[monochrome]

Look through their website and you find three of the cameras listed as products of that business including. low and behold, the Pentax WG-2.

Ricoh Americas Corp is the B2B Division. The WG-2 is marketed through that division as a dental macro device for its macro function with the LED's. According to Jim Malcolm the WG-2 has really taken off in that market.

Pentax Ricoh Imaging Americas Corp. is the retail imaging and optics division. It currently markets the WG-3 line of weather resistant compact cameras.

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Last edited by monochrome; 05-25-2013 at 08:54 AM.

[mecrox]

May I suggest you to have a look at page 13 of the report you quoted, at the bottom of the page under <Other> ?

Two findings:
1) As Mistral75 just pointed out, "Other" also includes Ricoh Leasing and Ricoh Logistics Systems
2) Perhaps more important, it seems some of the Ricoh and Pentax cameras are part of Imaging Solutions. If you look at the business chart (more like a bowl of spaghetti) on Page 14, you'll see Imaging Solutions includes an entity called Ricoh Americas. Google that and you come to Copiers, Printers, Multifunctional Color Copiers, Color Printers, Production Printing, Management Document Services, IT Services | Ricoh USA . Look through their website and you find three of the cameras listed as products of that business including. low and behold, the Pentax WG-2.

I don't know how firmly each of these products fits into any of these business categories which is why taking any of this published information with a grain of salt is probably a good idea.

Ricoh Americas Corp is the B2B Division. The WG-2 is marketed through that division as a dental macro device for its macro function with the LED's. According to Jim Malcolm the WG-2 has really taken off in that market.

Pentax Ricoh Imaging Americas Corp. is the retail imaging and optics division. It currently markets the WG-3 line of weather resistant compact cameras.

Thanks, folks. This is good news. Even though it means that it's now almost impossible to extract the performance of the camera division from the rest of the company, at least it means that a 90/10 home/overseas split isn't the case. I've changed my posts accordingly, although I'm still not sure that the split is all that near Canonikon levels; if it were, Pentax would not be so focused on their home market, imho, and passing up huge places like India where they aren't represented at present, I believe.

[derekkite]

The D7100 is almost great. IQ wise and AF it is very nice. Quick and accurate, and the detail available from the non AA and higher density pixels is very nice for wildlife shooting. But the buffer size is awful, for me and probably for many others who would seriously consider it, takes it out of contention.

A friend has one, shoots wildlife and birds. He had a D7000 and uses the very nice Nikkor 300 2.8 VR with extenders. The better low light AF lets him get fast and accurate focus with his 2x extender. With the 300 he catches small birds in flight. Very impressive. His 2x extender is in for service and he is finding that he can crop and maintain detail to an exceptional degree.

But the small buffer is inadequate for this type of shooting. I had an osprey riding the wind down vertically onto the female the other day. 5-6 shots isn't enough to catch what is happening. Nikon is saying that if you need more, spend $3k+ for a better body. I'll wait for the next Pentax.

BTW, he was using a good quality SD card, the thing would take 5-6 shots then one per second roughly. I use the Extreme Pro Sandisk card which improves the K-5 on recovery. He tried it in his D7100 and after the 5-6 shots it slows down to about 2 per second. It is an improvement.

I noted that the 7100 has the cheap plasticy feel of the Canons.

[johnmflores]

As for 7DII - don't be funny...Do you really think that K-5 competes with Canon 7D? Do you really think that Pentax cameras competes with Canon cameras?

I say about other things.... If even K-5II is better in IQ than Canon cameras, it means nothing. K-5II is not the competitor to Canon or Nikon camera on the market.

So let me get this straight - you state that the K-5 doesn't compete with the 7D. A Canon and Pentax shooter says otherwise, yet you still say that the K-5 doesn't compete. You seem to be pretty prejudiced against Pentax cameras. You really should look at another brand. Life is too short. Get a brand that you can be proud of owning and be happy.

[ogl]

So let me get this straight - you state that the K-5 doesn't compete with the 7D. A Canon and Pentax shooter says otherwise, yet you still say that the K-5 doesn't compete. You seem to be pretty prejudiced against Pentax cameras. You really should look at another brand. Life is too short. Get a brand that you can be proud of owning and be happy.

Is it hard for you to be Pentax fan?

Pentax never compete with Canon and Nikon. It's fact and nothing else. There are TWO reasons.
First. Pentax is dwarf in front of Canon and Nikon. The market share of Pentax is very low and it was always very low.
The production capabilities of Pentax is very modest.
Second. There are no real competition between Japanese camera-makers. Just some kind of simulation of competition.

I'm happy with my photo tools. My advice - try to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff

[johnmflores]

Is it hard for you to be Pentax fan?

Pentax never compete with Canon and Nikon. It's fact and nothing else. There are TWO reasons.
First. Pentax is dwarf in front of Canon and Nikon. The market share of Pentax is very low and it was always very low.
The production capabilities of Pentax is very modest.
Second. There are no real competition between Japanese camera-makers. Just some kind of simulation of competition.

I'm happy with my photo tools. My advice - try to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff

I'm glad to hear that you are happy with your photo tools. I was doubtful because you repeatedly state that Pentax cannot compete. But by your last statement I understand it to mean competition in the marketplace, not in the product. That's ok and understandable.

I'm happy with my Pentax kit. I root for the brand because they make good products, but I am not married to them. First priority is the tools to meet my needs. That's why I also shoot Micro Four-Thirds, Nikon 1, Panasonic LX7, Contour, Drift, etc...

[Kobayashi.K]

If I may interfere in this discussion ...

I hope that the K3 (whatever it may be) has the same built quality as the K5-II, and with the same minimalist design, albeit a bit more modern, perhaps like the Q-10.
That would distinguish it from the competition, because the Canons and Nikons are very plasticy indeed (derekkite) and they have a vague blobby appearance.

[Kunzite]

Where are new K-mount limited and stars primes and zooms, FF camera, new Pentax APS-C mirrorless system and GXR modules? New flashes?
You are so optimistic - you should know ALL.
Where are all this magiс toys for big boys? Mr. Optimist, tell us - where did they hide all this tasty things?

Don't know, not now, won't tell you (you see, there are few things I don't know )

No toys - nothing to discuss and nothing to talk.

Don't talk, then.

The difference is negligible and not visible in output, as DXO states in text.
However, it doesn't strike me as the best job in Pentax dept.
I think the GR was rushed through the gate by Ricoh. To me, it does not look like a 100% market ready camera. They needed at least 2-3 months of fine tuning but I believe they did not want to fall too far behind the Coolpix A and let Nikon define that market niche. Releasing it now, and lowering the price to alleviate for small glitches and attract immediate attention, I believe was a calculated risk.

Which glitches?

[Uluru]

Which glitches?

AF performance, sensor noise, and the fact they have emphasised and promised that upgrades to many details will come through the future firmware.

[Winder]

AF performance, sensor noise, and the fact they have emphasised and promised that upgrades to many details will come through the future firmware.

Fuji has been averaging a firmware update every 3 months with it X-mount system. Sadly this is not uncommon, and is some ways good. Fuji has been listening to its customers and making changes and improvements.

[Digitalis]

Fuji has been listening to its customers and making changes and improvements.

If they had gotten things right in the first place they wouldn't have to have made so many concurrent updates and "improvements". After having used a Fuji X-Pro 1 and the 35mm f/1.4 for the past week, I can't wait to hand the camera back to the guy I borrowed it from. I agree with Falk Lumo here - the x-trans sensor is a crude solution to a complex problem. The hybrid viewfinder is good - not as clear as a Leica M, which is disappointing because Fuji EBC coatings are allegedly the best in the photographic optics industry.The battery life is what really bugs me with the X-Pro 1, my 645D and K5IIs beats it, the S2 beats it, the nikon D4 beats it. Even my Leica Monochrom has better battery life*


* Though it is still shorter than any of the DSLR cameras I own, which strikes me as a bit odd because RF cameras don't have a mirror mechanism flipping up and down and the fewer moving parts in a camera the less battery drain there is supposed to be...right?

[ogl]

Fuji X is too special system with a lot of marketing efforts without any real advantages. It's the attempt of Fuji's surviving on photo market.
To say honest, that's not to my taste.

[the swede]

though, both the X100s and XE-1 seems to sell pretty well

[Kunzite]

AF performance, sensor noise, and the fact they have emphasised and promised that upgrades to many details will come through the future firmware.

I'd say the AF performance is quite good, at least in decent light (some say it's slower in low light). I'm not sure what's wrong with the noise, could you point to some examples?

About firmware updates. I can't see why it's a bad thing. Of course, there's the "get it right in the first place", but unless you're talking about nasty bugs or missing essential or promised features, that saying holds little value. Try to do everything that's possible in a software product and you'll never finish it.
But I'm sure Nikon would've been happy if Ricoh would still be working on the GR

[bvg]

the less battery drain there is supposed to be

Maybe EVF or image processing drain battery intensively (like in Sigma's DP...Ms).