Originally posted by monochrome OK then - so "Be of Good Cheer, Sony. Ricoh has a Plan, and you will be Happy!" applies.
For which I have been hammered for a year and almost a half.
Absolutely. I like what they have done so far. There wasn't much in the Hoya goodies box, they made the best of it (K5IIs) to tide them over until they could put together some new stuff. I suspect we will see another announcement of something in two to three weeks, maybe a lens, maybe another body update. And another one three to four weeks after. The 360 degree camera was a disappointment only because of a big hole not being filled. When the holes are filled, those things will be one more interesting thing that they are doing.
Something that impresses me about the K-3 is the wisdom of not pushing something out before it is ready. The 24 mp needs serious processing capability, so they waited until one was ready. I suspect that there will be a couple feature implementing firmware upgrades to that body. Same with the FF. Better to release something compelling for that specific market segment when it is ready than some half baked expensive disappointment.
So far in the market segments that they are addressing, Ricoh has very compelling products that offer impressive value. Yes, for $3200 we can all have the FF body that we all dream about. But for $600 the K-500 is very very nice. When it is ready those who want to spend $3200 will have something they really want with a Pentax tag on it.