Ricoh Are Not Exiting The Camera Market
Ricoh Imaging has put rumours to bed with a statement confirming their place in the camera industry.
13/04/2017 - 10:15
Ricoh Imaging has quickly shut down rumours that they are planning on leaving the camera market with an official statement.
In the statement, Ricoh says: "Today there was an article saying that Ricoh considers to shrink the camera business and withdraw from consumer products. This article is not based on Ricoh's official announcement."
The company plans to focus on 'high added value' products from the Pentax and GR ranges. Plus, they'll be expanding their VR / AR business further as this is an area they can see growth in.
The rumour created quite a bit of discussion on site so many members will be happy to hear that Ricoh Imaging isn't going anywhere.
Regards,

"Not going anywhere" is good, but standing there is not. I think Ricoh needs to improve and expand their marketing policy immediately and make the products available everywhere.
Quite agree. There's always 'something missing' when compared by the photo press to other brands - flash sync, burst speed, tethering or something else not quite as good as "another camera make"...... and, if not, they fall back (annoyingly and wrongly) on a comment about a perceived shortage of lenses (and with the K1 they're still correct).
The headline of "Ricoh are not exiting the camera market" is, unfortunately, missing the letter 'C' in "exiting".
Don't get me wrong - I'm perfectly happy with my Pentax but, let's face it, lenses are more expensive than other brands and there ARE some deficiencies that are singled out by the photo press. And the K1 has only a few (very expensive) lenses to match it.
Interesting that despite the rude comments I received on another thread it appears from this news item that Ricoh DO take note of what appears on websites.
get sigma and tamron on board and i think it would scare the living daylights out of a lot of people
ricoh now need to stand up to the major 3party lens companys and say come on its time you put us on a level playing field with the rest of them and produce lense which are only avalable on canon nikon and sony in our ball court until that happens we will be always classed as 3rd rate yet ricoh like asia was are the ones that was at the cutting edge of the development
get sigma and tamron on board and i think it would scare the living daylights out of a lot of people
I think Tamron have a tie-in with Ricoh in that they manufacture some lenses for Pentax, so you will note that where Tamron and Pentax lenses appear nearly identical the Tamrons are not available in K-mount; I guess that is part of the deal. Sigma stopped producing K-mount versions because the mechanical parts of the mount meant interrupting production for a special production run serving a small market; fully electronic mounts mean the lenses can be on a continuous production with just the different mounts from Nikon, Canon and Sony added at the end. With the latest K4 mount this could be achieved now but I don't know whether Ricoh has the appetite for licensing their mount to a rival, although we see new smaller lens makers adopting it.
ricoh now need to stand up to the major 3party lens companys and say come on its time you put us on a level playing field with the rest of them and produce lense which are only avalable on canon nikon and sony in our ball court until that happens we will be always classed as 3rd rate yet ricoh like asia was are the ones that was at the cutting edge of the development
get sigma and tamron on board and i think it would scare the living daylights out of a lot of people
This is the crux of the matter to some extent. There must be a lot of people like me who whilst they have retained some Pentax interest (I've kept my K3 and a couple of lenses) they have switched to Canon or Nikon because they have some advantages not least the availability of Tamron and Sigma lenses. I don't know if it is to do with the use of computers in lens technology construction but they have upped the game at the budget end and you can't get them in Pentax mount. The 150-600mm contemporary is astounding for wildlife for example and matches or beats the Pentax 150-400mm in some respects and costs just £750. Tamron have just announced a compact and lightish 18-400mm lens for $700 which may serve a purpose. I would have loved these on my K3.
Peter Elgar
18 yearsMember
BRENTWOOD,Essex,(UK)
been a member of Pentax Club since the Ron Spillman era! Got COMPUTERISED at last - DIGITISED? Taken the PLUNGE - BUT FILM STILL RULES !!!