Originally posted by ThorSanchez In a world where DSLRs are seen as a tool for grandpa's holiday, an anime-inspired look is exactly the point. I think Ricoh would be disappointed by anything but the "goodness, what a monstrosity!" reaction from their usual core demographic. This is specifically targeted to people who don't want a stodgy black camera to disappear with into the crowd while queuing up to see the Washington Monument.
Yup, lets build a camera for a market that doesn't exist.
The whole collectors thing falls flat on it's face. DSLRs are not "collectors items", but if they were, it would be better to make a collectors item for your market rather than targeting a market that doesn't know you exist and wouldn't buy what you are making even if they were aware of you.
I was discussing collectors items with an audiophile friend. A recent listing on a marketplace on a website he inhabits was for an original Sony Walkman, still unopened in it's original blister pack. The guy was asking $10K for it as it is a "collectors item". Apparently the best offer he got was a few hundred dollars, which, if inflation is taken into account, is probably about what the thing cost when new. Some things just aren't collectors items, no matter how rare they are, and no matter how much wishful thinking wants them to be collectors items.
There is a certain irony that the same people who are saying people who invest in lenses get exactly what they deserve when they depreciate are all over this ugly duckling of a camera being a collector's item like kids at a candy counter when it is a product that is guaranteed to have zero residual value the moment it walks out of the store.
Ricoh is giving the brand minimal resources, if they want to use those resources wisely, I can think of a number of focal length lenses that could come before this monstrosity that no amount of alcohol and will turn beautiful.