Originally posted by acoufap Sony and Ricoh started into the digital camera era with digital compacts and had no footprint in digital SLRs. That's right.
My guess is that Ricoh still has some employees that were part of their camera division history and culture. Culture is about people not technique. Ricoh had to reduce their camera appearance to digital compacts and had some success with the GRX. Now there was the chance to continue their SLR history successfully through a acquisition contract with Hoya/Pentax. They agreed and carried and developed the Pentax DNA further - also on a cultural level. A great step IMO.
So
I'm still not convinced that it's the same story as that of Sony and Minolta, where the latter already had a merger with Konica - if I remember right.
Yes, Minolta had already merged with Konica before Sony's acquisition... just as Pentax had already been acquired and pretty much torn-apart by Hoya. What Ricoh ended up acquiring was very little like the Asahi Pentax business of old.
My point is, folks get dewey-eyed at the heritage of Pentax gear, but the reality is the (admittedly excellent) current products are mostly designed and built by a tiny division of a huge business electronics and services corporation, while a small few are (equally excellent) tweaked third-party re-brands. At the same time, some of those folks look down at Sony as a giant consumer electronics / TV & Hi Fi company and opportunistic "Johnny-come-lately" to photography, yet the heritage of its cameras and lenses goes way back through Konica and Minolta - and by now it has vast experience in designing and building mirrorless ILCs.
Though it doesn't particularly bother me, I sometimes wonder what else Sony has to do for universal acceptance as a legitimate player
[My apologies to the OP for going off-topic. I'll desist now ]
Last edited by BigMackCam; 02-12-2022 at 11:44 AM.