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Is this the end of the Pentax as a great camera?
"Ricoh on Friday said it will acquire Hoya Corp.’s Pentax brand as a bid to strengthen its position in the still-growing digital SLR camera market.
The Japanese company says it will begin using the Pentax name on its own branded camera products. Terms weren’t disclosed, but AFP pegs it at $124 million.
While the company has long made cameras, and now offers mostly compact digital cameras, Ricoh has in recent years more strongly supported its enterprise copier and multifunction printer businesses. The Pentax deal bolsters its consumer presence and serves as growth for the company."
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I was planning on buying a K-r soon, but this really changes things. I hope they continue the current Pentax models and build on the company's history. I won't be buying now until I hear more about what Ricoh does.
California's northern coast
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A cause for concern yes, but I don't think it spells doom necessarily. But maybe. I don't know. I'm surprised to learn about this, frankly.
If Ricoh wants to continue to develop Pentax DSLRs and the 645D along the current path, that would be a good thing.
If they just want the brand name to apply to their digicams, that would be a bad thing.
http://www.ricoh.com/release/2011/pdf/0701.pdf
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SDGuy wrote:
Pentax DSLR owners should be wary of Ricoh...with good reason...
SDGuy this has nothing to do with anything.
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I don't think there is cause to worry. Pentax's dslr lines will fill a hole in Ricoh's product lineup. And ricoh has been producing excellent digital cameras for a while, albeit not as well known as other brands. I've owned ricoh digitals and pentax slrs/dslrs.
PS: using non-dslr lens on pentax dslr bodies has always been problematic starting with the screw mount adapters. I had problems wih k100 and a pentax brand zoom and swore off doing it again.
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pqrst, I hope you are correct and I think there is some merit to your theory. Hoya has no consumer products and no interest in running a consumer business; Ricoh does. The press release (I know it may not turn out to be truthful) states that Hoya and Richoh/Pentax will cooperate on new products. It was known all along that Hoya's main interest was in Pentax's medical optics business.
For reaction, this is worth looking at:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com...l#comments
I find myself looking at this site more often lately than dpreview, for news and reaction. Dpreview's forums are too loaded with knee-jerking know-it-all-whiners who have no clue as to what they're talking about.
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Konica / Minolta certainly didn't do Minolta any favors... and I'm still waiting for Sony (purchased all Minolta patents) to announce SOMETHING about Minolta compatibility that is major news. That's only been.... 5 years?
