[Mistral75]

Hi there,

Another question, which might be a bit sensitive and difficult to properly / politely phrase.

Background:

As illustrated inter alia in their latest financial report (see https://www.ricoh.com/-/Media/Ricoh/Sites/com/IR/data/pre/pdf/r02q4_1.pdf pp. 27 and 28), Ricoh are currently undergoing a reorganisation with a view to becoming a 'digital services company'.

As part of this reorganisation, the Smart Vision business, which today includes all activities related to the Pentax, GR, WG, G and Theta brands, will be made of the Theta business only (360° cameras and related services, e.g. cloud services and software, including software dedicated to the real estate business).

The digital camera business (Pentax, GR, WG and G brands) will be included in the Other business within the Other segment (kind of residue of the residue).



In FY2021 (April 2020 - March 2021) the Other segment (Smart Vision business + Other business) made ¥19bn (approx. $175m) in sales and an operating loss of ¥17bn (approx. $155m).

Question:

What will be the (operational, financial, day-to-day) consequences of the digital camera business, in particular the Pentax business, being spun off from Smart Vision and split from the Theta business?

[kwb]

I think there is an option to use the GPS time in the Exif instead of the local time...

There used to be on the K1 anyway... if I remember right...

Another trick is to find someone with a fancy GPS clock and take a photo of the readout.
That allows alignment of the camera clock and the GPS at a later point.
I've used it before on my K10.

That's handy if you jump time zones and forget to change the clock or if you don't have a O-GPSx...

-Eric

Thanks! These days I think you can also take a picture of cellphone clock and that would be accurate enough to know the essential information (clock error in each camera). However, my point is about EXIF.


I don't know what you mean by "use the GPS time in EXIF instead of the local time", but GPS time stamp tags (GPSTimeStamp and GPSDateStamp) are embedded in EXIF when you take a picture with GPS, it's not an optional thing. Thing is, they are in addition to time stamp information based on camera's clock that already exist in EXIF (DateTimeOriginal, DateTimeDigitized etc.), and usually it's camera-based time that's used by software for sorting things. No software I use can sort things in chronological order using GPS time, or maybe they can but I don't know how.


What is optional on older cameras like KP and K1 was to let the camera automatically adjust its own clock using GPS, which is called GPS Time Sync. I always use that whenever I use O-GPS1 but it's gone from K-3 III. OTOH K-3 III can adjust its own clock using cellphone while older bodies cannot.

[TwoUptons]

Thanks! These days I think you can also take a picture of cellphone clock and that would be accurate enough to know the essential information (clock error in each camera). However, my point is about EXIF.


I don't know what you mean by "use the GPS time in EXIF instead of the local time", but GPS time stamp tags (GPSTimeStamp and GPSDateStamp) are embedded in EXIF when you take a picture with GPS, it's not an optional thing. Thing is, they are in addition to time stamp information based on camera's clock that already exist in EXIF (DateTimeOriginal, DateTimeDigitized etc.), and usually it's camera-based time that's used by software for sorting things. No software I use can sort things in chronological order using GPS time, or maybe they can but I don't know how.


What is optional on older cameras like KP and K1 was to let the camera automatically adjust its own clock using GPS, which is called GPS Time Sync. I always use that whenever I use O-GPS1 but it's gone from K-3 III. OTOH K-3 III can adjust its own clock using cellphone while older bodies cannot.

Yeah, for the thing I was doing with the K10, the time needed to be very precise... but I'll admit the cell phone time is a very good way to do most things...

Otherwise, I was referring to the GPS Time Sync... If that's used, the "base" time comes from the GPS with an offset selected by the user.

Interestingly, while Ricoh says the K1 mkII is Exif 2.3 compliant, it seems to be 2.3.1 compliant, as is the KP.
Photos from my K1 early on did not include time zone offset, but photos with the same camera after it was upgraded to the K1 mkII processor include the offset.
My KP seems to have always included the offset...
I don't know if that was firmware related or hardware related...

Weird that the feature is gone from the K3iii... I wonder if they'll bring it back with firmware with the OGPS-2...

-Eric

[Spodeworld]

ok..have to ask...do they have plans to release a flagship with a movable LCD?

[reh321]

ok..have to ask...do they have plans to release a flagship with a movable LCD?

I assume you mean "APS-C flagship"???
The K-1 and K-1ii are flagships and each does already have a moveable LCD.

[fs999]

Photos from my K1 early on did not include time zone offset, but photos with the same camera after it was upgraded to the K1 mkII processor include the offset.

From the K-1 manual :

When the GPS information can be obtained, Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC) is recorded as the shooting date and
time for images. On the Electronic Compass screen (p.14),
the time is displayed after the difference between UTC and
the time of the shooting location is corrected.

This should not be a problem when viewing a photo, as the offset is known on you computer...

[Kobie]

Regarding the K-3 III.
With the new AF system, what are the intended uses for each option? Is it best to use Subject Recognition only for portraits? Motorsports? Birds in flight or otherwise? Sports? Is it good to use for all of them?
How does the Auto AF and Zone work to determine what to focus on?
What does the Subject Recognition actually recognize?
When is it best to use AF+AE? Are there cases when AF+AE and/or Subject Recognition should not be used?
Is there a plan to have a documented breakdown on a micro site explaining the new AF system in detail? Such as when to use which combination of options for different situations so we can get the most out of the new AF system?

[reh321]

Regarding the K-3 III.
With the new AF system, what are the intended uses for each option? Is it best to use Subject Recognition only for portraits? Motorsports? Birds in flight or otherwise? Sports? Is it good to use for all of them?
How does the Auto AF and Zone work to determine what to focus on?
What does the Subject Recognition actually recognize?
When is it best to use AF+AE? Are there cases when AF+AE and/or Subject Recognition should not be used?
Is there a plan to have a documented breakdown on a micro site explaining the new AF system in detail? Such as when to use which combination of options for different situations so we can get the most out of the new AF system?

Yes, an explanation of the K-3iii AF system would be very good.
There seem to be some who still prefer BBF, even for small birds.
A discussion of what is accomplished - and how it is accomplished - would be very useful.

[One3rdEV]

Regarding the K-3 III:

On one hand the K-3 III is just one of the entire product lineup for Ricoh- and yet for Pentax it is such an important product given our belief that it serves as the introduction of a new development platform for future DSLR cameras. Consequently there are likely to be many specific functions and capabilities for which questions may arise, clarification may be needed, issues resolved, enhancements made or capabilities expanded. Therefore the case should be made and emphasis given that it would be of great service to Pentax itself, its customer base and potential buyers for Pentax to have its technical / marketing team put together some form of media resources (e.g. either web articles, blogs, video, audio, podcasts) that help users to further understand the logic and capabilities or limitations, and to best apply the advanced features.

Likewise emphasis should be given that the user base would like to share early adopter feedback regarding areas of insufficient understanding or clarity, need for additional in camera help tools, encountered limitations, and suggestions for enhanced or additional capabilities. Examples include; display of user mode label text, option to use electronic shutter with mirror lock up for normal shooting (not limited to pixel shift). Consequently it would be desirable to establish some means of communication from the user base to Ricoh-Pentax in order to accomplish this. The intent and benefit would be to not only help refine the existing K-3 III product, but to also help expedite enhancement and refinement of the up and coming new product releases.

Also worth emphasizing: The effort that Ricoh-Imaging has made in introducing its mission statement aimed at Pentax and DSLR's and also the effort in planning and preparing the ambassador roll-out for the K-3 III was highly appreciated by the user base. And even more significantly- the effort and investment that the Pentax team put into the Challengers series has been most highly appreciated and has played an important role in helping the user base to understand the intent and foundational potential of the new platform.

[TwoUptons]

From the K-1 manual :

This should not be a problem when viewing a photo, as the offset is known on you computer...

How does the computer know the offset set on the camera?

On files from the K1, there is no time zone correction in the Exif. It just knows what time was set on the camera independent of how.

With the K1 mkII upgrade (or it may have happened with firmware), the Exif now includes the timezone correction, though that is set manually in the camera.

-Eric

[Tesla]

Will they upgrade the K-3 III firmware to allow users to use the e-shutter without Pixel Shift?

[Class A]

Are there plans to implement the equivalent of Hasselblad's "True Focus & Absolute Position Lock" system?

The idea is to use the accelerometers in the camera to track any changes to the camera's rotation (and potentially position) after the last AF acquisition so that the image still ends up being sharp where the focus point was originally set, even if the camera is rotated/moved after focus acquisition. This system eliminates the downside of the "focus and recompose"-technique (misfocus due to the inevitable need to rotate the camera slightly; this can make a noticeable difference, e.g., when taking portraits at close distances at very wide apertures).

Using an AF area other than the centre one is not always ideal because

• the AF area density may not be high enough to allow directly placement of an area over the targeted subject area.
• the centre AF area is more precise (f/2.8 AF base instead of f/5.6) than the off-centre AF areas.
• off-centre AFs area may be off slightly, in terms of achieving perfect focus. It is difficult to perfectly calibrate all AF areas and being able to use AF micro-adjustment to optimise the adjustment needed for the centre AF area would help to get optimal results all the time.

A feature equivalent to "True Focus & Absolute Position Lock" would help to address an issue that many regard as a disadvantage of DSLRs compared to mirrorless cameras. A mirrorless camera can, at least in principle, make final fine AF adjustments at the time of capture. A DSLR has to work with the AF setting achieved during the time of focus acquisition and is therefore more likely to achieve a small misfocus, in case the user cannot or does not want to (focus and recompose) hold the camera absolutely still.

Personally, I believe DSLRs are very usable as they are right now and the OVF is justification enough as far as I'm concerned, but the K-3 III's eye-AF feature suggests that Ricoh may be looking to make the choice for a DSLR easier and a "True Focus & Absolute Position Lock" feature would support such a philosophy. I would prefer it over using sensors with on-sensor PDAF sensels because the latter are not fully available for image capture and/or can potentially cause issues like banding/striping.

[Adam]

Until now I could not find any reference to the K3-III, despite being a flagship camera. So my impression is the SDK is put on a sidetrack. I have looked into the available classes but it has only a very limited range of functions. If they don't improve that it will attract only moderate interest.

---------- Post added 05-23-21 at 11:29 PM ----------

Two further questions from me for the interview:

1. Is there any chance of a dramatic improvement of IBIS, or have you reached the technical limits of your system.

2. What is your impression so far of customers wanting pixel shift and do you know for what purpose they are using it. Are there plans to further develop hand-held pixel shift.

I tested it with the K-3 III and it does not work, unfortunately.

[Adam]

I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions! The interview questions are now ready and I hope to be able to publish the answers soon.

Given many users' interest in potentially asking more technical questions offline, after the interview, I will start a separate thread for any follow-up questions as well as questions that weren't able to make it into the interview.

[RobA_Oz]

ok..have to ask...do they have plans to release a flagship with a movable LCD?

I presume you mean “flagship APS-C body”. The possibility occurred to me when I last looked at the rear of the K-3iii, and realised that the LCD was noticeably recessed from the plane of the control panel on the right side. I doubt they’ll answer that one during this initial sales period, so as to not feed speculation about it. About as good as we can expect is something of the “We continue to study the market” type of thing, but we should still ask the question.