New DSLR Rumour Mill

will Pentax join the L-mount alliance?

While I have believed for some time that this is the best route for Ricoh to take, there's nothing to suggest it will be the case. Their announcement states that they will continue with DSLRs, so that rules out the L-mount as the venture they mention.

Really is a sad day for me to be honest.

Also what a frustrating random message. I’ve seen people saying it’s great to bring clarity but I’m not really seeing any of that myself.

It’s been so long since any new camera release and to get something saying the lens mount is over but nothing else is really odd.

A very sad day indeed, but sadly not that unexpected.

I’ve only ever owned and used Pentax gear, so, going forward I guess it’s time to investigate which system to move over to (when my 300mm da* sdm finally dies, that will be the moment I’ll have to make a choice).

You can convert it to screwdrive and be stuck with Pentax forever!

So I also read it as the end of the K-mount, with Pentax 'leveraging' the legacy...

But many on the US site are reading it the other way.

K series DSLR cameras as we know them are finished, but the K-mount lives on in the new designs.

K-mount is alive, K-series has ended. They've not discontinued all the lenses.

So, no K1iii or K3iv.

K mount has morphed many times. Could it morph again? When does a morphed K mount become a different mount? If a mount is a morphed K mount as long as K mount lenses can be mounted, then in a weird sense the Q mount + adapter is a (hugely) morphed K mount because K mount lenses can be used albeit with restricted functionality.

Steve

I've read Ricoh's statement a few times and I'm not sure that it specifically says it's the end of the K mount, rather it's the end of the K-series DSLRs. Talking of "leverage" is the point where it becomes a little vague so I guess we'll have to wait and see what it actually means in due course.

Meanwhile, we have a few K mount DSLRs that will keep us going for a long time and a few more K mount lenses that can be kept in use on Pentax cameras, or others with adapters no doubt.

It's looked like a stock clearance for a while now, so not totally surprising, but a new concept will be interesting if and when it arrives.

My cameras have not stopped working, my K mount lenses in all their guises (original K, M, A, F, FA, DA, DFA) all still work. The doom and gloom naysayers and out in force as are the mirrorless superfan trolls - it's amazing how Pentax just seems to wind them up.

A few things stand out.

The hard news is one sentence in the middle: production of the current K-series ends. Everything around it is heritage and promise. That's the standard Japanese corporate shape for an announcement they know will land badly — good news, bad news, reassurance — and the ordering tells you they consider the discontinuation the part that needs cushioning.

The gap is the real story. They say the new camera will take "まだ時間を要する" — still some time — with no date, no year, not even a hint. Meanwhile production stops now. So there'll be a period, plausibly a long one, where you cannot buy a new Pentax DSLR at all. Companies don't usually kill a line before the replacement is ready unless something forced their hand: sensor supply, parts, or the volumes simply not justifying another run of the K-1 II and K-3 III.

The wording on the replacement is doing careful work. They say 一眼レフ, not mirrorless, twice, and they say it'll use the K-mount lens legacy "そのまま" — as-is, no adapter implied. So: mirror box, optical finder, native flange distance. And "全く新たなコンセプト" plus all the language about the value of the act of shooting and the time spent shooting being rich in itself — that's the Pentax 17 philosophy transplanted onto a digital body. It reads like a deliberately pared-back camera built around the shooting experience rather than a spec sheet, not a K-1 III.

How much to trust it is the open question. Ricoh Imaging is small, and "we'll announce when information is ready" is a phrase that can cover anything from an 18-month development cycle to a project that quietly never ships. The optimistic read is that they've committed publicly to the reflex format at a moment when nobody else has, which is a strange thing to say out loud if you don't mean it. The pessimistic read is that this is a dignified way to wind down while keeping goodwill.

Practically, if you've got K-mount glass: it isn't stranded, they've gone out of their way to say so, and nothing here touches lens production, the GR line, or the film cameras. But if you were ever going to want a spare or a second body, the new stock of K-1 II and K-3 III is now finite, and the used market for both will firm up over the next few months.

The big question is of course "should I get an extra camera body now while they're still available or should I wait and save the money to see what this new concept is?".

The answer really depends on how you feel about Pentax in its recent forms - does the K1 Mkii or the K3 Mkiii (and older models) do what you want/need in a way you enjoy? Is there something missing from your own Pentax experience that you believe could be filled by the new concept? Personally I want so little more from a camera - maybe the AF could be improved and I like clean high iso images so further progress in that area would be nice, But the current cameras are well built, WR, produce superb quality images and have the best viewfinders out there (IMO).

In a way I'm a bit relieved - I haven't needed most of the gear I have bought over the last few years - perhaps now I will stop spending and spend more time on a bit of actual photo making

The compute from the K-3iii into a K-1 or the sensor from the K-1 into the K-3iii would be goldilocks for me. When I use the K-1 after the K-3iii it feels slow but the K-3iii output is not as clean as the K-1. Nothing is wrong with either camera, they both perform their roles perfectly. But an updated K-1 would have been fab for me. Now we wait and see what they have in mind. In the meantime, I'll take some photos.

The only niggle I have is keeping my blood pressure in check when I read comments from mirrorless fanboi's, the people who have left the fold and strangely enough keep dropping their opinions on all things Pentax and the newer fashion of recommending a different mount + adapter anytime there is Pentax news. I get that we all have different opinions, I get that the majority have followed the industry into a mirrorless system but I personally can't use them, it hurts my eyes / brain so I have 2 options, Pentax with an OVF or Leica with a rangefinder. I could probably sell all my Pentax gear and pick up a newish Leica and a lens or two but crikey, its an expensive switch.

Ricoh's statement sounds like they had help writing it from 'None Stick Starmer'. I did wonder what he might be doing now.
Talk about waffle to cover all bases.
Their GR range could morph a bit more and be used as a future cover up on parts of the statement, should prospects deteriorate.
On the plus side I hopefully await the new SLR.
Currently liking the GR4 and K1 mk2 mixing my usage as needed.
Typing on the mobile so forgive my bluntness.

A bit late to the party,
I have read a few comments on what others would like as there preferred specs and layout on a new DSLR, I like the layout on my K3ii with the mode dial on the left and the small screen on the right, this combined with a tilting touch screen similar to the Fuji X-T3 would be great, I am not a fan of the flip out screens as they are a pain to use on a tripod with an L bracket ( one of the reasons I haven't replaced my X-T3 with an X-t4 ) I am happy with the output I get from my K3II for personal use and the odd club competition I think 26 megapixel is enough or maybe up it to 40 megapixel like the X-T5.
My tuppence worth.