Originally posted by jatrax I wonder how much of this is due to the camera or to better marketing by Ricoh?
Probably both. DPReview have payed some attention to Pentax, including full reviews of most flagship models, albeit somewhat late some times. And the K3 received pretty good marks.
The Pentax K-1 is simply exceptional in that after 15 years of waiting, it's finally there, and in the broad feature set for a low price point. It's the third (and last) DSLR manufacturer entering the FF market, and even without any Ricoh marketing DPReview would report on that. They write the stuff people are interested in reading, they don't have some sort of bias that would make them bully a certain brand even against the laws if business logic.
And whether Ricoh's marketing has got better, we will see. The teaser thingy, albeit often mocked (by me, too), has certainly drawn a lot of attention (DPReview has reported on it frequently), and the K-1 give-away is pretty smart too.
Now what they need is more, talented ambassadors (especially in certain fields, like outdoor and landscape photography), Youtube videos etc., essentially more viral stuff.