[Lord Lucan]

"CAPA" immediately made me think of Robert Capa, the war photographer. No connection I suppose.

[kwb]

I saw this price first mentioned in the February issue of Nippon Camera and I mentioned it on this forum somewhere. I have it in front of me now and the exact wording is this:
価格＝未定（２０万台になる予定）

I double checked and 半後 is definitely not printed.

This month's Capa does not mention the price, but I looked at the article in the March issue of Nippon Camera and Digital Camera Magazine by the Impress publishing group, and they both have the 200,000 yen price mentioned.

Thank you JPT!

"Around 200,000 yen" might be misleading to others then, 20万円台 ("200,000 yen range") just means larger than or equal to 200,000 but smaller than 300,000 yen (see below). Presumably it's Ricoh who revised "upper 20万円 range" to just "20万円 range", so it's likely that the launch price will be lower than 25万 yen (250,000) even though e.g. 299,999 is still technically 20万円台. It's still a great news!
I searched and found one twitter user mentioning Nippon Camera article. The person revised his prediction from 280,000 yen to 240,000 since "upper" is apparently gone from "upper 20万円 range".
https://twitter.com/MTBgravelRoadgo/status/1363232360649482241

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(Warning: Below is just about the Japanese language for others.)
Let me explain the use of "range" as in "20万円台" or "20万 yen range".


The unit in this case is 万 or 10,000, and we have only two digits in 20万 in this form. If the lowest digit is anything but 0 (let's say the lowest digit is 1, i.e. "21万円台"), it's always assumed that all written digits are fixed, and therefore we're talking about the fractional part. In our example of 21万円台, that's equal to or larger than 21万 (210,000) but smaller than 22万 (220,000).

If the lowest digit is 0 as in 20万円台, it's usually assumed that only the second lowest digit (2) is fixed, thus equal to or larger than 20万 but smaller than 30万.

There's no concise and convenient way to specifically say 20万<=price<21万 without any ambiguity. If it's apparent or expected from context that we're talking about the fractional part, you may use 20万円台 to mean 20万<=price<21万. For example, if I say "it's going to be 24万円" and you respond by saying "no it's gonna be 20万円台" without any other comments, it's very apparent that you're NOT saying 20万<=price<30万.

In conversation some might use 20万円台 to mean 20万<=price<21万 before any context/expectation is established, that's OK, usually it will become clear as the conversation progresses.

[kwb]

"CAPA" immediately made me think of Robert Capa, the war photographer. No connection I suppose.

I googled and found one person asking if Capa (the magazine) was named after Robert Capa, wondering if the magazine was originally photojournalism-oriented. Three wrote that there's a relation in name, one wrote that the relation was explained in 2013 January article in Capa (the magazine), and one said that even though the name is related the magazine was never about photojournalism.
https://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/-/SortID=15713430/

I'm a bit puzzled, but maybe Capa was the name that was recognized by many Japanese in relation to general photography.


Capa (the magazine) was first published in 1981. I was in junior high in Japan at the time and didn't have any interest in photography but knew that Robert Capa was some kind of photographer. I knew no other words that sounded like Capa. (These days many use "capa" to mean capacity.)
I knew his name simply because my father, who wasn't into photography except to take family snaps once in a while, bought a translated copy of Slightly Out Of Focus, Robert Capa's self-biography, in a cheaper and smaller format which first became available in 1979 (original translation was published much earlier, probably in 1960's). The fact that cheaper version became available should mean that there was significant interest in Capa's work outside of photographers' circle back then.

[JPT]

kwb - Thank you for correcting that and apologies for giving misleading information to anyone reading. I had interpreted it as 200,000-210,000 yen as the initial street price, but it looks like that may not be right. The Japanese explanation is very clear and helpful to me.

I have always understood the name of Capa magazine to be inspired by the photographer, but I also wondered if it was supposed to have a kind of double meaning, like "Camera Person" or "Camera Perfect" (fits if you think phonetically the way Japanese pronounce those words). As you say, the content of the magazine is not focused on photojournalism, and in fact other titles are better for that genre.

[cometguy]

well, 200000 yen is currently about $1875 USD. And if the general "rule" holds, in which cameras cost more to buy new in Japan than in the USA, the K-3 III could well start closer to $1500 USD upon launch, and be closer to $1200-$1300 within a year after launch.