There have been some rumours before about Ricoh making a new camera in K mount. K-rumors is now saying it would be available this year! This is VERY interesting considering that Samsung's NX will not use K mount and Pentax hasn't announced anything like this.

(K4) Ricoh is coming with K-mount mirrorless system! | k-rumors

EDIT: Originally from Ricoh mirrorless camera | Photo Rumors

I really like the idea. Nice compact second body.

Ricoh GXR

This is really weird stuff! Interchangeable lens-sensor-combos! Very interesting concept, but my first impression is that it will NOT sell. What do you think?

(FT5) Continuely updated -> The Ricoh GXR is here!!! Not really a MicroFourThirds competitor!?!?

[beem]

Pretty crazy. Ricoh generally like to shake things up with their digicam offerings. So much for the K mount rumours. Er... at least for now. I guess if it were physically possible they could offer a sensor + interchangeable mount "brick".

At this point I think the "brick" offerings will determine whether this thing will sell. The price will obviously be a factor, but Ricoh's digicams don't normally come generally affordable (or available for that matter, but I'm from Canada so I'm biased). Those familiar with the brand will most likely be the early adopters, and as such they're probably aware/comfortable with the price point. I doubt this will bring in the Canikontaxites to Ricoh wholesale.

To spin it a different way, would I buy one? Generally speaking I think I would. I have the GRD II and love the "thought" Ricoh put in when building it. Hyperfocal focusing at the press of a button, dual control dials, constant feature enhancing firmware upgrades to name a few. As such I'd say I'm more willing to give Ricoh the benefit of the doubt with their ability to make this format work. I prefer using primes (hence my coming to the Pentax camp... Limited lenses woot woot!), but hate having to change lens (always afraid of someone bumping into me mid-change). Being able to just slam primes in and out would be awesome.

Would I buy it right now? Probably not. Those bricks are cool, but I think I'd hold out until they've got something along the lines of a 40mm f1.x lens (35mm equiv) + m43 sized sensor. Oh... and then there's that small issue about the price...

[pingflood]

Pretty interesting. Ricoh had a bit of an issue with dust on the GX100 model, so perhaps they figured that making the lens and sensor one "unit" they could avoid all dust problems (I suspect that with a small sensor like that dust spots would be far worse than on a bigger sensor camera). Keep the electronics (processor yada) in the "main unit" and then have modules for lens+sensor. Not a bad concept.

I haven't watched the video yet so not sure if that's how it works though!