This weekend I received a link to participate in a survey from Ricoh Imaging Japan. I got this because I知 on their mailing list as an online store customer. I知 posting this here because it was basically asking directly what I want/expect from a future full frame K-mount camera. Lenses and APS-C were not the focus, but I do think they dropped a big hint about APS-C, as you値l see below.
It was quite a lengthy survey, so I知 not going to attempt to translate all the questions, but I値l explain the main thrust.
There were questions about why you did or didn稚 buy the K-1 II. This included things like concerns about the features an image quality of the K-1 II, as well as answer options like 的知 waiting for the K-3 Evolved model and 的知 waiting for full frame mirrorless. They had 斗imited range of lenses in there as a reason.
There were a few similar questions about whether you used the K-1 upgrade program and why.
They had a question about whether you also use a mirrorless system, and a follow up question about how you divide your use of the systems.
The most interesting part was directly asking for requests for future full frame model features. The first question gave a very long list of options, covering basically every feature request you hear on these forums. In my case, I selected smaller, lighter, better AF, better video AF, video stabilization and some others. I think there were about 30 choices there.
In addition to that, three specific areas were singled out for separate, more specific questions.
- Viewfinder: improved eye relief, diopter adjustment, brightness, size, brightness adjustment, info displays, and so on
- AF: about 10 options covering accuracy, speed, coverage, density and operability for both still and continuous shooting
- Legacy lens support: this was really interesting. They had four free entry fields by series asking for ideas for what in body support you would want for FA/F series lenses, A series lenses, M/K series lenses and Takumars.
Finally they had a space to enter your general thoughts about K-mount.
I知 no market research expert, but I thought it was a very comprehensive and well done survey. For once, I felt I was able to say everything I wanted about the subject (FF K-mount). It痴 good to know that when Ricoh say they are listening to customers, they do have mechanisms to do so.
I also thought the timing was interesting, as it seems that this 適-3 II Evolved camera is real and the features are fixed by now. The new FF frame camera meanwhile is on the drawing board, and they are gathering user opinions.
I imagine a lot of people reading this would want to fill out this survey. I知 afraid it is Japan only for now. However, when they did this kind of survey before for lenses, it did happen overseas after a few months. Let痴 hope it happens this time too.
Last edited by JPT; 01-14-2019 at 12:01 AM.