Originally posted by biz-engineer Ricoh purchased Pentax, made a Pentax K1 thinking they were going to see a significant regain of market share. They designed the K1 to be the best value for still photography, with unique features such as best in class sensor dynamic range, geo-logging, built in level, built in compass, astro-tracer, shake reduction, horizon correction, pixel shift, composition adjust, composite exposure, built in intervalometer, automatic dark frame substraction, exposure and depth of field simulation, electronic shutter for 30% off the price of other brands that don't even offer those features. When Ricoh saw that customers are switching to other brands offering less for a higher price, they were puzzled, they decided to invest their money for the automotive business customers.
It's a weird statement.
I bought a new K1 soon after release, enjoyed every piece of it for 2 years. The IQ is outstanding for the money and it delivers big time.
I bought a new Fuji X-T3, enjoy every piece of it's technology for a year now. The IQ is outstanding for the money and it delivers big time. What made me switch to Fuji is that I work more and more on Videos (getting paid I mean) and Pentax was not even an option.
What I mean really is that both cameras delivers incredible IQ, and I do miss the Astrotracer fonction sometimes (I never really used PS because it was too cumbersome to proceed the images with softwares), but I was convinced to go the Mirrorless way when I tried both Sony and Fuji for a few weeks each system.
For my need it was the way to go and Pentax never really told their customers that they will engage ressources that way.
So I made a decision, based on my business, and I dont regret it.
But as a personal photographer I wish I still had a K1 to shoot let's say landscapes !
Also I was skeptical about Pentax brand in the future, I had to make a move business wise and there was no Pentax option for me.