre/pdf/h23q4_con.pdf page #3

PENTAX was in our group for just 6 months last year, and so it could only contribute 15 billion yen in sales, with a break-even operating income.

Source: https://www.ricoh.com/-/Media/Ricoh/Sites/com/IR/pdf/essence_text_0426.pdf page #2

Other reported data from the same period suggest that the revenue split of the Pentax imaging business was roughly 1/3 Japan 2/3 rest of the world.

At that time, the Ricoh camera business was bleeding money (the compact market had begun to shrink).

Other business resulted in minus 6 billion yen operating income. The largest factor behind the loss is compact digital cameras of Ricoh. PENTAX was almost brake [sic!] even in profit.

Source: ibidem, page #5

During the same half-year period in 2018-2019, seven years later, Smart Vision generated ¥9.2bn in sales. The are no figures concerning the Pentax business.

Between October 2011 - March 2012 and October 2018 - March 2019, the market (as measured by the value of camera and lens shipments as reported by CIPA) fell by 43%, from ¥883bn to ¥504bn.

In addition, there are a few 'soft data' concerning for instance Europe and France:

• The Ricoh Imaging General Sales Manager for Europe told me that the sales of Pentax equipment follow a minus 15% / minus 20% yearly trend.
  xxx
• The manager of La Boutique Pentax in Paris told me that, if it weren't for the GR III, they would have had to close shop in 2019. (They sell very few Theta cameras, those are mostly sold through BtoB channels in France). They are is eager for new, relatively affordable Pentax products to entice people to come to their outlet and buy Pentax equipment. For instance they are organising two half-day operations around the D FA 70-210mm f/4, lending for free and during a few hours a copy of the lens, together with a K-1 Mark II if requested, to people who have registered in advance and offering various rebates on the whole product portfolio on this occasion.

[edri]

....[*]The Ricoh Imaging General Sales Manager for Europe told me that the sales of Pentax equipment follow a minus 15% / minus 20% yearly trend....

This trend will continue year after year as long as they remain only within the limits of the K-mount DSLRs.

[superdave]

This trend will continue year after year as long as they remain only within the limits of the K-mount DSLRs.

Having K1 and top notch lenses is good, but no new affordable product is a big problem indeed. We need more lenses under 500€ such as new apsc limited primes... (e.g. a 28mm LTD and a 135mm). This is what fuji offer, almost all their primes cost 399 or 499 and they have many ones. Such lenses would sell well for Pentax apsc users and could bring new customers looking for affordable, compact retro design camera and lenses.

[Serkevan]

This trend will continue year after year as long as they remain only within the limits of the K-mount DSLRs.

Clearly the freefall of other manufacturers is because their mirrorless offerings spontaneously combust during shipping.

[c.a.m]

No offence intended to anyone, but I've been thinking about this thread -- how is it that a straightforward first post concerning a simple renaming of the Ricoh Photo Academy is quickly taken off course towards the state of the market, the health of Ricoh Imaging, limitations of the K-mount, and alternative brands?

For my part, in the future I think I will try to be more careful to not get sucked onto off-topic secondary gravel roads.

- Craig

[JPT]

Ricoh has been tidying up their branding and Japan marketing for a while now.

The company itself lost the “Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company” branding years ago. The “Pentax Forum” in Shinjuku (Tokyo) was rebranded to “Ricoh Imaging Square”, but if you look at what’s inside, the exhibitions and events are almost focused on Pentax and not Ricoh. The former Ricoh showroom in Ginza, which mostly focused on Ricoh-branded products is being closed. That was the home of Ricoh’s consumer marketing for a long time.

So the point is this is all just sensible consolidating and tidying up of naming. There was never much justification for having two showrooms in Tokyo. The brand hierarchy is clear. Ricoh is the family brand and GR, Pentax and Theta are the product brands.

If you look down this page, you can see plenty of Pentax specific events in the new academy.

?????????????????????????????RICOH IMAGING