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Forum: Ricoh GR
04-12-2024, 05:52 AM
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Ricoh has released new firmware for the GRIII cameras.
GRIII Latest GR III Firmware Update : Software Downloads | RICOH IMAGING
GRIIIx Latest GR IIIx Firmware Update : Software Downloads | RICOH IMAGING
- Added "Custom 1," "Custom 2," and "Custom 3" as options for white balance settings.
Combine the basic white balance settings with white balance fine-tuning to register up to three custom white balance settings.
- Added "Zone Select AF" as an option in the focus selection menu.
Freely move the 3x3 focus area and automatically focus on the appropriate position within the area.
This adds the firmware additions that were added to the HDF cameras to the standard GR models. Of course it has nothing to do with the HDF filter itself, which is a physical change.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-10-2024, 02:17 PM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-06-2024, 05:04 PM
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Just for information, and taking Map Camera Tokyo as an example, the 150-450/4.5-5.6 costs JPY 196,440 new including the 10% tax. This is 1,194.55 Euros at the current rate. Map Camera may be able to organize a tax refund of that 10% at the airport.
The used price is JPY 174,900 including tax. That would be 1,063.39 Euros. Note that even as a used item it comes with a 1-year warranty. Of course, you would not be able to use this easily, but it shows the confidence of the shop in the condition of their used products.
I'm not sure what customs or VAT you would pay at the EU end, but the yen rate is very favorable these days.
STORE GUIDE?Map Camera SHINJYUKU TOKYO
This is probably the best place to go because they are used to dealing with foreigners and tax refunds. Prices won't be much better, even if you spend your time hunting around in other shops.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-30-2024, 07:05 PM
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I decided to look into this on some different Japanese websites, and I found out the following.
- The J-Limited 01 camera is now officially moved to the discontinued list on Ricoh Website, but some retailers still have limited stock of individual colors. The most commonly available colour is Scarlet rouge. Ricoh themselves still have limited stock of all colors available except black.
- The K-3 III is not discontinued on Ricoh's website, but that makes sense because they don't discontinue individual colors or kits. Ricoh has all colors available of all kits.
- The K-3 III (black) is listed as a model currently in production by all online stores I can find, except Yaotomi Camera, but even Yaotomi still has stock. When you look on the Kakaku.com price comparison website, it's clear that the silver has better availability than black, but even black is available at 18 different retailers still.
- The K-3 III & 20-40 kit (black) is listed as out of production at most camera stores, but most of them have stock. Kakaku.com has this available at 14 stores, so it's availability is waning a little.
So I don't think this is quite as clear at the initial post makes it.
A few other points:
- Yaotomi is an unusually chatty retailer (via X). They often repeat what their suppliers tell them to customers. I think this is marketing to some extent. They are a small camera shop and this works to keep them in the public eye. I also think they do this as a kind of incentive to "buy while stocks last". So I trust that they were told this but it might be crossed wires or very premature to reveal.
- There have been cases in the past where products were discontinued with one "JAN" number (some kind of Japanese product identifier), and the exact same thing appeared with a different JAN number. An example was a few years ago when most of the 645 ens line-up was showing up twice with different numbers, with the old one discounted a little for clearance. I'm not talking about products that were HD updates of SMC lenses. It was exactly the same thing. I'm not sure if that might happen here, but anyway I think it's too early to say much without more retailers or Ricoh saying the product is discontinued.
- Finally, if you go trying to read the tea leaves too much, you might not like the picture that you mind creates. According to Ricoh's website, all versions the K-3 III are still current. So until something more concrete is said, probably best to take them at face value.
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Forum: Ricoh GR
03-27-2024, 06:36 PM
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Forum: Ricoh GR
03-27-2024, 04:48 PM
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-27-2024, 07:21 AM
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Another thought is that if they want to introduce an updated version, the improvements could be entirely internal, like buffer, accelerator, firmware functions, etc. This would allow them to do an upgrade service again.
From the way Pentax people talked about the K-1 upgrade, they seemed to say it was a big success and that they were really proud they made it happen.
If you can't find many more customers, getting the existing ones to pay for an upgrade is a way to proceed.
In fact, the main project leader for the K-1 and K-1 II was Shigeru Wakashiro, and the upgrade was his idea. He also led the K-3 III project and he is now in charge of all Pentax development. So it may depend how invested he is in this idea.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-26-2024, 06:41 PM
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They never said that. If you’re not sure, watch the video again. They said, they plan to continue doing both digital and film. Didn’t specifically say that one wouldn’t affect the other.
---------- Post added 03-27-24 at 01:43 AM ----------
Also, in Japan they only ever sold the Jet Black edition through the crowdfunding site, so the retailers now showing the discontinued standard black model would never have been selling Jet Black in the first place.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-26-2024, 03:57 PM
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Thank you for this information. It made sense that if the monochrome was made there, the standard model would follow at some point. Congratulations on the camera. I love mine - solved all my frustrations.
This and the recent suspension of GR III orders makes me think that Ricoh is rearranging their production in Vietnam quite significantly. Of course the film camera is one possibility if they make it in house. But they also have other products that we expect to appear.
This is pure speculation as usual, but I wonder whether GR III production will be moved out. It would be in line with the gradual but consistent policy over the last few years of separating GR from Pentax. Until 2018 all GR models had been made in another Ricoh factory in China. They moved to Vietnam for the GR III and GR IIIx but those models have been more popular than expected and in short supply the whole time.
So my thought is that Ricoh might move production off the GR back to China, leaving Pentax more space at the Vietnam plant, now that they no longer have the Philippines plant.
It will be very interesting to see where the next generation of cameras are made, with the film camera in the next few months. I say “interesting”. But it’s admittedly a really geeky interest.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-26-2024, 06:28 AM
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I think this means that Ricoh had a certain amount of K-3 III units and they have run out of the black ones first, meaning they formally state that it's out of production. So pretty soon the notified retailers won't be able get any more black ones, but there will be silver stock for while longer. I expect the K-3 III to disappear from retailers in a couple of months in Japan at least.
A couple more guesses about why.
- Perhaps this is related to the fact that the colour K-3 III was made in the Philippines. The Philippines factory is said to have closed down, but weirdly all main models still come with "Made in the Philippines" on the bottom, with only the monochrome being made in Vietnam. Has anyone seen a colour model with Vietnam on the sticker? At some point the Philippines models will logically run out and they will start to make colour ones in Vietnam, but when it comes it will be a slightly revised model, like the K-70 to KF.
- Perhaps they have planned all along to alternate between making high-end models and mid-level models. So they planned to make the K-3 II for a few years, then the KP, then the K-3 III, now possible a "KP2"?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-10-2024, 09:41 PM
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I think to some extent some things happen in Japan exclusively just because Pentax is so small that they don’t have the staff overseas to replicate it. I think the J-Limited cameras are a good example of a product that wasn’t offered overseas. In fairness, looking at the dismissive reaction to that camera from the international camera press, you can understand why they concluded it wouldn’t work in other countries.
In fact, there are a few cases of it working the other way. I remember wanting the silver version of the K-01, but it was never released in Japan. Also, the MX-1 camera was released in silver and black versions overseas, but only one was ever sold here. I think it was the black one. But generally the special items are available in Japan first and sometimes exclusively.
As for Grad ND, I think that is very odd. At first I thought they were just testing the concept of paid upgrades in Japan, and concluded it wasn’t viable. But now the OM Systems OM-1 Mark II has come out with a very similar feature, and I’m wondering whether there is some patent issue going on behind the scenes.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-10-2024, 04:50 PM
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Just to be clear, the comment about an FA35 Classic was nothing more than a speculation by me. I’m not aware of any rumor of this from any source.
And I’m not sure why you think the Classic was for “Japanese” artists. It’s available worldwide, and there is no reason to believe Pentax is targeting Japanese photographers specifically. Chris’s Nicholls (YouTube guy) is most definitely not Japanese and he gave it a very positive review.
---------- Post added 03-11-24 at 12:02 AM ----------
I think it’s good that Pentax upgraded the coatings on the FA lenses and retained them in the lineup. Those lenses are the almighty ones in terms of compatibility.
- They cover full frame and APS-C
- When used on APS-C, they are reasonably sized
- Aperture works on digital cameras before the K-3
- Focus works on any Pentax AF camera
- They can be used on all past film K-mount cameras in manual
- If Pentax makes a film SLR, the lenses will be compatible with that
- They can be easily adapted to Mirrorless cameras with a simple adapter because of the aperture ring
Add to this that they are some of the best value lenses you can get for any system now.
If they were “upgraded” to the spec of say the DFA 21/2.4 Ltd, they would lose most of this compatibility, probably get bigger and certainly more expensive.
And as for them not showing the potential of current cameras, I certainly don’t believe that. I was able to borrow a K-1 II and the SMC FA 35 and FA77 lenses produced results every bit as good as the latest lenses on that body.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-02-2024, 04:34 PM
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This camera is quite elusive. Even though I've been aware of it from seeing images online, I've never seen an MF-1 in any second hand stores. Perhaps it was not very popular or too prone to failure. I didn't know about the sensor behind the filter, which is a nice trick.
I remember soon after coming to Japan I was looking for a camera. I ended up getting a Pentax Espio 140M because the GR-1 at JPY 90,000+ was way more than I could afford at the time. If this camera had been out at that price, I would have gone for it.
It seems to have cost just JPY 35,000, which is very reasonable.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-02-2024, 08:35 AM
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Ever since TKO first announced the project, he has talked about an affordable compact, a high-end compact and then possibly SLR models. I've been very curious to see what would be the compromises on the affordable model.
Given the information in the video and other recent communications, it seems they have not compromised on the amount of manual control or the lens. Rather, the compromises seem to be the fact that it's half frame and the lack of electronic sophistication.
There are plenty of unknowns left. We don't know what material the body is made of, whether it has a flash and the price. If they haven't changed their minds since last summer, the mechanism inside should be metal.
Actually, the camera they are describing sounds higher end than I was expecting. I'm very intrigued. If you were hoping for a full frame model, I'm pretty sure that is one of the principle ways in which the high-end model will differentiate itself.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-02-2024, 04:40 AM
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My camera has a vertical frame orientation, but I want to shoot a horizontal shot. What on earth could be the solution?
If anyone can post the solution to this intractable problem, I'd be forever grateful.
Really . . .
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-29-2024, 02:56 PM
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It looks legitimate to me. It uses a survey tool Ricoh has used numerous times before. It is the same question set they used two weeks ago in Japan for a survey via their online store login. The questions don’t ask for much personal information, just age range. It has been promoted on official social media channels.
As for whether it’s a Ricoh Imaging or specifically Pentax survey, I think this comes from the Pentax side and will be seen by Pentax staff. I say that because the Japanese survey has “About Pentax products” in the title.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-28-2024, 03:49 PM
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I had a quick look at the questions. It’s basically the same survey Ricoh has been doing in Japan over the past couple of weeks. Good that they are asking internationally this time.
Actually, they had a previous survey in Japan just about the WG series a year or so ago. It seems like they are really considering an upscale model.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-24-2024, 09:23 PM
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So as I mentioned, I attended the GR Live event on Friday. I was hoping to get some inspiration, because despite loving the GR III, I have not been using it a lot recently. I wanted to see what kind of work more experienced photographers and what I should aspire to myself.
The event was very well attended. I think there must have been at least 200 people there. There were a few non-Japanese like me, but I assume they are residents who speak Japanese. There was quite a nice cross-section of ages and more women that at most typical photography events. They have done this kind of event before, but this specific “Live” event was last done a couple of years ago.
The program consisted of some music, presentations from photographers and the amateur “fan” presentations. I won’t go into the fan presentations, but they were actually quite well done. Some of them were really humorous in the way they presented. Most of these fans were chosen after attending one of the GR Meet events around the country.
The pro photographers were as follows. They each spoke for about 10 minutes. I personally liked Suzuki-san’s, Ohwada-san’s and Adachi-san’s best.
Kyosuke Hamao ?GRist?Vol.63 Kyosuke Hamao | GR official | RICOH official community site
A former actor who quit to pursue design as a career.
Tatsuo Suzuki tatsuosuzuki – VoidTokyo
A street photographer, who shares some ground with Daido Moriyama, but his work contains more of an element of portraiture.
Ryo Ohwada ? ???
Seems to have a lot of snap photography in his portfolio, but this time he was showing mainly snow landscapes taken with the GR IIIx.
Robert Adachi Robert Adachi Official Website
Seems to do abstract, still life, cityscapes and landscapes. He is also a musician and was the MC and DJ for the event.
Yusuke Okawa YUSUKE OKAWA - Portfolio
A Youtuber who uses a GR III for stills.
Takahiko Nakafuji TAKEHIKO NAKAFUJI | photographer
A seasoned street photographer. This time he was presenting images of a rock band which seems to be where his career started.
After that there was a discussion between photographer Satoru Watanabe and two other people who work related to the animation house Studio Ghibli. One of them worked with the famous anime director Hayao Miyazaki on his latest film “The Boy and the Heron”. He had used the GR to take candid shots of Miyazaki-san at work during production, some of which he showed.
In addition to this, at various points, there were comments from Ricoh staff. It does seem that the cameras are genuinely very popular at the moment, and the main challenge is just meeting demand. They were quite clear that no new products would be release at the event.
One interesting part was the global marketing guy who showed the scale of events being done outside Japan. In particular, they have tons of events in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea. They also showed photos of well-attended events in the US and Europe.
It seems that the way they decide where to hold events based on the number of GR photos tagged with the specified city hashtag. That would be (for example) #shootGR_Helsinki . So if you are interested in having Ricoh events in your city, that is a way to register your interest in a way Ricoh will notice.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-23-2024, 06:23 AM
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Just to avoid misquoting, here is what was actually said about the lens.
Iikawa: I can’t go into details (laughs). We wanted to make it a little different from the lenses that have been designed to maximize performance. This is because that is what we learned from looking at the photos of the young people. The point is how to use the tools, and what is available at the time is used well. And the person’s personality comes out in the way he or she uses it. So rather than just making a lens that takes beautiful pictures, we would like to make one that has a certain flavor.
So as you said, if it were to be a lens shared with a GR model, it would have to be something different from the current models. However. I’m skeptical that there is any collaboration between Pentax and the GR team on this. I think designing a lens with flaws in it would be against the GR’s philosophy.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-23-2024, 05:43 AM
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Pentax said they would have a low end compact and then a high end compact. After that they would do an SLR. They also said in one of the interviews that the lens on the first one would be a one geared towards character not precision (don’t remember the exact words). They said the winding mechanism they have developed for the first camera was designed in such a way that it could be applied to an SLR in future. And the interviewee who saw the prototype said there was a lot of manual control.
So when I think about what would differentiate the cheap compact from the high end compact, I come back to the lens and the half frame distinction makes sense too.
I think the first camera may be half frame with mostly manual control of all shooting parameters. It’ll have a relatively slow lens.
The second camera will share a lot with the first, but be full frame and have a much better lens. It might be built of better materials.
The third camera will be an SLR with a the same film winding mechanism as the compact cameras.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-23-2024, 02:41 AM
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Not broadcast on the internet. I think ooku means brand promotion. I’m there now at the intermission. It’s quite a big event with lots of attendees. The photographer presentations have been really interesting so far. They specifically said at the beginning the rumors of a product announcement are wrong. I don’t think anyone here was really expecting that.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-19-2024, 06:40 AM
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It might not be the most obvious choice with an APS-C sensor. It would probably be too bulky. However, Ricoh did use to have the GX series, which was quite a nice camera. An updated version of that would be welcome, but it probably couldn't be described as a variant of the GR III.
I don't know if anyone remembers the DL18-50 that Nikon started marketing and then never released. It has an 18-50mm equivalent lens and an aperture range of f1.8-2.8 on a "one-inch" sensor with excellent ergonomics.
This was shown at CP+ one year and I was lucky enough to be able to try it out. It was really nice and I think they were short-sighted to cancel it. I guess they did so because the trend at the time was away from compact cameras. But now we have a situation where the priced of such cameras new and used are rising, so such a camera might work.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-18-2024, 07:57 PM
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If it’s based on the GR III, the options would be:
- Another focal length, such 21mm equivalent (they had the GR 21 in the film days)
- A GR with a zoom lens (it would be big, but they did a very sharp APS-C zoom unit for GXR)
- A GR with an M-Mount (they did an M-Mount unit for GXR too)
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-18-2024, 04:22 PM
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I’m a bit concerned that false hype is building up around this event. Ricoh has held this event (same venue and similar program) few times and it was not related to any specific product announcement.
In terms of rumors of products, I haven’t seen any specific rumors. There was just a vague comment at the end of video on an official GR YouTube channel that implied something was coming. I tend to believe this because otherwise why would they even release the video without cutting that. But no particular information to suggest what or when.
I can say that two wishful rumors are highly unlikely to happen.
1. The Pentax film camera will be a GR. The whole project is under the auspices of Pentax not Ricoh and these days they are separate divisions.
2. A monochrome GR. A recent magazine interview with Ricoh made this sound almost impossible. The problem is that a monochrome sensor, if available, is much more expensive. The GR’s sensor doesn’t have a monochrome variant. But even if it did, there would be another problem. The GR’s sensor is heavily customized anyway to work with the lens. So to develop a GR monochrome work would involve customization on top of customizations and be ridiculously expensive.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-18-2024, 05:09 AM
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I would be pretty surprised if a new camera was released next Friday because it's a national holiday, so not a working day for most news outlets. On top of that, it's one of the days of CP+, so any journalists working are likely to be there.
I guess it's possible that Ricoh could release something during next week, and then this event would be a kind of showcase. There was a big hint that some GR-related release is coming from the interview last year, but I still think it's a bit of a long shot for next week.
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