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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-30-2018, 05:04 AM
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KP Mark II? In effect, whatever it is called. With latest electronics, better shutter and mirror assembly, better buffer, revised grip and bigger battery (maybe)? That would basically give a K1 but about one-third smaller and tie in with recent statements along the lines of "If you like the K1 ..."
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-01-2018, 12:06 PM
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It’s hard to know who to believe, if anyone.
The Photokina interview: No comment and we’re trending to putting things on hold while we see where the market is going.
Their Pentax colleague in Germany: Yes, a tasty new APS-C with features a K1 owner would want is a great idea (by implication).
Asahi Man: It’s mainly all focusing on the FF line these days and in “two classes” of it.
Take your pick. It’s hard to see how they could all be true. I’d bet on a centenary 24mpx FF over APS-C.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-18-2018, 06:50 AM
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Chris, we are pretty well on the same page here. My experience with an 80-300mm equiv on M43 is that sensor performance becomes an issue in fading light. And a lot of wildlife is on view in fading light, in shadows and so on. On an E-M1 I can get good results at up to ISO 2000 or so but only with careful technique, wide open aperture and resorting to DxO PhotoLab which has superior noise and micro-contrast controls over Adobe. I’m picky, though. Others might push much higher. Point though for me is not to overspend given this ceiling. Maybe a new sensor next year will push M43 comfortably into real quality at ISO 3200, say. Yes, the features from a mirrorless approach are good to have. Still a limited envelope on M43 though. Fine for me, since “compact but fully featured” is my fave niche, and once a Pentax one too, but I’m no pro.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-18-2018, 06:22 AM
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Well, just be aware that rumours are all we have and it’s very easy to be persuaded by camera chatter that paying improbably large sums of money is somehow “worth it”. A new Oly flagship and say their 300mm f4 would still be eye-wateringly expensive. Yes, much less than the FF eqivalent but a say D500 and suitable telephoto would likely cost no more, probably less, and the sensor would likely yield a stop more performance to play with. I greatly admire Oly kit but horses for courses, imho. What Oly probably lack most is a long zoom, like say 100-350mm. That would be my bet. Chances are quite high that a new high-end cam will be more for the video crowd but of course that’s all rumours too. Pentax have never been the obvious choice for wildlifing and to be fair they’ve never tried to claim they are. If they did a deal for one of the 150-600mm lenses they could start to make a plausible case, however ...
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-18-2018, 03:26 AM
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Yes, that is the betting but at this stage all rumours too.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-16-2018, 09:59 AM
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You mean like the forthcoming 50mm f1.4? That's way too large and costly for APS-C, I would think. If you mean a range of slightly smaller and less costly lenses of an f1.8 kind, then I agree but that's not what they seem to be doing ...
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-16-2018, 01:34 AM
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I’d guess that the growth of mirrorless will make APS-C on DSLR increasingly difficult financially for a smaller player and even more tricky financially for those revised screwdrive lenses you mention. One can see why Ricoh are looking harder at FF these days where this does not apply to anything like the same extent, or not yet. I doubt there is time, now, for a multi-year lens refresh on APS-C. The period needed to recoup the capital outlay of revising all the DA Limited lenses, say, just isn't likely to be there. Maybe better to earmark the money for a new mount come mirrorless option or accept a rundown towards much more modest sales on crop DSLRs. The way the market is changing must all be a very difficult challenge for Ricoh’s financial planners. I would expect a basic set of new or improved zooms on APS-C K-mount, like the recently announced 11-18mm or the not-so-old 16-85mm, but not a flush of modern crop-format primes for the K mount. New primes would have to share with the FF venture. We'll see.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-05-2018, 04:09 AM
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Well, Pentax has been valued for years for what one might call cameras made by and for photographers. I'm sure their teams greatly like and respect the DSLR form factor, and obviously they are expert in it, but at the same time I am sure they are pragmatic people, If the need to change a bit is there, they will change what they do. After all, in the 645 series, the Q and the GR they've already shown they can make cameras in other form factors which are as good as the best of them. It's nothing they haven't done before. In fact, Canon, Nikon and Pentax are almost the only camera companies which haven't substantially reinvented themselves over the past 10-15 years. To me, what would be remarkable is if they don't change a bit, not if they do.
One could argue that if things continue with cameras moving up the market and the whole thing becoming more and more exclusive, then some companies won't be in the camera business at all but in the luxury brands game. I guess Leica and perhaps Hasselblad and Phase One are already there. Very different rules for that game. No more boxes piled high in chain stores, etc. Who wants to buy a beautifully-made 2000-note lens in the same place which sells toasters and boomboxes? I'd be surprised if some of the camera companies aren't at least looking at this scenario too.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-04-2018, 03:51 PM
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That view might need to be revisited in the light of one word: Asia.
Look at the stats over recent years. It’s clear that Asia has become the principal market driver in the camera world. And as I’ve said, it is not either/or anyway but both: asking Asian companies (which includes Japan) to walk by what will soon be half the Asian market for cameras isn’t a flier. They would be walking past the next generations of camera buyers. So those DSLR companies which want to survive will offer both. Canon as good as acknowledged this in their recent financial report when they said intend to “maintain sales growth, driven by mirrorless cameras where double-digit sales growth continues.” It’s just good old capitalism following the market and, tbh, completely unremarkable. And if the market changes, so astute companies will change their mix of products. They’re not really in the DSLR business or in the mirrorless business. It’s not a marriage. They’re simply in business. If the world changes so will they.
I fully expect Ricoh’s next APS-C camera to be a DSLR but I don’t think they can kick this can down the road much longer, not if they want to stay in the game.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-04-2018, 11:57 AM
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Try this for size:
Asian women get their closeup in new push for Japanese cameras- Nikkei Asian Review
The press release for the new Fujifilm X-A5 is full of code words - user-friendly, easy, touchpanel, enhancer, affordable, quick, fun, lightweight, comfortable, etc. It comes in a choice of three colours (two are pastel-ish) and is offered with a power zoom. No EVF, just the rear screen.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-04-2018, 11:22 AM
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A fair opinion obviously, but mine is that concentrating 100 per cent on DSLRs will put Pentax out of business eventually. Even if they reduced down to a single FF camera and more or less dumped APS-C, the DSLR market will become too tough and constrained for a niche player on the side. It is simply shrinking year by year. Somehow, Ricoh have to navigate a changeover period of a few years - still with DSLRs for their traditional customers for sure but with the new-gen stuff building and gradually coming through for the new wave of future customers. It doesn’t have to be either/or, and none of us knows what Ricoh really want from their imaging division anyway.
So, yes to a good new APS-C DSLR in 2018 but if Ricoh spokesmen rule out mirrorless in the not very distant future, I would take it as a warning that Ricoh are looking for an out of some kind.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-04-2018, 03:29 AM
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Yes, it looks as if today cameras like the Canon M6, Olympus Pens and Fuji A series are appealing to that market just as the Q did back in the day, with the sensor and controls of the period. A new-generation Q++ would be right in among those cameras - much larger sensor, modern video, etc. There are opportunities in mirrorless that don’t involve immediate conflict with K mount. Once one has a really sorted new mount one can switch targets using body styles and feature sets - this one for younger women, that one for the vlogging crowd, another one for ye olde crusties etc etc. For Ricoh, it’s a missed opportunity I think.
Keep a hand in both camps and see what the market says. Putting every single egg in the DSLR basket is much riskier than it was.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-31-2018, 05:05 PM
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I’m curious how you can be so absolutely certain that mirrorless will play no significant part in Ricoh’s future and that there will be a successor to the K3II in the sense of a similar kind of flagship with all the mod cons? Many might feel that the arrival of the KP and the technological change now moving through the industry make either not quite the racing certainty. For sure Pentax will issue more DSLRs but ruling anything else out sounds a tad radical. The general idea seems to be adapters for mirrorless to bridge any changeover period (Canon and Nikon approach one guesses, to an extent also Sony) between mounts.
Do you have some kind of inside track here which means you just kind of know? Maybe an industry connection of some kind which means you know a bit more than the rest of us? Or this your personal opinion only, just like mine? My view is that mix of forms would be welcome and might, in fact, bring some former users back into the fold.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-31-2018, 06:04 AM
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Lol, I think we all know what you’re up to ;) But don’t worry, I really don’t mind. The irony is that Ricoh already have successful form on mirrorless in the Q and the GR, so the alleged horror at taking this further on APS-C is a really just special pleading, imho.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-31-2018, 04:00 AM
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Lol, I wonder whether anyone really still believes this endless maskirovka.
But hey don’t take my word for it. Just read Canon’s latest financial report where they say they intend to “maintain sales growth, driven by mirrorless cameras where double-digit sales growth continues”. Follow the money.
The best results clearly now come from a mix of the two types. No one is saying it’s an either/or game so why pretend it is? If Ricoh switched Aps-c to mostly (and eventually all) mirrorless in the near future I doubt it would be thought a big surprise. And it would be seen as going all-in.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-31-2018, 02:41 AM
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If Ricoh started out on a larger-format line of MILCs (perhaps in partnership with another outfit/platform), it would be a signal that they are prepared to get stuck in for a long while and really do want to play their part in the photography industry. Their present course - pretty slow development on mirrorbox - sends out out the signal that a certain amount of bet-hedging is going on, and that Ricoh could be gone at any time. I happen to prefer mirrorless and am sure it is the future of the industry. I realise that some folks don’t agree with either view, but to me this is a matter of confidence in the brand. Confidence is key to me. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-16-2018, 03:14 AM
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I’d guess the driver here would be how badly Ricoh want to stay in consumer imaging. Or maybe at least on the basis of offering system cameras where the mount is everything rather than fixed-lens cameras of the kind they used to do before they acquired Pentax.
If Canon and Nikon go big on mirrorless in 2018 then Ricoh might feel they have little choice but to join them. The market would quickly look very different and the decline in DSLR sales would most likely accelerate. That might soon leave a base of sales too low to sustain even a small DSLR-only house. And most true on Ricoh’s home turf in Asia and Japan where mirrorless has been doing best.
There may even be some good old amour propre in play. I’m sure Ricoh also want to be and to be seen to be cutting edge. That argues for more kickass modern products (think Theta), not more traditional ones. Otherwise the branding and publicity factor in being in consumer things at all starts to backfire.
It’s also very likely Ricoh do have huge expertise in modern automated assembly from all their other operations. Perhaps Sony, Canon et al don’t have any advantage over Ricoh in this regard.
I completely take the point about investment and return. But without the will to be in a market in the first place, the money doesn’t mean much.
Chances are we’ll know by the end of 2018.
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