[rod_grant]

Wrong analogy.

Lexus is NOT a small company. Lexus is a HUGE company, or at least a part of one.

From Wikipedia :
"Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. "

Oops either typo or autocorrect. My mind said SAME company. Sometimes my mind and fingers operate on different wave lengths.
Thanks for pointing out the error, otherwise I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to correct it, and half the internet would think I was an ignoramus. .

[mattt]

: Does it mean we may expect higher probability of pentaprism destruction.

A very good question. I for one make good use of the robust build quality of my Pentax Cameras.

[thibs]

Well, the prism housing is now all metal so they took this into consideration afaict

[Wheatfield]

Don't get me wrong, I think Pentax built a camera that they can be really proud of. It does seem to me that Ricoh is more profit oriented, and it may not be a bad thing if more profit means more development.

Yes well, the reason we are complaining about Ricoh rather than Pentax is because Pentax wasn't especially profit oriented.

[wkraus]

Yes well, the reason we are complaining about Ricoh rather than Pentax is because Pentax wasn't especially profit oriented.

Before the idea that in 2007 Pentax was a near failure passes into accepted internet wisdom because you repeat it again and again, could you explain how the lack of profit orientation contributed to Hoya’s near-hostile takeover in order to get hold of Pentax’s medical division? I don’t claim to understand these things and would be genuinely interested.

[c.a.m]

It would be great if discussions concerning 'profit orientation' (or lack therof) could be related to the new pentaprism.

Clearly, the development and production of the prism introduced new cost factors to Ricoh Imaging.


- Craig

[Not a Number]

Indeed, it seems the challenge here is to stay on topic

[Wheatfield]

Before the idea that in 2007 Pentax was a near failure passes into accepted internet wisdom because you repeat it again and again, could you explain how the lack of profit orientation contributed to Hoya’s near-hostile takeover in order to get hold of Pentax’s medical division? I don’t claim to understand these things and would be genuinely interested.

If they had been genuinely profitable, they would have been able to tell Sparx to jump off a cliff.

[Kunzite]

If they had been genuinely profitable, they would have been able to tell Sparx to jump off a cliff.

They had been genuinely profitable; they had a strong medical division after all. They just couldn't resist a hostile takeover which happened with their shareholders' help.

Sparx was their major shareholder. What you've heard about Pentax not being able to survive independently and other BS like that was information war originating from them (and Hoya).

[reh321]

If they had been genuinely profitable, they would have been able to tell Sparx to jump off a cliff.

"Profitable" depends on how you look at it.
Sometimes a large shareholder will decide that the pieces of a company are worth more separately than the whole is.

[mattt]

/unsubscribed

Let me know when you all get back to discussing this innovative new pentaprism.

[beholder3]

:"High-refraction glass is rigid and fragile" Does it mean we may expect higher probability of pentaprism destruction. So under the same mechanical impact K3 may survive but K3ii may not?

It is like these ED glass elements in lenses. Yes, they have physical disadvantages. That is why you wont ever see an ED element at the very front or rear of a lens where it is exposed to user „interaction“.

As far as I understand they are very easy to scratch.

[hongman]

One of the Challenger stories, High-grade viewfinder system, reveals a particularly difficult development -- the new pentaprism. From previous product stories, we gained some insight into its motivation. Now we hear from the designers. The pandemic hampered the development for a reason that might not be obvious immediately.


High-grade viewfinder system Designed to achieve high standards | Challengers | PENTAX K-3 Mark III | RICOH IMAGING

"Development of high-refraction glass pentaprism"

"It was only after we began developing this new pentaprism, though, that we realized that we were faced with a formidable task, especially at the processing and assessment stages. High-refraction glass is a highly rigid and fragile material. It was extremely hard work to cut the prism’s edges at specific angles. Initially, we were planning to develop and process this pentaprism at our main pentaprism production factory in Vietnam, and started testing more than 200 production methods. But things didn’t go well.

Of course, when we relocated our pentaprism production facility from Japan to Vietnam, this also involved transferring our expertise and craftsmanship. It’s usually the case in situations such as this that Japanese engineers visit the overseas factory and go through a detailed, repeated verification process with the local staff. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, however, it was impossible for us to make this trip. In the end, we decided to set up a new facility in Japan where our engineering team could develop the technologies necessary to perfect the finishing process, the production step which demanded the largest amount of time. For instance, our engineers experimented with many different production methods and minute testing conditions, finding solutions through a trial-and-error approach in the end."

[my emphasis]


Incidentally, the physical characteristics of the prism suggest a plausible answer for the omission of GPS.

High-refraction glass is rigid and fragile > Need to protect it with a strong metal housing > Replace the conventional plastic prism cover with magnesium alloy > But the RF antennas would be shielded at the prism location > Move the antennas > Only have space for the wireless antennas > Could obtain location info from smartphone > Omit onboard GPS

Of course, there could be other reasons.

- Craig

Verrrry Interesting ... thanks for posting!

[Ascencio]

Looks amazing wonder how they will improve full frame

[StarTroop]

It's cool that Ricoh is willing to invest to redevelop what many consider to be a stagnant (if not dead) field. It may not be the hybrid e/ovf that some of us were hypothesizing, but it shows that there's room for improvement in SLR tech. I think if Ricoh really is this serious about holding this niche, they really ought to bring back a line of film SLRs. There's a lot of modern tech and production methods that could easily be adapted to a film camera, but I wonder if this new pentaprism could fit in an SLR without getting too unbalanced.