The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Ricoh acquiring Pentax!

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Not sure if this is good or bad, but there are a number of acquisitions going on today - Hasselblad was also bought by some investor I heard.

I think they (at least the smaller one's) have to look to join forces in order to be able to stay competitive.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Well I hop it's good for the Ricoh users, and for the Pentax users too. Pentax has been through some poor times although their current K5 seems a good body. I don't know that Ricoh has had too many difficulties in recent years.

Hope for the best for both.
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Well I hop it's good for the Ricoh users, and for the Pentax users too. Pentax has been through some poor times although their current K5 seems a good body. I don't know that Ricoh has had too many difficulties in recent years.

Hope for the best for both.
Well it turns out Ricoh apparently is valued at over $20 billion dollars which puts it bigger than several other companies. The question of course is what will Ricoh do. Is the Pentax Q still flying? From what I read the 645D is safe. Looks like the K-mount is also safe (would be in a way kind of stupid to buy Pentax and not continue the K-mount unless Ricoh was solely interested in the intellectual property, but doesn't read that way from the press release).

As for Pentax Imaging, the last year for them was profitable bouncing a downward train. But they need more sustained ups for sure.

- Raist
 

Terry

New member
Hopefully for 645D users Ricoh will be able to pick up the pace of lens development and make that system even more attractive.
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Ricoh becomes Pentax for some digital cameras...

http://www.ricoh.com/release/2011/0701_1.html

"On completion of the Acquisition, Ricoh will begin to use the PENTAX brand name for some of its digital camera products, and HOYA will continue to use the PENTAX brand name for their endoscopes and other products.

Furthermore, with the Acquisition, both companies will cooperate with each other to increase the value of the PENTAX brand. "

Sounds like good news to me.

I still think it's important for Ricoh to officially state what the new directions are for each line- or to state "course unchaged." But the fact they are using the Pentax name for at least some of its digital cameras bodes very well that this isn't just an intellectual property grab & burial.

- Raist
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Hopefully for 645D users Ricoh will be able to pick up the pace of lens development and make that system even more attractive.
Well remember the 645D can use all the 645 film mount lenses. I have one of those and the lens is actually pretty good. They need to come up with weather sealing due to the 645D sporting that as a feature though.

- Raist
 

Terry

New member
Well remember the 645D can use all the 645 film mount lenses. I have one of those and the lens is actually pretty good. They need to come up with weather sealing due to the 645D sporting that as a feature though.

- Raist
But even Pentax didn't recommend a lot of those lenses and most I thought were not current production.
 

sagar

Member
I think this is the best thing that could have happened to PENTAX. Ricoh and Pentax both make camera for photographers and from where I see their product philosophies go very well together. I feel like PENTAX is in a safe hands ;)

Interesting thing I am imagining is, down the line Ricoh may relase K-Mount for GXR taking all those sweet Pentax primes. If it happens, that could be best mirrorless compact produced till date. On the other note, this also will underline versatility of GXR concept in the long run.
 

woodmancy

Subscriber Member
I think this is the best thing that could have happened to PENTAX. Ricoh and Pentax both make camera for photographers and from where I see their product philosophies go very well together. I feel like PENTAX is in a safe hands ;)

Interesting thing I am imagining is, down the line Ricoh may relase K-Mount for GXR taking all those sweet Pentax primes. If it happens, that could be best mirrorless compact produced till date. On the other note, this also will underline versatility of GXR concept in the long run.
+1
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Sounds like a WIN/WIN for Ricoh and Pentax. This makes the Q-mount camera even more insignificant in my eyes as the GXR seems to be a "better" and more versatile product for about the same price.
 

Terry

New member
Interesting thing I am imagining is, down the line Ricoh may relase K-Mount for GXR taking all those sweet Pentax primes. If it happens, that could be best mirrorless compact produced till date. On the other note, this also will underline versatility of GXR concept in the long run.
I thought about that but they are still meant for a camera with a mirror box so the module would be unnecessarily deep.
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
But even Pentax didn't recommend a lot of those lenses and most I thought were not current production.
Terry, where did you see that? Many of the film-era lenses do quite well with the 645D and to my knowledge, 645 lenses production has been moved to Viet Nam. Most of the 645 lenses can be purchased new in Asia and Europe.

Tom
 

Terry

New member
When I watched the video with a Pentax rep on Luminous Landscape when the camera was just becoming available in Canada/US. There were other mentions at the time that lenses were being redeveloped to handle the demands of high resolution digital sensors.
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
I remember that video, as I recall it was more about CA appearing with digital that was unseen using film rather than resolution or any other aspect.

Tom

NB: In any event, this announcement makes me a bit concerned about the future of the 645D. I was already concerned with Hoya's indifference to DSLRs, so maybe I should be relieved?
 
I read the news around 5am this morning and had no idea such a thing was in the works. I'm not really bothered by it and will, like the rest of you, have to take a wait and see attitude.

No point in jumping ship. Some of the other forums are all jacked up about it and saying the end is near, the sky is falling, Etc.. but that is to be expected. There will always be those who hate change and see the glass half empty as opposed to half full.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
When I watched the video with a Pentax rep on Luminous Landscape when the camera was just becoming available in Canada/US. There were other mentions at the time that lenses were being redeveloped to handle the demands of high resolution digital sensors.
I understood this same way!
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I thought about that but they are still meant for a camera with a mirror box so the module would be unnecessarily deep.
Ricoh's a pretty good sized company. They have a lot of camera and lens expertise, just not in the DSLR or Medium Format Digital space. My impression is that they've been doing pretty well and have not been at risk at all. It's Pentax that's had the financial problems and has now been bought twice. So I think we have to consider this from the Ricoh perspective, since it is Ricoh buying the Pentax brand and technology from Hoya, not Pentax driving the deal. Pentax technologies are essentially being split up, the camera portion of the company separated from the medical portion.

I feel the mainstream SLR domain is coming to a close and the mirrorless digital camera on the rise. In the mirrorless domain, Ricoh has been very innovative with the GXR system. The "Camera Module A12" with Leica M mount is just about ready to ship for the GXR system: it would be extremely easy to provide adaptation for M42 and K-mount lenses (it already exists through third party adapters!) and not too much more daunting to build a dedicated K-mount version, with more features dedicated to the Pentax K mount lens specifics.

More interesting would be creating dedicated A12 camera modules with integrated lenses like an "A12 31 Limited", "A12 60 Limited", "A12 105 Limited" camera modules based on the DA21, DA40, DA70 (all great, compact optics designed for an APS-C sensor, amongst others) would be another way to expand Ricoh's GXR system more swiftly than for Ricoh to develop the optics from scratch.

I had read some rumors shortly after it was announced that the Pentax Q system was actually being manufactured by Ricoh. I have no idea of the truth of that and can't remember where I read it, but if true it would now make sense.

It will be very interesting to see where this goes. I do hope it's a positive for everyone.
 

D&A

Well-known member
Terry, where did you see that? Many of the film-era lenses do quite well with the 645D and to my knowledge, 645 lenses production has been moved to Viet Nam. Most of the 645 lenses can be purchased new in Asia and Europe.

Tom
Hi Terry, Tom & All,

There are elements of truth to both your statement (above) with regards of using film era Pentax 645 lenses with the 645D depending which division of Pentax one speaks with and to whom inside the company. The offical Pentax USA view was that there was too much variability in given samples of the same model of lens. It wasn't so much CA (although thats true too and would apply really to many film era lenses by anyone when used on a digital body)...but the varing degree of tolerance and optical adjustment of samples of any given model lens. A lenses adjustment was initially fine for film use, but often there was too great of variable optical performance that would be seen with many samples, when they are used on the 645D. With some model lenses the differences due to tight tolerances would be very small if any (such as with the FA 120mm f4 645 macro on the 645D)...other times the differences between samples were tremendous. As I often have posted, in my testing of multiple samples of almost all film era 645 lenses on the 645D...I would concur with Pentax USA assessments. Pentax Japan also acknowledged these issues but their public statements regarding this were less pronounced than those expressed by Pentax USA and other worldwide Pentax divisions.

If after finding/purchasing a particular sample of a given FA 645 lens, one is willing to test it against other samples of the same lens, often times, they will find marked differences in the range from wide open to two stops down from max. aperture. With some lens the differences can be substantial.

As for production continuing on all film era 645 lenses, it's my understanding that most of it came to a halt prior to the 645D release and the initial months after that camera was on the market and that any new samples we saw coming out of Asia and elsewhere was new old stock from either retail stores or within Pentax Japan's warehouses. Recently with the success of the 645D, it appears production of some/most of these film era lenses may begin again but I think with what's been happening, I'm not sure how far along this idea is from happening.

It's similar to when Pentax was sold to Hoya (or just prior to it) with regards to the film era 35mm SLR lenses. There was a lot of old stock which kept the retail market pipeline busy for quite a while and then Pentax released (dumped) it all onto the worldwide open market to 2-3 large retailers (at firesale prices) which then sold many of them (including many top of the line, high end ones) to the public. I recall that time vividly. I think Pentax Japan also cleared out stocks of these 645 film era lenses, but there were far less of them and since basically production of film 645 cameras had halted a number of years ago...relaease of most of the remaining ones, was performeed on a gradual basis. I would think (although this is just an assumption at this point) some of the most needed and popular focal length ones will be resurrected, to fill in gaps in focal lengths where new WR lenses are still way off from being released.

Regarding the 35mm K mount, lets not forget there is a Ricoh connetion. In the 35mm film era days, some of Ricoh's 35mm film era SLR's had their version of the K mount which was similar to Pentax's...abeit with slight differences. Often times certain Ricoh's K mount lenses would catch if mounted onto a Pentax SLR and had difficulty coming off. Other times it would mount and release just fine. I almost feel with Ricoh's innovatve approach to some of their photographic products over many years, that there is the potential to keep Pentax's nitch approach going with regards to some of the recent Pentax announcements. How though this will fit in with the 645D I'm not sure and that to me is more of a "?" than the 35mm DSLR division moving forward.

Dave (D&A)
 
Last edited:

D&A

Well-known member
Godfrey said---"I had read some rumors shortly after it was announced that the Pentax Q system was actually being manufactured by Ricoh. I have no idea of the truth of that and can't remember where I read it, but if true it would now make sense."<<<

Yes, completely agree! If Ricoh had developed this system, it would fit in perfectly with Ricoh's philosophy now and as far back as I can remember. Even more so than Pentax, Ricoh view for product development and for a different approach to products was always unique....although some were successful in the marketplace, others not so much. They also seemed to lack R&D money, so many of these unique Ricoh products fell by the wayside. I actually think in some ways, the takeover of Pentax by Ricoh may end up being good for 35mm/APS/P&S products but how things move forward with the 645D is another question.

Dave (D&A)
 
Top