Kobie Maybe the reason why Pentax has older photographers is the older photographers avoid all the marketing hipe and dont buy the newest latest mirrorless cameras. i DSLR cameras are still capable cameras. If you want a roughed weather sealed camera Pentax is considered having the best weather sealing. They should market to outdoors people like Subaru does. You can photograph all day on one battery just what a outdoors person wants
@sdhute You're not crazy. The KF is excellent. The refined K70, a camera that rewards a sound skill-set. Those who can only see it as having 'old technology' miss the point entirely. For them ,there a plethora of mirrorless point an shoot camcorders on offer. The KF is an example of high quality and value for money. One of the best SLR all rounders I've come across . A truly rewarding experience.
They have a path to succees - Leica. Offer a modern film SLR, align the DSLR business with that. Younger people LOVE FILM. It would be mind-blowing level stupid to ignore the success of the P17. Mirror body lines, offer a film GR, continue the P17 line, and offer a modern SLT film body similar to the K1. Go mirrorless but re-use the same body, lenses, etc., so that the SLR and mirrorless are similar, just like the Leica M series. For mirrorless autofocus and video tech, license it from OM Systems - they're on their way out anyway.
Leica does loads of stuff that is quite mainstream (Panasonic lenses, L mount, Xiaomi stuff...)...they do dont live and die by the rangefinder...idk how Ricoh could emulate that...perhaps weathersealed printers or pentax branded foodstuffs like OM Systems is doing
@kalinmir It's only fairly recently that the L mount alliance came into being. For ages now Leica has existed as a luxury brand making unique products that are often technologically inferior and always for overpriced. I personally believe that embracing the luxury camera market is the path forward for Pentax. More "Limited" lenses, abandon crop sensor, a high-end film SLR body and digital body that uses the same lenses. Two digital lines, a lower resolution and a higher, along with a monochrome version of the lower. Make a system that is a cult classic, a status symbol.
Going SLT they might as well go mirrorless while retaining the body format. There is no real advantage to SLT these days with how good on-sensor AF has become. The one advantage to a pellicle mirror design would ne the optical viewfinder but it takes a hit from the translucancy and so can't match a normal mirrorflipper or an EVF.
@oblivion_007 No. A shorter flange distance provided by mirrorless allows for smaller lenses - it is not a technical requirement. If you want to share lenses between a film SLR and a mirrorless camera, K mount is perfectly fine. vIt provides the electronics and mechanicals both, so that you can use the old film lenses without issue.
Be bold, daring. Yes, it will upset the "purists", I'm in this age group... But. Hear me out GRIII, but with the K-AF mount. And not a "crippled" mount... Make a better, modern version of the K-01. That camera missed the mark by just a little. But it had so much potential...
Different market, different customers and different product quality. The only similar aspect on current Ricoh cameras is the price tag. But all they are offering is old neglected and severely overpriced system.
I’ve bought 3 Pentax DSLRs and own the K-3 still, but also own a complete Nikon Z system including the Z8 and Zf. I’m just hoping Pentax could surpass the D850 for full frame DSLR and I’ll be happy to buy another. For now I’m waiting patiently. I tried the K-33 but found the AF was not quite there compared with my D-750. I’ve got time so I hope Pentax gets there when they do and I’ll be happy to add a K-1 iii and some limited primes. The Monochrome was a fun experience that left me wishing a GRIII M existed.
In 2014 we were told by Pentax that they won't go into FF, but in 2016 they did. Off course, 2024 isn't the right year to promote DSLR and Pentax K, but 2025 will be. 50 years of K-Mount will give Pentax additional promotion.
Pentax hat es verschlafen und nun sind sie raus. Nochmal neu zu starten, wäre mit unglaublichem Invest und dem dazugehörigen hohen Risiko verbunden, dass es nicht klappt. Der Kameramarkt ist schwierig und wird immer noch schwieriger. Ich glaube nicht an ein Come back, lass mich aber gern überraschen.
At the moment I just wait for a new 50-135 or 60-250... But after that unfortunately, unless they release something like 200-600mm with optical stabilization, I probably will look for a mirrorless alternative just for wildlife (eye af, stab, modern 600mm).
ABIG zoom would be awesome, and likely way beyond my budget. I still use an old Tamron SP 200-500 f5.6 zoom from the late 80s. I frequently pair it with the Pentax AF 1.7X adapter. Is as light and crisp and fast as a new lens? NOPE... But with the Adaptall II Pentax KA mount, it functions like an A series lens on all my Pentax bodies... That said, I do have a Nikon D3300, and will likely find more affordable big lenses for it, as more people switch to the Nikon Z series... Sadly, I cannot readily use my old Tamron lenses on that series Nikon. But still choose my Pentax cameras over that Nikon.
I'm also waiting for updated & new DA* lenses. A revamp of the DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 was being considered by Ricoh a while ago. Who knows if they're actually working on that at the moment. I practically use the DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 PLM & the DA* 11-18mm f/2.8 DC for just about everything. If a revamped version of the DA* 60-250mm f/4 ever appeared, I'd drop my DA 55-300mm PLM like a bad habit.
Thanks for helping to prevent at least some of the more reasonable Pentax users from going straight into panic mode, Kobie. Now, those who need the constant FUD to feel good about themselves and the world will go on spreading it anyway, but then, actually taking photos was never their priority in the first place.
My first digital camera was a Pentax K10D that I bought in 2007 because my Canon F1 was getting old and film was starting to be scarce. I liked the K10D. I still have it and now and then take a few pictures with it. In 2014 I had convinced myself that I needed a full frame camera. Pentax has never been swift to update their lineup. There had been new cameras released in the seven years I used the K10D, mostly higher megapixel APS-C sensors. I was waiting for a full frame to be released. Then, Sony released the A7 at the end of 2013. All of a sudden I had a use for all the Canon FD lenses I had kept setting around in the bottom of my sock drawer. By the time Pentax finally released the K1 I had gotten pretty deeply invested in Sony lenses and was not about to "ditch" that system. So, sorry Pentax/Ricoh you are just too slow.
In German Dealerships You will see Ricoh WG quite often (and OM Systems' TG-7 as well). They are not the only cameras of their kind but the only ones by Japanese Companies and also the only ones in their price league. Ans many WGs and TGs are bought by construction companies and thus don´t appear in any "sales charts". This is also the case for Ricoh G900 and Theta.
If Pentax can't come up with a mirrorless camera, they should start making their excellent lenses in other mounts, so that they could continue to make money while having no new bodies.
The problem is that they in fact have no excellent lenses. For example FA31/1.8 is considered to be something special.. but that worked 20 years ago. Now competitors have lenses on completely different level concerning resolution, contrast, bokeh and basically zero aberations. And they actually can focus on target :D Only DFA*85/1.4 and DFA*50/1.4 are somewhat modern hi-res designs. For APS-C the HD-DA*16-50/2.8 seems ok, but thats about it. Nothing that competitors does not have.
But that's what's the issue with modern lenses. They are too good, images from them start to look like computer rendering. Pentax lenses, especially Limited series, is famous for the imperfections that were made with purpose to have endimage with pleasant look when appreciated at right distance, and not pixel peeping at 200% magnification.
@jerzyjablonski1432 You know something but not enough. FA 31 f1.8 Limited has amazing tone gradations for a small format lens, and its bokeh on APS-C is nice but on FF35 its bokek looks disgusting, gross, wey to creamy in a bad wey. FA 43 f1.8 is pretty nice overal. But @ f1.9 with a medium distant background the bokeh is fugly. It's better @ f2.4, and even @ f2 is better then wide open. Not the best bokeh and not the best gradations but from f 2.4 it also has pretty high resolution and is handy in some very rare ocasions when 50-55mm is not wide enough. But sometimes I need 39mm and 43 is not enough and I end up using a zoom stoped down. 77 f1.8 is liked by some but is realy stupid for multiple reasons. First thing first 77 is too short for bust portrait, and you end up either closer then 1.5m ( 5X volumetric diagonal of the adult human head) so you end up with with stupid gougled jarred heads, or you keep the distance but you need to crop later losing gradations and rez. Second its particular bokeh renders bright lights that ruin the bokeh. I have FA 31 f1.8 MIJ ( made in Japan) black and FA 43 f1.9 MIJ black along most of the best Pentax lenses made from 1975 to 2007. The new D-FA 85 f1.4 is also bad, beside being stupid big, heavy and expensive, its bokeh when focused where it should at 1.5m is not great. You get 85mm mainly for bust portraits from 1.5m not for close focus so is irelevant that the bokeh is good up close. Older FA 85 f1.4 has a particular boked desaturation problem that completely breacks the subject that looks like it was stupid glued on top of some grey random stuff, is not the DOF but the desaturation problem. I would like a 90mm f1.7 or 85 f1.7 with a nice bokeh when focused at 1.5m ( and sure not just 1.5m). Then D-FA 15-30 f2.8 that is realy a G1 Tamron without VC ( neutered I would say...) beside also being stupid big, heavy and expensive, it has absurdly exaggerated contrast that eats shadow detail rendering shadows like black ink was stupid poured from above - that's the stupid modern look that you talk about, chasing blindly after MTF, and is both worse and more expensive then the one branded Tamron, and G2 was released many years ago and is much better but still not made with K mount. And K1 has stupid low 0.70X magnification like a fking F4. F5 ( with fugly bokeh nikkor lenses) has 0.75X but with 20.5mm eye relief so with DK-17M can reach 0.90X @ 17mm that is better then Pentax LX 0.90X @ 15.8mm. Regarding mirrorless, before having a 4K @ 120 Hz true microLED without LCD EVF and powered with zero point energy, plus high magnification @ high eye point, I'm not interested even given for free. And the old screw driven AF lenses will not have faster and more accurate AF, you can't have both at the same time. Pentax needs a prime 15 f2.8 sharp w.o. but without exaggerated contrast, and designed for like a bigger format to lower the horrific droplet distortion and no moustache distortion... FA 20 f2.8 is so-so OK, it has moderate resolution but the new full frame D-FA 21 has stupid exaggerated contrast that I can't stand. FA* 24 f2 has stupid strong CA, strong color fringing and one that is hard to fully correct. FA 28 f2.8 is OKis, at first sight you can think that its contrast is OK but if you compare the shadows rendered with smc M 28 f2.8 you'll see that with FA one the shadows look stupid drowned in black ink. FA 35 f2 again at first sight its contrast looks OK but the rendering looks dead vs FA 31. F 50 f1.7 and the more plastiky FA 50 f1.7 are good, not great but OK. FA 50 f1.4 is too soft wide open. F 135 f 2.8 renders nice but is prone to AF hunting similar to F 300 f4.5. FA 135 f2.8 has more chromatic aberrations... F and FA 50 and 100 f2.8 MACRO are top and sharp stoped down were they should @ f22 as MACRO lenses that work with absurdly thin DOF, not like the new ones that are sharp wide open but difraction limited from f5.6 that is beyound absurd for MACRO lenses. Sure today we can use focus staking, but is still stupid.
Pentax don’t have “excellent lenses”, at least not since their M42 days. Those screw mount lenses were beautiful and a good used one today is a sensible choice to buy and use. Probably a lack of research and development funds has stopped a unified lens line up from Pentax. I would buy a Pentax body in a flash if they took the M42 designs and put them into autofocus mounts. That half frame thing is a joke. It’s over priced and ugly.
I just think the demands of developing a camera body today is beyond most camera companies. The only sensors available are from Canon or Sony. You need high tech capacity for the embedded design and software required. It is not the days of building a film body. So if you are not Sony or Canon, the only viable segments are niche cameras, lenses and accessories. Sad, but it is what it is. You can make medium format bodies, action cams, perhaps specialised cameras for cell phones etc. Or lenses. Or stabilised tripods etc. Film is a huge gamble.
This isn't 1970, nor 1980. The world has changed so much that once were high demand products fade away. Examples: paper newspapers, utility bills, vinyl records (gasping for air), CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays. Why these companies continue to fight over the last 10% of photographers is insane. Sony and Canon should dominate. Don't need Nikon anymore. Their heyday was a long time ago. Maybe Fujifilm can hang in there. But really, it's trying to dig out of a hole that gets deeper every minute. Since Sony dominates in sensor production, they will be around forever. Not up on what Canon does, but it seems to always be popular. Now the Chinse lens companies are blowing things up with their above average and inexpensive lenses for a bunch of mounts. It's a crazy world. I'm sticking with Sony as they have a good hand in the photo and VIDEO market.
I have old GR-2 and was only slightly tempted by any GR-3 edition. Have not seen any in stock at B&H most of this year. Traded away all K-mount at end of 2017 to try more 'mainstream;' Nikon, Now I go out with one remaining FX Nikon DSLR and (2) FX Z bodies added this year. PS- Why can't RICOH - Pentax provide compact mirrorless interchangeable lens bodies and lenses based on 'GR mount' and its' lenses used already? Is it a K-Mount or 'die' thing?
Sometimes being in a niche is economically healthier than always having to sell millions of cameras in a shrinking market to make up for the outrageous development costs in the madness of the race for- sometimes even pointless- ever increasing specs. As a hobbyist/enthusiast who exposes his camera to very rough weather conditions on a regular basis I certainly will stay with Pentax forever as Pentax is in a league of its own when it comes to weather sealing. This plus the beautiful experience of using an OVF and my poor financial decision-making may even lead to me buying the K3 mark III Monochrome just because I want it. Not that I do not already have enough Pentax cameras but that they so often are special and sell you some sort of experience that other cameras- despite being lighter or having superior autofocus- don‘t offer. Pentax cameras despite their flaws have a soul. And they give me the feeling that I am the photographer and not the camera’s AI features. And that‘s why I‘m always drawn to Pentax DSLRs. And now I have to figure out how to explain to my girlfriend why I want to spend 2000€ on a DSLR that can only do black and white pictures.
I was in a similar situation to you regarding the Monochrome. Then a couple of months ago they were on offer for a while, and I managed to pick one up used (an Amazon customer return for just under £1700, which inexplicably they further discounted to £1340! Which I did not expect). I shoot around 70% B&W to 30% colour. Now with hindsight the full price would just about have been worth it to me. If unsure just shoot a lot of B&W film (Not cheap but more affordable than the Monochrome, and certainly lacking the low light capability) and be patient until a used one becomes available, though that might take some time and you might not save as much as me. I got lucky.
😭 I just want the DA*50-135 PLM . . . And the DA*200 PLM . . . And the DA*300 PLM In all seriousness, Ricoh are doing a pretty good job overall, especially with the niche cameras they have been releasing over the recent years. However, I do think a good amount of Pentaxians would love to see a K1iii come to fruition 🤷
As much as I can see the value of today's mirrorless cameras, my next camera purchase is likely going to be a Pentax DSLR, as it's my best choice for doing astrophotography. DSLRs might be on the decline, but there's still a place for them. Film became popular again, as it's a refreshing departure from digital photography. I don't get much joy from poking the surface of a touchscreen. I feel far more involved with the process of photography when there's physical controls that need to be moved. We wouldn't have digital cameras today, if it wasn't for the analog cameras that preceded them. The tactile nature of film required cameras to have mechanical knobs levers and buttons. Many of the interfaces of modern digital cameras replicate these as a convention. When designing a modern camera, it's possible to craft an interface style that blends both the tactile and the digital in a harmonious way (Fuji has been really good at this). The Pentax 17 is a perfect example of a camera that has taken a new approach of designing it's controls to offer a unique tactile experience for modern users that didn't grow up using film cameras. I love cameras that have quirky interfaces that require you to use them in a different way, in order to get a useable image. I've always been intriqued by the idea of a camera that would capture an image on film and digital at the same time. It would probably involve some weird optical path using a beam splitter. Something like this could potentially offer an interface that had the live preview of a mirrorless, and yet still saved images to film using an analog mechanism.
I certainly hope Pentax's strategy for future profitability is successful and continue to make great products. I own the K-3iii and I would argue the ergonomics and pleasure of using this camera is as least as good (and probably better) as anything else on the market (DSLR or mirrorless). The same goes for image quality. I am sure this applies to other Pentax cameras. I hope the Pentax innovation and quality of products will pay dividends in pushing the company forward.
Pentax could be competitive Is to the used film camera Market by Recreating and improving on collectible style cameras. Think. X pan, Mamiya 7, and premium point and shoot 35 mm.
If Pentax continues to be a successful company, but it doesn't make the kind of cameras I, personally, want to buy, then from my perspective, the result is the same as if they went out of business. I wish them well, but this doesn't change the fact that I've lost a choice. That doesn't mean they should try to compete head-to-head with Canon and Nikon in DSLRs or even high-end mirrorless cameras; if they can't do that, they have to remain profitable however they can. So people being as dismayed as if it was going out of business isn't contrary to the actual situation. I mean, if someone could make a cheap DSLR with a full-frame sensor and a screw mount, some people would be glad to be able to fully use their old lenses, but full-frame sensors are still expensive, and that's not a big market.
If you have a niche---and Pentax does---then live in your niche. Leica does just fine that way. You don’t have to be a cutting-edge innovator. A few years’ tech lag isn’t that important. Just keep doing better what you already do, and what attracts your customers in the first place. Invest in better glass, dedicated black-and-white, better IBIS, rugged reliable construction, etc. Like Leica you can bring out new products to expand the offerings every once in a while, but none of it has to be all that gee whiz. Go for quality and solidity and let your standard models develop an aura, like the Leica M---speaking of “old fashioned”.
Pentax partners in Russia have made exhibitions on a large scale and the marketing department has become much more active. There is hope that the brand may be doing well, but there are many issues with the technical implementation of products.
doubt it is a tough call. Pentax was treading water, and they pinned their development hopes on a weird half-frame camera, which is a really niche market. If they aren't building and selling new glass, new metal, then they are sinking, which shows they realize because fired their R&D. My guess is Ricoh will sell off current inventory and the brand to cut their losses.
I hope Pentax continues to live on. I'm glad I picked up the k3 monochrome - no regrets no matter what happens. I'd like to see Pentax do what Sigma should have done,that is, when Pentax comes out with their next model, design it modular enough so that they can sell versions of it in all the various dead and open mounts like E, L, and maybe m4/3. If Pentax does go mirrorless (again!), maybe they need to have the back of it be a big screen and a cell phone!
There’s way too much inventory on the used market for Pentax to manufacture new 35mm SLRs and lenses. Why pay for a $600 and up new camera when I can key a Pentax K1000 for $60.
Seems that at least initialy Pentax 17 was a success. Why would anyone buy zone focus, half frame compact with 1/350 max shutter for 500$ if you can buy pro-level AF, autowinder, high speed 35mm film camera for half of that or even less.
@@KobieMC because the Z6 is an improvement on previous models…which is the opposite with building the exact camera that is already plentiful on the used market.
If they made a small street camera with interchangable lenses, that would be a new niche market. Only Fuji plays in this market and they are trying to be all things to all people. Pentax could achieve this with little R&D, they could join M43, that would provide many lenses. They could easily make some primes based off their existing know-how. Within m43 Lumix and OM have ignored travel and street genres. There is a ready made niche market.
I have no issues shooting street photos with EM5III and 12-50 or 25/1.7. Also 14-150 and 12-100/4 are my travell lenses for M4/3. There is no room in M4/3 for another camera player. Especially not for Ricoh with decade old live-view AF and barely any experience in that territory. They should rather fix K3III into K3IV and replace K70/KF with some modern and more portable camera. Then focus on some modern lenses for APS-C. They almost commited suicide with K1 and FF experiment. APS-C is perfect balance, but they cannot compete with Fuji at this point with current portfolio of overpriced obsolete cameras.
Well, K-1, because it has phase detection autofocus misses focus a lot, I would replace my K-1II with newer version if Pentax add contrast autofocus too, eye and face detection would be nice to have also. How? I do not know, maybe by placing another sensor with phase detection pixels where AF sensor is placed now. For weathersealed FF there is still no other choice but Pentax. Ricoh GR, while it is small, it is not a camera which is always with me. It is not weathersealed and shock proof, for that I choose OM TG-7, and it is literally always with me in a pocket. It has slow AF though. I would replace TG-7 for whatever camera if it has faster AF, weather seals and be shock proof. System camera with interchangeable lenses would be always bigger and not pocketable. I would prefer to have two cameras 28mm and 40mm, rather than having one camera and two lenses: changing lenses takes more time than putting one camera to a bag and taking another. Pentax 17 taught me that technical quality does not matter, content quality is what matter the most, that is why I am using TG-7 now. Second lesson: it is better to avoid high frequency contrast, architecture, faces are ok, grass, trees, or any other thing with small features is not going to look great on half-frame. I would skip film SLR in 135 format, but, probably I would buy film camera with fixed, sharp, lens and 120 format.
Why not produce compact APS-C mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras using the optical formulas/lenses as the limited lineup? The 31mm becomes a 47mm equivalent, their GR3 18mm could be their 28mm equivalent, etc.
Kobi, people thought Vinyl was a fad on return, it's a huge business model now. Film is headed in that direction to. I think Pentax made a smart move there, but pricing for a simple light box is a tad high. I love my Pentax dslrs always will, but I love shooting film alongside it. It's definitely on the up and up 👍📷
There is one huge difference. If you buy vinyl record, you can play it forever. While with film camera you are constantly killed by high cost of film medium and processing. And yes Pentax 17 is ridiculously overpriced $150 simple camera. When I saw the disassembly video, it was obvious that there is nothing special/expensive inside. For $700 equivallent (price here) one would expect at least fully functional AF, shutter to be able to reach at least 1/2000s and full manual option in mode selector.
IF they dont move to up to speed Mirrorless cameras, or create the fastest better ever DSLR camera I might need to lose money and jump out of the boat. Maybe keep one camera and the 21mm limited and then say goodbye to Pentax for good.
Why would you want the fastest better ever DSLR camera? To show off or to brag about it? Do not think that's going to improve the quality of your images. I can make wonderful images with my 50 year old Pentax Spotmatic. I've got multiple well functioning Pentax bodies and a nice line up of lenses. At this moment I really see no reason why I would have to say goodbye to Pentax....
@@haenzelv6287 Dani is a pro motorsports photographer. Press pass for F1, Le Mans 24 hour, etc. It definitely wouldn't be for bragging rights. It would be to make the job easier to keep clients happy.
@@haenzelv6287 I think you are missing my point totally. Why would I? Because I shoot Motorsports in a professional way my friend. And YES AF IS very important, and PRECISE focus it's even more important. Yes of course you can do it manually, and bla bla bla. Reality is: The better the system, the better work you can achieve. You might not, I might.
@@KobieMC That's it Kobie, and to not miss images. And to not need to shoot twice as pics to just in case get the photo because the AF is unreliable. Because I know i'm adding twice as much images to my bodies than the needed ones. Unfortunately the system we have is still a bit out of pace. And I would love it to keep the pace, or be super close to it. Why DSLR? Because DSLR are great! Are fantastic tools, handling is great, etc etc etc.... But well, it is what it is.
I'm missing your point even more now. You don't shoot Motorsports in a professional way with Pentax , at least that's what I 'read'? (I wouldn't use it for that pupose) So why bother?
Pentax has always been innovative. There are so many ways they can go. The market is dominated by smartphones and mirrorless and Pentax has to evolve enough to stay true to its values and make products that sell. They have knowledge of mirrorless systems and lens design and no doubt they could take the aesthetic of the 17 and make digital doppelgänger. Anything is possible. We love what they do.
There is no Pentax any more. Ricoh does Ricoh things.. they had many experimental cameras that created some halo at the beginning and then vanished. Remember that Ricoh GXR with modules?
The GXR was a difficult concept which was brilliant and super niche where the sensor and lenses were matched technically and acted as sealed units to be mounted on the bodies to make a modular camera system. The virtues created limitations that made it difficult to give the design longevity. Pentax innovations were always more fundamental and were adopted by other brands. The camera market is a victim of its own success once mirrorless is fully matured, the sales will plateau and something radical will have to appear since no one will need a better camera. What defines better will itself be hard to define. The AI that makes smartphone photos is already in the mirrorless cameras and shooting JPEGs that can be delivered worldwide ready to go straight from the camera with almost no post-production is common in most new cameras. The marketing departments lead the charge away from DSLRs and thereby probably killed camera sales. Pentax is now afraid of feeling the pinch and wants to know what sells. Those of us who like making images are spoilt for choice in mirrorless options and those who have gone Mirrorless want retro industrial design in new cameras to make them feel authentic. If Pentax could perfect the Reflex K1 and also have a mirrorless version with some new dedicated lenses there might be room for them show their design innovation prowess. Pentax image quality is amongst the best and that will continue to make a case for choosing Pentax. The K3-III is carrying the DSLR torch. The K1 output is stunning. If they can update it they really should.
Have you ever seen a reporter, like Jim Grey, trying to get a raz or any extra info out of Ohtani? Not gonna happen. As far as strategy - If a younger crowd can appreciate a film camera because it's different, or whatever, maybe they can feel the same about a dslr. Maybe high performance lx retro design. Idk. Probably too small of a company.
I had been a Pentax user for like 30+ years. Sold everything, bought into Olympus M43 and not intend returning. Amazing, Pentax was living in that dream of DSLR staying afloat. Now they are surprised the marked for it is shrinking. Agreed, old stuff for the old folks :)
I thought I was going down the Olympus M43 route about 6 years ago, got a body and over time invested in a number of nice prime and zoom lenses but I retained my Pentax K-1ii and a bunch of Pentax primes and zooms. I pretty only used the Olympus for a long time but despite the small size and good AF i never fell in love with the handling and overall experience. It felt a little toy like and EVF made me fell removed from the scene. Eventually I picked up the K-1ii again and on the joy! Feels wonderful in the hand. The EVF gone from between me and the subject. It feels alive and involving. The experience is so much deeper. I get it that this is my experience and not yours but this is why there is a place for other than mirrorless. I don't a flying... About the technology. It's all about the feeling I get
If my interests would have stayed limited with only landscape- and night photography, i'd still be happy with Pentax. (Un?)fortunately i got interested in birding aswell and no DSLR can compete with newest hybrids in that regard. Wondering if i should keep K-1 and landscape lens or just dump it all as a down payment for Sony...
Yeah, if I could afford to changei would be changing as well. Tired of having buttons and lenses fall apart. And just other little things where you think. The quality should be with the camera like this again if I could afford to change in a heart Beat
@@PentaxLife I've seen some here and there have dials break off, and a button pop off (AE-L on the K-3/II) but I've never had either of those issues in the past 10 years since I returned to Pentax. I've had lenses fall apart on Nikon though. It can happen with any brand I suppose.
I hope they drop the 6 or so flavors of bad kit lens (preferably the entire DA-L lineup) and keep 18-135 and 18-55 or maybe just the first one cos I cant imagine people who buy them with their cameras get a good impression of the system...I think its reasonable to suppose that the competing market for these are smartphones...and when you use those slow zooms you have to stop them down to get any reasonable results, your image looks just like one from a phone but with more work, bulk and cost...maybe there is some difference at the longer end but I doubt someone today would call the quality acceptable for anything other then pure documentary purposes (for birders and such). Also if they realease a film SLR that is capable of mounting all the K lenses, it will help the sales of those and I dont even think that markets for film compacts and ILCs are the same, so its strange to me that the potential next film camera hinges on the success of the 17
@@northof-62 It very well may be for some but I think that the entire concept of such a lens is flawed in today's world. From my experience there is a small window in the middle of the range where you get good results...but at that point I think that getting a prime is just better. It's much faster - therefore you get s unique look compared to the mentioned competition and I think that if you want to create a long term customer from a one time purchaser, you want him to be blown away by the results of his kit setup. I would like to see the small DA primes rewised to be WR (if reasonably possible with the screwdrive), the 35mm faster and a 20ish mm added to replace all those kit zooms
@@northof-62 it is not. It goes back to 2008 and it lacks on all fronts. Resolution is not good for 26Mpix APS-C even with F8, it has aberations and AF accuracy is nowhere near competitors. It was good in K100D era. But those times are over. I have very good DA18-55/3.5-5.6 WR version which I bought back in 2009 for my K20D as I wanted some WR lens that can be used in rain, but it is just sitting in cabinet since I bought K-5 with 18-135WR two years later. And when I compare that thing even with tiny Olympus 14-42/3.5-5.6R, its different world. That olympus is small, quiet, AF is very fast and accurate, aberations barely noticeable even on uncorrected RAW and resolution wide open(!) is there for 20Mpix EM-5III. And to be honest even that DA18-135WR is horrible crap when compared to now already 8 years old but excellent Olympus 12-100/4 :D But sure, its different league, just in similar range. They should develop some HD DA*16-135/4 :) But we only can dream about such thing as it will never happen.
@@kalinmir DA15/4 rework, optically it is poor, WR DA21 - rework, optically it is poor, WR DA35 Macro WR, 9 rounded aperture blades DA40 WR DA70 WR Faster lenses shall be FF. Even if they continue with APS-C bodies only, but if you make lets say 24/1.4, the cost, weight and size differences between FF and APS-C are not that significant to justify wasting millions of $ just for crop version. And APS-C body always enjoys better IBIS options with larger image circle. Similar with long telephotos. Only lenses that seriously benefit from crop sensor size are complex zooms. You can see it easily. Tamron has 16-300 and 18-400 lenses but there is no similar thing for FF. And I want DA*16-135/4 :D
if they could make a cheap line of lenses, like those made by zigma and tamron, like zooms of 500-600mm and above. maybe would attract newer buyers as well as keep those who have Pentax right now. that the camera costs is ok, but you also want to be able to afford 3-5 lenses as well.
There are no cheap lenses. Even some $100 plastic lens does cost several millions of R&D money and NPI to bring it into production. Then you need to sell tons of those to cover that development cost. But there is no customer base for that thing in K mount world. 500mm zoom and cheap? You have no idea :D
@@xmeda hmmm, Tamron and zigma ran with the same lens but there were different mounts for different camera models. they had for Pentax a few years ago before they discontinued the K mount. think their prices they had before were reasonable. 1000-1500 dollars compared to my Pentax 150-450 which I paid about 2500 dollars for. to come down to half the price I consider cheap.
@@PUTDEVICE Tamron and Sigma had reasonable prices only because they were making the same lens for several mounts so they had tons of customers and millions of such lenses sold over years which refunded development cost and created profit. That is not possible to achieve for Ricoh with TINY customer base. And now they cannot even reuse existing Sigma or Tamron lenses, because both Sigma and Tamron completely killed DSLR lens production and are only building mirrorless lenses. So for example OM Digital was able to order rebadged Sigma 150-600 with M4/3 mount and Tamron is building some of their lenses for Canon and Nikon as rebranded OEM, but Ricoh cannot do that, because it is not possible to adapt mirrorless lens to body with mirrorbox and 45.5mm registration distance. Moreover even 15-30, 24-70 and 70-210 built by Tamron disappear soon like DA18-270 already did. They are all discontinued.
Somebody should ask them about how long they are going to sell the stocked K1II as that thing obviously is not produced any more. And similar how long they can sell DFA15-30, DFA24-70 and DFA70-210 penTamrons which also are no longer produced by Tamron factory. Asking about replacement for such lenses is.. well.. we know the answer. And I would really like to know if they at least consider making some K3IV with articulating screen, larger buffer and better live-view AF before they wrap it up with K mount and stick to GR compacts..
You can write mail to Ricoh as well as anyone else. As for K-1: depends on how much parts they have in storage. They may still have enough sensors and parts to manufacture small batches of it to fullfill r market requirement. Lenses may be tougher, but that also depends on contract with Tamron. Are those lenses Tamron made to Pentax tastes, or does Pentax have licence for manufacturing them? We know that Pentax is producing lenses so it may be as well that Tamron designed optical formula, but manufacturing is on Pentax side. Anyone knows who actually makes those?
@@jerzyjablonski1432 those are produced by Tamron as OEM. Pentax does not exist and Ricoh certainly does not have production lines for these lenses. It is just ordered custom version from Tamron like 18-250, 18-270 were. When Tamron discontinued those, a bit later they were discontinued by "Pentax". As a manufacturing engineer I have pretty good idea how much it cost to prepare production line for such product. And there is no way that Ricoh spent several millions of $ just to build small fraction of production numbers that Tamron was pulling. It will never pay the NPI cost.
They could do a few new film SLRs, maybe they can make a medium film model as well. But the time window when market want this is narrow and Pentax development times are too long. They must speed up. Their current line-up of lenses is very old. This needs new design, not just new coating on old lenses with optic design from 1960s. This is big issues with new really good lenses they can keep level of interest and help sales. Pentax K1-III will be the most advanced new DSLR because it will be only 1 new DSLR at all. That is an issue they don't have future core product. Mirrorless market for them closed due to investment requirements. So somewhere in 2032-35 Pentax will be closed/sold if anyone will have interest for some IP rights. GR will continue under Ricoh. Or they somehow find money and people which come with new product, product which market wants and they are able to deliver.
Will Pentax , be represented at Profusion. Next week. And are you going to attend to ask them questions. And possible interview. To become a Ambassador ??
Public informations are not about what someone had on mind, but what they said and how it was understood. Aaand I do not think you are right about SLR and young people, he clearly said that young people are not looking for that kind of product and that Pentax need to take that into account in their strategy. It does not look like they are thinking how to merket a DSLR to young people, but more like what product path to take to attract young people that are not interested in what DSLR part of Pentax is offering. Could it be DSLR path of some form? Yeah, old school is fashionable and Pentax with a knack for creating really small bodies and pretty good designers could do Pentax version of Nikon Df that will not look like Frankenstein. But it does not really mean that it will be DSLR path. Pentax can be camera brand without DSLR, can be just compacts or some other products like mini-MILC Q style but there are endless possibilities and I think this is what Ricoh is evaluating, not marketing.
Yes that will probably happen. They will abandon K mount and only focus on GR compacts :( DSLRs are dead end unless they will be able to create some hybrid body with secondary EVF viewfinder and much better live-view AF than they currently have to offer something special with the possible pentaprism naked eye experience. Such camera will be brutally expensive.. but that gamble might work.
No DSLR is just one path. It can be SLT path with new pentaprism glass OVF in such solution should be reasonable broth on FF. Can be MILC, can be whatever else. I, for one, will not buy a camera without optical viewfinder. In case new ones are not available I will go second hand and if needed film. But EVF is out of question. So it is not like EVF is required for cameras to sell. It is more a matter to make it interesting for young people.
Let's note that while consumers claim size is important, they seem to prefer so-called full-frame sensors and pair them with lenses that are either relatively slow or relatively large.
I had just an interesting small talk with someone from Ricoh as I was bold enough to ask directly about it and that interview. They said that you are wrong (it is not about marketing) but we are wrong too it is not all doom and gloom. Ricoh is not opting out of DSLRs and they intend to offer new cameras in the future.
@@jerzyjablonski1432 So, the France rep was wrong with what he stated in the interview, fair enough. I never said they were opting out of DSLR's. I reiterated that the camera business is profitable and they aren't going anywhere. It's just going to be tougher to reach a younger consumer since their overall experience is with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) in a purely digital fashion which is not the DSLR experience when using the viewfinder. Marketing covers a large area. Such as market research, planning for the future, PR, and more traditionally, advertising, announcements of breakthroughs/new tech to showcasing and just talking about the products, features, capabilities. Most of what I mentioned in the video came from the words of Ricoh/Pentax France's answers to the questions asked.
Not that French rep was mistaken, he was talking more about short term strategy of Ricoh, that they are handling the rising interest in compacts and maybe film, not that they abandoned DSLR, just that short term strategy is not concentrated on them as they need to fulfill demand for small cameras. Also if you understand marketing as entire decision/planning/development process then yes, it was more like this if I understood them well. They want to offer a product at price, time and moment where it will have interest of customers. BTW I asked a bit about future support of K-3/3 and while I did not get clear answer, they said that Ricoh believes in products that can have long life and long support via software rather then tying software upgrades to releases of new bodies. So maybe we will be getting new free and paid software upgrades in future, but not necessarily new APSC body.
As with k3iii monochrome, Pentax could survive as poor man's Leica. Very low quantity, so few new bodies and lenses. Drop the zooms, just primes. It's tough because current marketing sadly relies on keeping hype. That's why Sony could spend 9 years marketing the same old aps-c sensor in 7 different camera bodies.
New Film Cameras in 2024 is wild! and Ludacris I shoot 35mm developed my own film there are millions of vintage cameras that are better higher quality and way cheaper than anything Pentax makes!
You're jumping to conclusions. Pentax is talking about making the right savings, you talk about scaling down? What if they made processes more efficient, resulting in saving money?
Cmon. They already gutted whole R&D department to minimum, shrinked production, killed whole 645 system and they will continue doing so.. But the result is that they have no new products for market.
In today's market, why does Pentax still exist? This isn't last century when people scrambled to buy Pentax cameras. People have cellphones and don't have a need for a dedicated camera.
@@GenX_in_the_wild no. Canon and Sony are selling photographic oriented cameras in large quantity. Nikon and Fuji lagging behind a bit. Even OM digital is doing 10 times better than Ricoh. Panasonic is more oriented on video production and of course some Sony cameras are. But you are not buying things like A7R5 or Canon R5II or Nikon R8 for video.
@@bondgabebond4907 spoken like somebody with no clue about photography… photographs with cell phones look comparatively horrible to camera photos… but beyond this… photographers have full control with cameras, and nearly none with cell-phone cameras… this is the prime reason for cell phone cameras being too-little for photographers
Well, I do have phone in one pocket and a camera in the other pocket. It is faster to draw, and operate a camera, also it could be done with one hand. I cannot draw a phone and make a photo with one hand without a risk of dropping it. I would say it is rather easy for advertising agency to show this.
Kobie
Maybe the reason why Pentax has older photographers is the older photographers avoid all the marketing hipe and dont buy the newest latest mirrorless cameras. i DSLR cameras are still capable cameras. If you want a roughed weather sealed camera Pentax is considered having the best weather sealing. They should market to outdoors people like Subaru does. You can photograph all day on one battery just what a outdoors person wants
❤ Pentax image quality call me crazy but I love the OVF viewfinder and also that 20-40 prime lens. I just came back o to Pentax with a KF
KF.. the renamed K70 coming back from 2016 with 2012 level autofocus still sold in 2024-2025.. ah.
@ lol indeed I have current cameras too sometimes I think I’m cRazY I just like this thing for some reason. :)
@sdhute You're not crazy. The KF is excellent. The refined K70, a camera that rewards a sound skill-set. Those who can only see it as having 'old technology' miss the point entirely. For them ,there a plethora of mirrorless point an shoot camcorders on offer. The KF is an example of high quality and value for money. One of the best SLR all rounders I've come across . A truly rewarding experience.
They have a path to succees - Leica. Offer a modern film SLR, align the DSLR business with that. Younger people LOVE FILM. It would be mind-blowing level stupid to ignore the success of the P17. Mirror body lines, offer a film GR, continue the P17 line, and offer a modern SLT film body similar to the K1. Go mirrorless but re-use the same body, lenses, etc., so that the SLR and mirrorless are similar, just like the Leica M series. For mirrorless autofocus and video tech, license it from OM Systems - they're on their way out anyway.
Leica does loads of stuff that is quite mainstream (Panasonic lenses, L mount, Xiaomi stuff...)...they do dont live and die by the rangefinder...idk how Ricoh could emulate that...perhaps weathersealed printers or pentax branded foodstuffs like OM Systems is doing
@kalinmir It's only fairly recently that the L mount alliance came into being. For ages now Leica has existed as a luxury brand making unique products that are often technologically inferior and always for overpriced.
I personally believe that embracing the luxury camera market is the path forward for Pentax. More "Limited" lenses, abandon crop sensor, a high-end film SLR body and digital body that uses the same lenses. Two digital lines, a lower resolution and a higher, along with a monochrome version of the lower. Make a system that is a cult classic, a status symbol.
Going SLT they might as well go mirrorless while retaining the body format. There is no real advantage to SLT these days with how good on-sensor AF has become. The one advantage to a pellicle mirror design would ne the optical viewfinder but it takes a hit from the translucancy and so can't match a normal mirrorflipper or an EVF.
For anything to go in the mirrorless path, they need to ditch K mount. Its not practically possible to go mirrorless with K mount
@oblivion_007 No. A shorter flange distance provided by mirrorless allows for smaller lenses - it is not a technical requirement. If you want to share lenses between a film SLR and a mirrorless camera, K mount is perfectly fine. vIt provides the electronics and mechanicals both, so that you can use the old film lenses without issue.
Be bold, daring. Yes, it will upset the "purists", I'm in this age group... But. Hear me out
GRIII, but with the K-AF mount. And not a "crippled" mount... Make a better, modern version of the K-01. That camera missed the mark by just a little. But it had so much potential...
Leica is doing well with even an older system the ranger finder.
Different market, different customers and different product quality.
The only similar aspect on current Ricoh cameras is the price tag. But all they are offering is old neglected and severely overpriced system.
@@sdhute , Pentax is even bigger than Leica. Leica is just much more in everybodies mouth.
I’ve bought 3 Pentax DSLRs and own the K-3 still, but also own a complete Nikon Z system including the Z8 and Zf. I’m just hoping Pentax could surpass the D850 for full frame DSLR and I’ll be happy to buy another. For now I’m waiting patiently. I tried the K-33 but found the AF was not quite there compared with my D-750. I’ve got time so I hope Pentax gets there when they do and I’ll be happy to add a K-1 iii and some limited primes. The Monochrome was a fun experience that left me wishing a GRIII M existed.
In 2014 we were told by Pentax that they won't go into FF, but in 2016 they did.
Off course, 2024 isn't the right year to promote DSLR and Pentax K, but 2025 will be.
50 years of K-Mount will give Pentax additional promotion.
Pentax hat es verschlafen und nun sind sie raus. Nochmal neu zu starten, wäre mit unglaublichem Invest und dem dazugehörigen hohen Risiko verbunden, dass es nicht klappt. Der Kameramarkt ist schwierig und wird immer noch schwieriger. Ich glaube nicht an ein Come back, lass mich aber gern überraschen.
At the moment I just wait for a new 50-135 or 60-250... But after that unfortunately, unless they release something like 200-600mm with optical stabilization, I probably will look for a mirrorless alternative just for wildlife (eye af, stab, modern 600mm).
ABIG zoom would be awesome, and likely way beyond my budget. I still use an old Tamron SP 200-500 f5.6 zoom from the late 80s. I frequently pair it with the Pentax AF 1.7X adapter. Is as light and crisp and fast as a new lens? NOPE... But with the Adaptall II Pentax KA mount, it functions like an A series lens on all my Pentax bodies...
That said, I do have a Nikon D3300, and will likely find more affordable big lenses for it, as more people switch to the Nikon Z series... Sadly, I cannot readily use my old Tamron lenses on that series Nikon. But still choose my Pentax cameras over that Nikon.
I'm also waiting for updated & new DA* lenses. A revamp of the DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 was being considered by Ricoh a while ago. Who knows if they're actually working on that at the moment. I practically use the DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 PLM & the DA* 11-18mm f/2.8 DC for just about everything. If a revamped version of the DA* 60-250mm f/4 ever appeared, I'd drop my DA 55-300mm PLM like a bad habit.
Thanks for helping to prevent at least some of the more reasonable Pentax users from going straight into panic mode, Kobie. Now, those who need the constant FUD to feel good about themselves and the world will go on spreading it anyway, but then, actually taking photos was never their priority in the first place.
My first digital camera was a Pentax K10D that I bought in 2007 because my Canon F1 was getting old and film was starting to be scarce. I liked the K10D. I still have it and now and then take a few pictures with it. In 2014 I had convinced myself that I needed a full frame camera. Pentax has never been swift to update their lineup. There had been new cameras released in the seven years I used the K10D, mostly higher megapixel APS-C sensors. I was waiting for a full frame to be released. Then, Sony released the A7 at the end of 2013. All of a sudden I had a use for all the Canon FD lenses I had kept setting around in the bottom of my sock drawer. By the time Pentax finally released the K1 I had gotten pretty deeply invested in Sony lenses and was not about to "ditch" that system. So, sorry Pentax/Ricoh you are just too slow.
In German Dealerships You will see Ricoh WG quite often (and OM Systems' TG-7 as well). They are not the only cameras of their kind but the only ones by Japanese Companies and also the only ones in their price league.
Ans many WGs and TGs are bought by construction companies and thus don´t appear in any "sales charts".
This is also the case for Ricoh G900 and Theta.
Hopefully a digital LX would be the successor?
If Pentax can't come up with a mirrorless camera, they should start making their excellent lenses in other mounts, so that they could continue to make money while having no new bodies.
The problem is that they in fact have no excellent lenses. For example FA31/1.8 is considered to be something special.. but that worked 20 years ago. Now competitors have lenses on completely different level concerning resolution, contrast, bokeh and basically zero aberations. And they actually can focus on target :D
Only DFA*85/1.4 and DFA*50/1.4 are somewhat modern hi-res designs. For APS-C the HD-DA*16-50/2.8 seems ok, but thats about it. Nothing that competitors does not have.
But that's what's the issue with modern lenses. They are too good, images from them start to look like computer rendering. Pentax lenses, especially Limited series, is famous for the imperfections that were made with purpose to have endimage with pleasant look when appreciated at right distance, and not pixel peeping at 200% magnification.
@jerzyjablonski1432 You know something but not enough.
FA 31 f1.8 Limited has amazing tone gradations for a small format lens, and its bokeh on APS-C is nice but on FF35 its bokek looks disgusting, gross, wey to creamy in a bad wey.
FA 43 f1.8 is pretty nice overal. But @ f1.9 with a medium distant background the bokeh is fugly. It's better @ f2.4, and even @ f2 is better then wide open. Not the best bokeh and not the best gradations but from f 2.4 it also has pretty high resolution and is handy in some very rare ocasions when 50-55mm is not wide enough. But sometimes I need 39mm and 43 is not enough and I end up using a zoom stoped down.
77 f1.8 is liked by some but is realy stupid for multiple reasons. First thing first 77 is too short for bust portrait, and you end up either closer then 1.5m ( 5X volumetric diagonal of the adult human head) so you end up with with stupid gougled jarred heads, or you keep the distance but you need to crop later losing gradations and rez. Second its particular bokeh renders bright lights that ruin the bokeh.
I have FA 31 f1.8 MIJ ( made in Japan) black and FA 43 f1.9 MIJ black along most of the best Pentax lenses made from 1975 to 2007.
The new D-FA 85 f1.4 is also bad, beside being stupid big, heavy and expensive, its bokeh when focused where it should at 1.5m is not great. You get 85mm mainly for bust portraits from 1.5m not for close focus so is irelevant that the bokeh is good up close.
Older FA 85 f1.4 has a particular boked desaturation problem that completely breacks the subject that looks like it was stupid glued on top of some grey random stuff, is not the DOF but the desaturation problem.
I would like a 90mm f1.7 or 85 f1.7 with a nice bokeh when focused at 1.5m ( and sure not just 1.5m).
Then D-FA 15-30 f2.8 that is realy a G1 Tamron without VC ( neutered I would say...) beside also being stupid big, heavy and expensive, it has absurdly exaggerated contrast that eats shadow detail rendering shadows like black ink was stupid poured from above - that's the stupid modern look that you talk about, chasing blindly after MTF, and is both worse and more expensive then the one branded Tamron, and G2 was released many years ago and is much better but still not made with K mount.
And K1 has stupid low 0.70X magnification like a fking F4.
F5 ( with fugly bokeh nikkor lenses) has 0.75X but with 20.5mm eye relief so with DK-17M can reach 0.90X @ 17mm that is better then Pentax LX 0.90X @ 15.8mm.
Regarding mirrorless, before having a 4K @ 120 Hz true microLED without LCD EVF and powered with zero point energy, plus high magnification @ high eye point, I'm not interested even given for free. And the old screw driven AF lenses will not have faster and more accurate AF, you can't have both at the same time.
Pentax needs a prime 15 f2.8 sharp w.o. but without exaggerated contrast, and designed for like a bigger format to lower the horrific droplet distortion and no moustache distortion...
FA 20 f2.8 is so-so OK, it has moderate resolution but the new full frame D-FA 21 has stupid exaggerated contrast that I can't stand.
FA* 24 f2 has stupid strong CA, strong color fringing and one that is hard to fully correct.
FA 28 f2.8 is OKis, at first sight you can think that its contrast is OK but if you compare the shadows rendered with smc M 28 f2.8 you'll see that with FA one the shadows look stupid drowned in black ink.
FA 35 f2 again at first sight its contrast looks OK but the rendering looks dead vs FA 31.
F 50 f1.7 and the more plastiky FA 50 f1.7 are good, not great but OK.
FA 50 f1.4 is too soft wide open.
F 135 f 2.8 renders nice but is prone to AF hunting similar to F 300 f4.5. FA 135 f2.8 has more chromatic aberrations... F and FA 50 and 100 f2.8 MACRO are top and sharp stoped down were they should @ f22 as MACRO lenses that work with absurdly thin DOF, not like the new ones that are sharp wide open but difraction limited from f5.6 that is beyound absurd for MACRO lenses. Sure today we can use focus staking, but is still stupid.
Pentax don’t have “excellent lenses”, at least not since their M42 days. Those screw mount lenses were beautiful and a good used one today is a sensible choice to buy and use. Probably a lack of research and development funds has stopped a unified lens line up from Pentax. I would buy a Pentax body in a flash if they took the M42 designs and put them into autofocus mounts. That half frame thing is a joke. It’s over priced and ugly.
Pentax does not need to enter into mirrorless, it needs to implement mirrorless features, such as contrast detect, eye, face AF into DSLR.
Personally, I would be interested in a film camera, but not one with a vertical film format.
I just think the demands of developing a camera body today is beyond most camera companies. The only sensors available are from Canon or Sony. You need high tech capacity for the embedded design and software required. It is not the days of building a film body. So if you are not Sony or Canon, the only viable segments are niche cameras, lenses and accessories. Sad, but it is what it is. You can make medium format bodies, action cams, perhaps specialised cameras for cell phones etc. Or lenses. Or stabilised tripods etc. Film is a huge gamble.
This isn't 1970, nor 1980. The world has changed so much that once were high demand products fade away. Examples: paper newspapers, utility bills, vinyl records (gasping for air), CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays. Why these companies continue to fight over the last 10% of photographers is insane. Sony and Canon should dominate. Don't need Nikon anymore. Their heyday was a long time ago. Maybe Fujifilm can hang in there. But really, it's trying to dig out of a hole that gets deeper every minute.
Since Sony dominates in sensor production, they will be around forever. Not up on what Canon does, but it seems to always be popular.
Now the Chinse lens companies are blowing things up with their above average and inexpensive lenses for a bunch of mounts. It's a crazy world. I'm sticking with Sony as they have a good hand in the photo and VIDEO market.
I have old GR-2 and was only slightly tempted by any GR-3 edition. Have not seen any in stock at B&H most of this year. Traded away all K-mount at end of 2017 to try more 'mainstream;' Nikon, Now I go out with one remaining FX Nikon DSLR and (2) FX Z bodies added this year.
PS- Why can't RICOH - Pentax provide compact mirrorless interchangeable lens bodies and lenses based on 'GR mount' and its' lenses used already? Is it a K-Mount or 'die' thing?
Until there are reasonably priced fast modern WR primes like 50mm, 35mm, 24mm for the crop, I don't care what Pentax body will be next.
Sometimes being in a niche is economically healthier than always having to sell millions of cameras in a shrinking market to make up for the outrageous development costs in the madness of the race for- sometimes even pointless- ever increasing specs. As a hobbyist/enthusiast who exposes his camera to very rough weather conditions on a regular basis I certainly will stay with Pentax forever as Pentax is in a league of its own when it comes to weather sealing. This plus the beautiful experience of using an OVF and my poor financial decision-making may even lead to me buying the K3 mark III Monochrome just because I want it. Not that I do not already have enough Pentax cameras but that they so often are special and sell you some sort of experience that other cameras- despite being lighter or having superior autofocus- don‘t offer. Pentax cameras despite their flaws have a soul. And they give me the feeling that I am the photographer and not the camera’s AI features. And that‘s why I‘m always drawn to Pentax DSLRs. And now I have to figure out how to explain to my girlfriend why I want to spend 2000€ on a DSLR that can only do black and white pictures.
I was in a similar situation to you regarding the Monochrome. Then a couple of months ago they were on offer for a while, and I managed to pick one up used (an Amazon customer return for just under £1700, which inexplicably they further discounted to £1340! Which I did not expect). I shoot around 70% B&W to 30% colour. Now with hindsight the full price would just about have been worth it to me. If unsure just shoot a lot of B&W film (Not cheap but more affordable than the Monochrome, and certainly lacking the low light capability) and be patient until a used one becomes available, though that might take some time and you might not save as much as me. I got lucky.
😭 I just want the DA*50-135 PLM . . . And the DA*200 PLM . . . And the DA*300 PLM
In all seriousness, Ricoh are doing a pretty good job overall, especially with the niche cameras they have been releasing over the recent years. However, I do think a good amount of Pentaxians would love to see a K1iii come to fruition 🤷
@@LeeIveson What about that 55-600 F/5.6? Lol
As much as I can see the value of today's mirrorless cameras, my next camera purchase is likely going to be a Pentax DSLR, as it's my best choice for doing astrophotography. DSLRs might be on the decline, but there's still a place for them.
Film became popular again, as it's a refreshing departure from digital photography. I don't get much joy from poking the surface of a touchscreen. I feel far more involved with the process of photography when there's physical controls that need to be moved. We wouldn't have digital cameras today, if it wasn't for the analog cameras that preceded them. The tactile nature of film required cameras to have mechanical knobs levers and buttons. Many of the interfaces of modern digital cameras replicate these as a convention. When designing a modern camera, it's possible to craft an interface style that blends both the tactile and the digital in a harmonious way (Fuji has been really good at this). The Pentax 17 is a perfect example of a camera that has taken a new approach of designing it's controls to offer a unique tactile experience for modern users that didn't grow up using film cameras.
I love cameras that have quirky interfaces that require you to use them in a different way, in order to get a useable image. I've always been intriqued by the idea of a camera that would capture an image on film and digital at the same time. It would probably involve some weird optical path using a beam splitter. Something like this could potentially offer an interface that had the live preview of a mirrorless, and yet still saved images to film using an analog mechanism.
I certainly hope Pentax's strategy for future profitability is successful and continue to make great products. I own the K-3iii and I would argue the ergonomics and pleasure of using this camera is as least as good (and probably better) as anything else on the market (DSLR or mirrorless). The same goes for image quality. I am sure this applies to other Pentax cameras. I hope the Pentax innovation and quality of products will pay dividends in pushing the company forward.
Pentax could be competitive Is to the used film camera Market by Recreating and improving on collectible style cameras. Think.
X pan, Mamiya 7, and premium point and shoot 35 mm.
If Pentax continues to be a successful company, but it doesn't make the kind of cameras I, personally, want to buy, then from my perspective, the result is the same as if they went out of business. I wish them well, but this doesn't change the fact that I've lost a choice. That doesn't mean they should try to compete head-to-head with Canon and Nikon in DSLRs or even high-end mirrorless cameras; if they can't do that, they have to remain profitable however they can. So people being as dismayed as if it was going out of business isn't contrary to the actual situation. I mean, if someone could make a cheap DSLR with a full-frame sensor and a screw mount, some people would be glad to be able to fully use their old lenses, but full-frame sensors are still expensive, and that's not a big market.
Pentax need to bring out a black and white mirrorless.
If you have a niche---and Pentax does---then live in your niche. Leica does just fine that way. You don’t have to be a cutting-edge innovator. A few years’ tech lag isn’t that important. Just keep doing better what you already do, and what attracts your customers in the first place. Invest in better glass, dedicated black-and-white, better IBIS, rugged reliable construction, etc. Like Leica you can bring out new products to expand the offerings every once in a while, but none of it has to be all that gee whiz. Go for quality and solidity and let your standard models develop an aura, like the Leica M---speaking of “old fashioned”.
Pentax partners in Russia have made exhibitions on a large scale and the marketing department has become much more active. There is hope that the brand may be doing well, but there are many issues with the technical implementation of products.
Interesting!
doubt it is a tough call. Pentax was treading water, and they pinned their development hopes on a weird half-frame camera, which is a really niche market. If they aren't building and selling new glass, new metal, then they are sinking, which shows they realize because fired their R&D. My guess is Ricoh will sell off current inventory and the brand to cut their losses.
I hope Pentax continues to live on. I'm glad I picked up the k3 monochrome - no regrets no matter what happens. I'd like to see Pentax do what Sigma should have done,that is, when Pentax comes out with their next model, design it modular enough so that they can sell versions of it in all the various dead and open mounts like E, L, and maybe m4/3. If Pentax does go mirrorless (again!), maybe they need to have the back of it be a big screen and a cell phone!
There’s way too much inventory on the used market for Pentax to manufacture new 35mm SLRs and lenses. Why pay for a $600 and up new camera when I can key a Pentax K1000 for $60.
@@vermontmike9800 Then why pay for a Nikon Z6 when you can buy a Nikon F70 on the used market? Why rent an apartment when you can rent a room?
Seems that at least initialy Pentax 17 was a success. Why would anyone buy zone focus, half frame compact with 1/350 max shutter for 500$ if you can buy pro-level AF, autowinder, high speed 35mm film camera for half of that or even less.
@@KobieMC because the Z6 is an improvement on previous models…which is the opposite with building the exact camera that is already plentiful on the used market.
Good luck to Pentax in remaking old film cameras. Now they are competing with used film camera market.
If they made a small street camera with interchangable lenses, that would be a new niche market. Only Fuji plays in this market and they are trying to be all things to all people. Pentax could achieve this with little R&D, they could join M43, that would provide many lenses. They could easily make some primes based off their existing know-how. Within m43 Lumix and OM have ignored travel and street genres. There is a ready made niche market.
I have no issues shooting street photos with EM5III and 12-50 or 25/1.7. Also 14-150 and 12-100/4 are my travell lenses for M4/3. There is no room in M4/3 for another camera player. Especially not for Ricoh with decade old live-view AF and barely any experience in that territory.
They should rather fix K3III into K3IV and replace K70/KF with some modern and more portable camera. Then focus on some modern lenses for APS-C. They almost commited suicide with K1 and FF experiment.
APS-C is perfect balance, but they cannot compete with Fuji at this point with current portfolio of overpriced obsolete cameras.
Well, K-1, because it has phase detection autofocus misses focus a lot, I would replace my K-1II with newer version if Pentax add contrast autofocus too, eye and face detection would be nice to have also. How? I do not know, maybe by placing another sensor with phase detection pixels where AF sensor is placed now. For weathersealed FF there is still no other choice but Pentax. Ricoh GR, while it is small, it is not a camera which is always with me. It is not weathersealed and shock proof, for that I choose OM TG-7, and it is literally always with me in a pocket. It has slow AF though. I would replace TG-7 for whatever camera if it has faster AF, weather seals and be shock proof. System camera with interchangeable lenses would be always bigger and not pocketable. I would prefer to have two cameras 28mm and 40mm, rather than having one camera and two lenses: changing lenses takes more time than putting one camera to a bag and taking another. Pentax 17 taught me that technical quality does not matter, content quality is what matter the most, that is why I am using TG-7 now. Second lesson: it is better to avoid high frequency contrast, architecture, faces are ok, grass, trees, or any other thing with small features is not going to look great on half-frame. I would skip film SLR in 135 format, but, probably I would buy film camera with fixed, sharp, lens and 120 format.
Why not produce compact APS-C mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras using the optical formulas/lenses as the limited lineup? The 31mm becomes a 47mm equivalent, their GR3 18mm could be their 28mm equivalent, etc.
Interchangeable lens camera won’t ever be compact. Take look at OM system, or any other system and compare it to Ricoh GR.
Kobi, people thought Vinyl was a fad on return, it's a huge business model now. Film is headed in that direction to. I think Pentax made a smart move there, but pricing for a simple light box is a tad high. I love my Pentax dslrs always will, but I love shooting film alongside it. It's definitely on the up and up 👍📷
There is one huge difference. If you buy vinyl record, you can play it forever. While with film camera you are constantly killed by high cost of film medium and processing. And yes Pentax 17 is ridiculously overpriced $150 simple camera. When I saw the disassembly video, it was obvious that there is nothing special/expensive inside. For $700 equivallent (price here) one would expect at least fully functional AF, shutter to be able to reach at least 1/2000s and full manual option in mode selector.
As old cameras die need repair or new camera. But that level of demand way down
IF they dont move to up to speed Mirrorless cameras, or create the fastest better ever DSLR camera I might need to lose money and jump out of the boat. Maybe keep one camera and the 21mm limited and then say goodbye to Pentax for good.
Why would you want the fastest better ever DSLR camera? To show off or to brag about it? Do not think that's going to improve the quality of your images. I can make wonderful images with my 50 year old Pentax Spotmatic. I've got multiple well functioning Pentax bodies and a nice line up of lenses. At this moment I really see no reason why I would have to say goodbye to Pentax....
@@haenzelv6287 Dani is a pro motorsports photographer. Press pass for F1, Le Mans 24 hour, etc. It definitely wouldn't be for bragging rights. It would be to make the job easier to keep clients happy.
@@haenzelv6287 I think you are missing my point totally. Why would I? Because I shoot Motorsports in a professional way my friend. And YES AF IS very important, and PRECISE focus it's even more important.
Yes of course you can do it manually, and bla bla bla. Reality is: The better the system, the better work you can achieve.
You might not, I might.
@@KobieMC That's it Kobie, and to not miss images. And to not need to shoot twice as pics to just in case get the photo because the AF is unreliable. Because I know i'm adding twice as much images to my bodies than the needed ones. Unfortunately the system we have is still a bit out of pace. And I would love it to keep the pace, or be super close to it.
Why DSLR? Because DSLR are great! Are fantastic tools, handling is great, etc etc etc.... But well, it is what it is.
I'm missing your point even more now. You don't shoot Motorsports in a professional way with Pentax , at least that's what I 'read'? (I wouldn't use it for that pupose) So why bother?
Pentax has always been innovative. There are so many ways they can go. The market is dominated by smartphones and mirrorless and Pentax has to evolve enough to stay true to its values and make products that sell. They have knowledge of mirrorless systems and lens design and no doubt they could take the aesthetic of the 17 and make digital doppelgänger. Anything is possible. We love what they do.
There is no Pentax any more. Ricoh does Ricoh things.. they had many experimental cameras that created some halo at the beginning and then vanished. Remember that Ricoh GXR with modules?
The GXR was a difficult concept which was brilliant and super niche where the sensor and lenses were matched technically and acted as sealed units to be mounted on the bodies to make a modular camera system. The virtues created limitations that made it difficult to give the design longevity. Pentax innovations were always more fundamental and were adopted by other brands. The camera market is a victim of its own success once mirrorless is fully matured, the sales will plateau and something radical will have to appear since no one will need a better camera. What defines better will itself be hard to define. The AI that makes smartphone photos is already in the mirrorless cameras and shooting JPEGs that can be delivered worldwide ready to go straight from the camera with almost no post-production is common in most new cameras. The marketing departments lead the charge away from DSLRs and thereby probably killed camera sales. Pentax is now afraid of feeling the pinch and wants to know what sells. Those of us who like making images are spoilt for choice in mirrorless options and those who have gone Mirrorless want retro industrial design in new cameras to make them feel authentic. If Pentax could perfect the Reflex K1 and also have a mirrorless version with some new dedicated lenses there might be room for them show their design innovation prowess. Pentax image quality is amongst the best and that will continue to make a case for choosing Pentax. The K3-III is carrying the DSLR torch. The K1 output is stunning. If they can update it they really should.
Have you ever seen a reporter, like Jim Grey, trying to get a raz or any extra info out of Ohtani? Not gonna happen. As far as strategy - If a younger crowd can appreciate a film camera because it's different, or whatever, maybe they can feel the same about a dslr. Maybe high performance lx retro design. Idk. Probably too small of a company.
I had been a Pentax user for like 30+ years. Sold everything, bought into Olympus M43 and not intend returning. Amazing, Pentax was living in that dream of DSLR staying afloat. Now they are surprised the marked for it is shrinking. Agreed, old stuff for the old folks :)
I thought I was going down the Olympus M43 route about 6 years ago, got a body and over time invested in a number of nice prime and zoom lenses but I retained my Pentax K-1ii and a bunch of Pentax primes and zooms. I pretty only used the Olympus for a long time but despite the small size and good AF i never fell in love with the handling and overall experience. It felt a little toy like and EVF made me fell removed from the scene. Eventually I picked up the K-1ii again and on the joy! Feels wonderful in the hand. The EVF gone from between me and the subject. It feels alive and involving. The experience is so much deeper. I get it that this is my experience and not yours but this is why there is a place for other than mirrorless. I don't a flying... About the technology. It's all about the feeling I get
If my interests would have stayed limited with only landscape- and night photography, i'd still be happy with Pentax. (Un?)fortunately i got interested in birding aswell and no DSLR can compete with newest hybrids in that regard. Wondering if i should keep K-1 and landscape lens or just dump it all as a down payment for Sony...
Don't expect to gain much from selling Pentax equipment. Its better to keep it for times when you want to play with pentaprism :D
Yeah, if I could afford to changei would be changing as well. Tired of having buttons and lenses fall apart. And just other little things where you think. The quality should be with the camera like this again if I could afford to change in a heart Beat
@@PentaxLife I've seen some here and there have dials break off, and a button pop off (AE-L on the K-3/II) but I've never had either of those issues in the past 10 years since I returned to Pentax. I've had lenses fall apart on Nikon though. It can happen with any brand I suppose.
I hope they drop the 6 or so flavors of bad kit lens (preferably the entire DA-L lineup) and keep 18-135 and 18-55 or maybe just the first one cos I cant imagine people who buy them with their cameras get a good impression of the system...I think its reasonable to suppose that the competing market for these are smartphones...and when you use those slow zooms you have to stop them down to get any reasonable results, your image looks just like one from a phone but with more work, bulk and cost...maybe there is some difference at the longer end but I doubt someone today would call the quality acceptable for anything other then pure documentary purposes (for birders and such).
Also if they realease a film SLR that is capable of mounting all the K lenses, it will help the sales of those and I dont even think that markets for film compacts and ILCs are the same, so its strange to me that the potential next film camera hinges on the success of the 17
18-55 you mean, I take it. That is a very good kit lens. (v.II)
@@northof-62 It very well may be for some but I think that the entire concept of such a lens is flawed in today's world.
From my experience there is a small window in the middle of the range where you get good results...but at that point I think that getting a prime is just better. It's much faster - therefore you get s unique look compared to the mentioned competition and I think that if you want to create a long term customer from a one time purchaser, you want him to be blown away by the results of his kit setup.
I would like to see the small DA primes rewised to be WR (if reasonably possible with the screwdrive), the 35mm faster and a 20ish mm added to replace all those kit zooms
@@kalinmir I see what you mean. Good points.
@@northof-62 it is not. It goes back to 2008 and it lacks on all fronts. Resolution is not good for 26Mpix APS-C even with F8, it has aberations and AF accuracy is nowhere near competitors. It was good in K100D era. But those times are over. I have very good DA18-55/3.5-5.6 WR version which I bought back in 2009 for my K20D as I wanted some WR lens that can be used in rain, but it is just sitting in cabinet since I bought K-5 with 18-135WR two years later.
And when I compare that thing even with tiny Olympus 14-42/3.5-5.6R, its different world. That olympus is small, quiet, AF is very fast and accurate, aberations barely noticeable even on uncorrected RAW and resolution wide open(!) is there for 20Mpix EM-5III. And to be honest even that DA18-135WR is horrible crap when compared to now already 8 years old but excellent Olympus 12-100/4 :D But sure, its different league, just in similar range.
They should develop some HD DA*16-135/4 :) But we only can dream about such thing as it will never happen.
@@kalinmir
DA15/4 rework, optically it is poor, WR
DA21 - rework, optically it is poor, WR
DA35 Macro WR, 9 rounded aperture blades
DA40 WR
DA70 WR
Faster lenses shall be FF. Even if they continue with APS-C bodies only, but if you make lets say 24/1.4, the cost, weight and size differences between FF and APS-C are not that significant to justify wasting millions of $ just for crop version. And APS-C body always enjoys better IBIS options with larger image circle. Similar with long telephotos. Only lenses that seriously benefit from crop sensor size are complex zooms. You can see it easily. Tamron has 16-300 and 18-400 lenses but there is no similar thing for FF.
And I want DA*16-135/4 :D
Excellent video 😮!
I'm still waiting for my 102mp 645 Pentax
Aren't we all lol
if they could make a cheap line of lenses, like those made by zigma and tamron, like zooms of 500-600mm and above. maybe would attract newer buyers as well as keep those who have Pentax right now. that the camera costs is ok, but you also want to be able to afford 3-5 lenses as well.
There are no cheap lenses. Even some $100 plastic lens does cost several millions of R&D money and NPI to bring it into production. Then you need to sell tons of those to cover that development cost. But there is no customer base for that thing in K mount world. 500mm zoom and cheap? You have no idea :D
@@xmeda hmmm, Tamron and zigma ran with the same lens but there were different mounts for different camera models. they had for Pentax a few years ago before they discontinued the K mount. think their prices they had before were reasonable. 1000-1500 dollars compared to my Pentax 150-450 which I paid about 2500 dollars for. to come down to half the price I consider cheap.
@@PUTDEVICE Tamron and Sigma had reasonable prices only because they were making the same lens for several mounts so they had tons of customers and millions of such lenses sold over years which refunded development cost and created profit. That is not possible to achieve for Ricoh with TINY customer base.
And now they cannot even reuse existing Sigma or Tamron lenses, because both Sigma and Tamron completely killed DSLR lens production and are only building mirrorless lenses. So for example OM Digital was able to order rebadged Sigma 150-600 with M4/3 mount and Tamron is building some of their lenses for Canon and Nikon as rebranded OEM, but Ricoh cannot do that, because it is not possible to adapt mirrorless lens to body with mirrorbox and 45.5mm registration distance.
Moreover even 15-30, 24-70 and 70-210 built by Tamron disappear soon like DA18-270 already did. They are all discontinued.
@@xmeda was roughly what I wrote.
Somebody should ask them about how long they are going to sell the stocked K1II as that thing obviously is not produced any more. And similar how long they can sell DFA15-30, DFA24-70 and DFA70-210 penTamrons which also are no longer produced by Tamron factory.
Asking about replacement for such lenses is.. well.. we know the answer. And I would really like to know if they at least consider making some K3IV with articulating screen, larger buffer and better live-view AF before they wrap it up with K mount and stick to GR compacts..
You can write mail to Ricoh as well as anyone else. As for K-1: depends on how much parts they have in storage. They may still have enough sensors and parts to manufacture small batches of it to fullfill r market requirement. Lenses may be tougher, but that also depends on contract with Tamron. Are those lenses Tamron made to Pentax tastes, or does Pentax have licence for manufacturing them? We know that Pentax is producing lenses so it may be as well that Tamron designed optical formula, but manufacturing is on Pentax side. Anyone knows who actually makes those?
@@jerzyjablonski1432 those are produced by Tamron as OEM. Pentax does not exist and Ricoh certainly does not have production lines for these lenses. It is just ordered custom version from Tamron like 18-250, 18-270 were. When Tamron discontinued those, a bit later they were discontinued by "Pentax". As a manufacturing engineer I have pretty good idea how much it cost to prepare production line for such product. And there is no way that Ricoh spent several millions of $ just to build small fraction of production numbers that Tamron was pulling. It will never pay the NPI cost.
@@xmeda There is no way so you do not know.
They could do a few new film SLRs, maybe they can make a medium film model as well. But the time window when market want this is narrow and Pentax development times are too long. They must speed up.
Their current line-up of lenses is very old. This needs new design, not just new coating on old lenses with optic design from 1960s. This is big issues with new really good lenses they can keep level of interest and help sales.
Pentax K1-III will be the most advanced new DSLR because it will be only 1 new DSLR at all. That is an issue they don't have future core product.
Mirrorless market for them closed due to investment requirements.
So somewhere in 2032-35 Pentax will be closed/sold if anyone will have interest for some IP rights.
GR will continue under Ricoh.
Or they somehow find money and people which come with new product, product which market wants and they are able to deliver.
Hahaha! It's so true! I'm gonna be 49 soon! (^o^ )
Will Pentax , be represented at Profusion. Next week. And are you going to attend to ask them questions. And possible interview. To become a Ambassador ??
Yes, both PENTAX and Ricoh Imaging will be exhibiting this year according to the list. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend this year.
Public informations are not about what someone had on mind, but what they said and how it was understood. Aaand I do not think you are right about SLR and young people, he clearly said that young people are not looking for that kind of product and that Pentax need to take that into account in their strategy. It does not look like they are thinking how to merket a DSLR to young people, but more like what product path to take to attract young people that are not interested in what DSLR part of Pentax is offering.
Could it be DSLR path of some form? Yeah, old school is fashionable and Pentax with a knack for creating really small bodies and pretty good designers could do Pentax version of Nikon Df that will not look like Frankenstein. But it does not really mean that it will be DSLR path. Pentax can be camera brand without DSLR, can be just compacts or some other products like mini-MILC Q style but there are endless possibilities and I think this is what Ricoh is evaluating, not marketing.
Yes that will probably happen. They will abandon K mount and only focus on GR compacts :(
DSLRs are dead end unless they will be able to create some hybrid body with secondary EVF viewfinder and much better live-view AF than they currently have to offer something special with the possible pentaprism naked eye experience. Such camera will be brutally expensive.. but that gamble might work.
No DSLR is just one path. It can be SLT path with new pentaprism glass OVF in such solution should be reasonable broth on FF. Can be MILC, can be whatever else. I, for one, will not buy a camera without optical viewfinder. In case new ones are not available I will go second hand and if needed film. But EVF is out of question.
So it is not like EVF is required for cameras to sell. It is more a matter to make it interesting for young people.
Let's note that while consumers claim size is important, they seem to prefer so-called full-frame sensors and pair them with lenses that are either relatively slow or relatively large.
I had just an interesting small talk with someone from Ricoh as I was bold enough to ask directly about it and that interview. They said that you are wrong (it is not about marketing) but we are wrong too it is not all doom and gloom. Ricoh is not opting out of DSLRs and they intend to offer new cameras in the future.
@@jerzyjablonski1432 So, the France rep was wrong with what he stated in the interview, fair enough.
I never said they were opting out of DSLR's. I reiterated that the camera business is profitable and they aren't going anywhere. It's just going to be tougher to reach a younger consumer since their overall experience is with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) in a purely digital fashion which is not the DSLR experience when using the viewfinder.
Marketing covers a large area. Such as market research, planning for the future, PR, and more traditionally, advertising, announcements of breakthroughs/new tech to showcasing and just talking about the products, features, capabilities. Most of what I mentioned in the video came from the words of Ricoh/Pentax France's answers to the questions asked.
Not that French rep was mistaken, he was talking more about short term strategy of Ricoh, that they are handling the rising interest in compacts and maybe film, not that they abandoned DSLR, just that short term strategy is not concentrated on them as they need to fulfill demand for small cameras.
Also if you understand marketing as entire decision/planning/development process then yes, it was more like this if I understood them well. They want to offer a product at price, time and moment where it will have interest of customers.
BTW I asked a bit about future support of K-3/3 and while I did not get clear answer, they said that Ricoh believes in products that can have long life and long support via software rather then tying software upgrades to releases of new bodies. So maybe we will be getting new free and paid software upgrades in future, but not necessarily new APSC body.
They need new leadership...
Pentax is going to sell the same stuff they did 50 years ago, and call it innovation.
LOL.
As with k3iii monochrome, Pentax could survive as poor man's Leica. Very low quantity, so few new bodies and lenses. Drop the zooms, just primes. It's tough because current marketing sadly relies on keeping hype. That's why Sony could spend 9 years marketing the same old aps-c sensor in 7 different camera bodies.
New Film Cameras in 2024 is wild! and Ludacris I shoot 35mm developed my own film there are millions of vintage cameras that are better higher quality and way cheaper than anything Pentax makes!
But it's new with a warranty and people are buying them!
You're jumping to conclusions. Pentax is talking about making the right savings, you talk about scaling down? What if they made processes more efficient, resulting in saving money?
Cmon. They already gutted whole R&D department to minimum, shrinked production, killed whole 645 system and they will continue doing so.. But the result is that they have no new products for market.
It has to scale down. The biggest issue will be lenses where third party vendors have stopped developing for the dslr flange distance.
In today's market, why does Pentax still exist? This isn't last century when people scrambled to buy Pentax cameras. People have cellphones and don't have a need for a dedicated camera.
Yet other manufacturers are selling millions of cameras..
@@xmeda Mostly for video, TH-camrs
@@GenX_in_the_wild no. Canon and Sony are selling photographic oriented cameras in large quantity. Nikon and Fuji lagging behind a bit. Even OM digital is doing 10 times better than Ricoh. Panasonic is more oriented on video production and of course some Sony cameras are. But you are not buying things like A7R5 or Canon R5II or Nikon R8 for video.
@@bondgabebond4907 spoken like somebody with no clue about photography… photographs with cell phones look comparatively horrible to camera photos… but beyond this… photographers have full control with cameras, and nearly none with cell-phone cameras… this is the prime reason for cell phone cameras being too-little for photographers
Well, I do have phone in one pocket and a camera in the other pocket. It is faster to draw, and operate a camera, also it could be done with one hand. I cannot draw a phone and make a photo with one hand without a risk of dropping it. I would say it is rather easy for advertising agency to show this.