[davidmanze]

Hi guys, well Ricoh officially signs to buy Pentax today! Will this herald a new era for Pentax cameras,will we see a full format DSLR? I know that Hoya has been looking for a buyer for some time, unconvinced that there is enough money in the extremely competitive camera market,but Ricoh is an established manufacturer who has already had a relationship with Pentax in as much as it used the Pentax bayonet on its film SLR's.What I hope for personally is this; 1. to keep up the developement of the DSLR range and especially a newly developed "system of autofocus" this has been the real plague of Pentax DSLR's!!!!!!! A new 3D system that works and is not colour sensitive and is accurate in low light must now be a must or forget it Pentax!(head hunt a couple of Nikon designers if the Pentax ones can not do the job!) We love our Pentaxs but when there is another back or front focus photo we have to love them through clenched teeth, please can we have a good system? Also,I would like to see the Pentax bayonet on the new Ricoh aps compact camera,they have made a 12mb module for Leica lenses(great lenses surely,but the most expensive also!)now it would be nice to see a Pentax module with maybe the same sensor as the K5 so we can have a compact where we can use our Pentax lenses ,especially the pancake limited series! To me that makes total sense.So lets be optimistic and write plenty of comments on what we the CUSTOMER wants so at least Ricoh will know.

Daves cliches

[boren]

[quote name='dave's clichés' timestamp='1317453084' post='12004']To me that makes total sense.So lets be optimistic and write plenty of comments on what we the CUSTOMER wants so at least Ricoh will know.[/quote]



As a Ricoh customer, I agree with most of what you say. Here's a summary of what I want Ricoh to do with Pentax technologies:

• K and Q mounts. It would be nice to see GXR modules for these mounts (with full AF and AE of course)
  
  
• Weather sealing in cameras and lenses. This applies to some of low-end products as well (the old K200D and the current 18-55 WR come to mind).
  
  
• Sensor shift technologies. Automatic tilt correction; Composition adjustment; Automatic correction for earth rotation when shooting night skies (using an optional GPS add-on)
  
  
• Green button. This could be a great addition to Ricoh's already excellent user interface.
  
  
• HyperManual. Specifically I'm interested in the ability to hold the AEL button and change aperture/shutter combinations with the dial while retaining the same exposure level. My KM 7D also has this, and it make M mode so much more convenient.
  
  
• HyperProgram. Basically the option to shift to A or S modes directly from P mode simply by turning the front or the rear wheel.
  
  
• JPEG engine. Much better than Ricoh. Less details smoothing, nicer color rendering, better chroma noise handling. However, the handling of reds at high-ISO can and should be improved.
  
  
• Video capabilities. Although Pentax is not a market leader when it comes to video functionality, it's still miles ahead of Ricoh. Videos have better resolution and less artifacts. It's also very nice to be able to use in-body IS during video capture.
  
  
• AA option. Makes more sense than AAA. Granted, Ricoh used to offer AA support in some of its older cameras (my GX8 being one such example).
  
  
• Rear dial that works reliably. Not that combo dial-button thingy that the GRD1 used.
  
  
• Digital preview. Better than taking test shots that get saved to the card for no reason.
  
  
• Wireless flash control. The Pentax implementation may not be an industry leading one, but it's still something that Ricoh lacks.
  
  

And here are a few things that Ricoh should avoid:

• SDM motors and other reliability issues. These include sensor stains, mirror overshoot or whatever its called and a few other annoyances. Ricoh already has enough reliability issues of its own. I hope the merged company gets its act together on this. For starters, all SDM lenses should be re-designed and the existing ones should be sold with a 5 year warranty. If Tamron can do it, so should Ricoh/Pentax.
  
  
• Firmware upgrade handling. Ricoh firmware upgrades are frequent, contain actual enhancements, and are better documented and communicated. If Ricoh does the same with the DSLR line, Pentax users are in for a treat.
  
  
• Lens selection and pricing. I hope Ricoh fixes some of the bad decisions made earlier (mostly by Hoya). To name but a few: Doubling the price of decades old 50/1.4 so that it becomes more expensive than all competitors (and to a lesser extent, doing the same with most other lenses); discontinuation of the 50/1.7 without a proper alternative; releasing a 35/2.4 that is both slower than the competition and with worse build quality; discontinuation of the very nice 35/2.0; discontinuation of the Tamron-based 18-250 without offering a proper alternative; releasing a poorly-performing and over-expensive 18-135; not offering any lens that's longer than 300mm; wasting efforts on releasing too many short prime lenses, most of which are slow and expensive compared to the competition ("Limited" as in /limited appeal/); Most obvious omissions compared to the competition: 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 400/5.6, 18-200 or 18-250. Release those (without SDM!) and there would hardly be any more complaints.
  
  
• Branding decisions. Choosing unpronounceable names for cameras ("[/b]ist" for some of the old DSLRs) and labeling some of the Q lenses "Toy lenses" are horrible decisions. I'm not sure they even make sense in the Japanese market, let alone anywhere else.
  
  
• Cooked RAW. What were they thinking? RAW should be RAW. Period.
  
  
• Unattractive menus. I know its only eye-candy, but both companies employ the least appealing menu design in the industry. I'm sure they can spruce it up a bit without negatively impacting usability (which is perfectly fine in both).
  
  

The way I see it the pros outweigh the cons by a large margin (even if not in word count), and as a (mostly) Ricoh user I'm very excited by the prospects of this merger.

[arvydas]

I would add couple features from A12 - no AA filter and focus assist features (like peaking on NEX).



A.

[finaldesignrb]

[quote name='boren' timestamp='1317464077' post='12006']

...Ricoh to do with Pentax technologies:

[*]K and Q mounts. It would be nice to see GXR modules for these mounts (with full AF and AE of course)

[/quote]



That is a really cool thought, that you could have the same camera body with sensors optimized for autofocused Pentax Full Frame lenses, and/or a sensor optimized for Pentax half frame lenses, and/or a module optimized for tiny Pentax Q lenses. Does or will Ricoh make a module for micro four thirds lenses as well? That could end up being an even more incredibly flexible camera.

[boren]

Currently the M-mount module is the only GXR mount module that's available. All other modules include fixed lenses. I'd expect to see Pentax mount modules before another "foreign" one.

[netrex]

[quote name='boren' timestamp='1317464077' post='12006']

• Unattractive menus. I know its only eye-candy, but both companies employ the least appealing menu design in the industry. I'm sure they can spruce it up a bit without negatively impacting usability (which is perfectly fine in both).
  
  

[/quote]

Unattractive menus? Are you talking about Pentax or Ricoh now? If it's Pentax, what are you on about? A menu system should be function and usability driven, not looks, that makes no sense what so ever. I have no problems with the Pentax menus at all, they work fine as they are, I certainly hope they're wasting time on it just for the looks. The menus do not look ugly, or good, it's just a menu, I don't see how this matters at all. It's not a website we're talking about here. I've seen the menues in Canon and Nikon DSLRs, the same thing, they're also just menus, and they don't look either good or bad.