So what are you going to do RE: Ricoh purchase of Pentax

I voted No and it has nothing to do with the takeover.
I just hope they won't change Pentax into Pencoh, Ritax, Ricohtax or whatever...

I'm not sure. But Pentax having been bought won't change my plans either way.

Ricoh aren't going to abandon them or dump the K mount, they're not that daft. I could well see them reintroducing some of the older DSLRs as budget models under the Ricoh brand as has been suggested by others.

I answered No in the Poll but just because I have Everything I need right now, (did I really just say that).

Indeed this would mean that they will lose all the current Pentax shooters and since they don't have a DSLR of their own they can use all the lead start they can.

I would love to see some plans from Ricoh though to comfort us a bit

If the TC and/or the long telephoto materialise then being an optimist I voted yes...

a £1000-£1200 400 mm lens would be perfect. An affordable 400 mm would be fantastic for the brand since the available primes are either expensive 2.8 jobbies, or are old like the Canon f5.6. The 100-400 EF or Nikkor 80-400 are old tech (I've been advised to go for 70-200 plus TC rather than the 80-400.

Even with the D3 and my newly acquired 1.7 TC-17EII won't stop Pentax purchases.

I still reckon Pentax would do well to expand the cheap prime range. Something like a 135mm f3.5 or 200mm f4 with the same quality as the 35/2.4 would fly off the shelves without damaging the brand. People wanting zooms, lenses with WR, faster apertures or just preferring the all-metal construction would still buy the * ranges.

I think there is a fair bit of difference between those two from what I have read. The Canon is a very good lens whereas the one from Nikon is one of their worst.

The Canon is probably the best in it's class if you can live with the trombone "Dust Pump" zoom action, unless you can shell out £5000 on the Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED

John

Leonie's 100-400 has been at Fixations for repair for the past month as the AF packed up on safari (it had already been at Fixations but they could not find the fault) and I was led to believe only Pentax had unreliable AF

The 80-400 AF-D is only slammed for the slow AF.... it certainly isn't on Ken Rockwell's 10 of the worst list which contains some gems (thankfully none of my lenses come on there), one of which is the old 24-120 VR f3.5-5.6, the VRII f4 is a different animal.

I've seen (supposedly) informed speculations as to the near-past and -future:

* that Ricoh collaborated in the Q design;
* that GXR will be a transformative mirrorless platform;
* that GXR mount/sensor modules will be released for (at least) K, Q, and Leica M
(which could also mean Nikon/Canon modules, depending on patents/licenses);
* that FF modules are possible.

No, Ricoh won't kill Pentax, but will hybridize. The DNA swap should be interesting.

Eh?

Isn't that just a list of what you were asking HERE

I don't see any informed speculation whatsoever about Canikon modules or much else for that matter.

I have owned one ricoh camera. I had a kr wayy back when... it was a solid, nicely spec'd camera. I had owned it as an upgrade to my first k1000, and as a back up to my mz5. Ricoh also had some very impressive p&s cameras over the years, of which, a few were very advanced for thier time. never had the northamerican market share to compete though, and ricoh got out of the slr market and chased the p&s market which we all know is being killed by competition from cell phones. now they wand back in. makes sense for them. will hope ricoh can make Pentax branded cameras that innovate, and expand....

Didn't Ricoh make a solar powered SLR years ago?

Just thinking it would be a neat trick if your DSLR could recharge its batteries from daylight. I doubt the solar cells could power the thing alone but if they could top up the battery charge while you were having lunch in a cafe with the camera on the table next to you...

it was one of those "Good Idea, Bad Idea" scenarios..... keep your batteries charged=Good Idea. Leaving your camera sitting out in the sun= Bad Idea....

Now sticking solar panels and a 12 volt battery onto an electrically cooled beer cooler.... better idea, more cooling power when you need it!

Ricoh made several Half-Frame cameras with a clockwork motor in them
Expect to see something similar in the next DSLR.

I think they were attracted to Pentax when they first saw all the multi-coloured K-x's and K-r's.... It was after all Ricoh's original idea and reminded them of the way they like to Jazz up the joint and get on down! They were way ahead of their time in the 70's just look at the pages in this book on ebay link

Now they need a TV commercial with 'Cool and the Gang' advertising all this Funky Stuff!