RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: PENTAX is Gone! >:-(

Friday, January 17, 2014

PENTAX is Gone! >:-(

Thanks for the alert from our Japanese reader "qwe", that's what we saw in the latest CES!

(Source: DC Watch)

Oh, it's really too bad, although was well expected! >:-(

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MrBig · 584 weeks ago

For the first time in my entire life, I totally agree with you Mr. High
Ricoh lied to us all. And I for one will never buy into their crap. Not now, not ever. - RIP Pentax

I'd also add that no one deserve more backlash than you Mr. High.
All you've ever done was troll the brand to no end.
Looks like you finally got your wish.

And so, it's good-bye Pentax and good riddance Rice High as well.

1 reply · active 584 weeks ago

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phoenix15 · 584 weeks ago

So what will you do now Rice ?
I just noticed also, Adam, the owner of PF, is now running nikonforums ! It is really bad indication for the future pentax's brand existence, overall.

3 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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Jean Pierre · 584 weeks ago

Don't worry! Ricohs Marketing devision knows very good, that the brand PENTAX will not disapear yet! Why?
Because to much owner of Pentax-Products will be disapointed and will not buy NEW RICOH Products made by Pentax manufactury!
We have to live with the two names on the Pentax Product. And that is not a problem. The existing digicam products made by Pentax will still exist as Pentax brand!!!!

Of course what the futur will be..... new digicam made by Ricoh..... well....... maybe Sony or Samsung can swollow Ricoh one day..... who knows....

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foton · 584 weeks ago

By the way, Sony has done away totally with the "Minolta" brand for cameras. Ricoh, at least, is keeping the "Pentax" logo on their cameras.

3 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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anonymous · 584 weeks ago

Keeping "Pentax" logo on their cameras won't be long. It makes no marketing sense to keep the word "Pentax" when i see not relation to the text at the picture of Ricoh booth. Why spent the time telling people they are looking at "Ricoh" and then put "Pentax" on the cameras anymore? It's clear the path they are taking, and they have every right to do so. In fact, many companies re-brand the same products under new names to try to restart a product line.

2 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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Andrés · 584 weeks ago

Not true. I still can see on the forehead of almost every cameras showed on that picture, except on Ricoh´s GRs of course.

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anonymous · 584 weeks ago

What i meant is that it hasn't happened, but it will based on the evidence of their marketing happen soon. But it's just my personal opinion. The whole points of marketing and such is so people recognize the brand and remember the brand. I don't see why they would market Ricoh the brand this aggressively over Pentax and then turn around letting you forget about Ricoh by putting Pentax on the camera, at least not for long.

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Dan Johnson · 584 weeks ago

"Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me", I shouldn't have chosen a DSLR because I was proud of my 35mm SLR. I just hope Ricehigh can tell me the best path for my K-mount lenses, but he ain't to blame for warning me. All my glass is Full-Frame, most of which is manual focus, the only Pentax lenses I've got are 50mm f/1.2 (both A&M) and a 100mm WR Macro (on which I don't find auto-focus a big plus) so a Nikon or Canon look good to me. I might eventually R&R a Sony mount for my existing K-5s (because most of the good parts of my Pentax are made by Sony), the 24mp & 36mp Sony image sensors are good enough for Nikon as well as me, so I won't be a Pentaxian in the 11th. hour but I am until then no matter what Ricoh says.

5 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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tipentax · 584 weeks ago

Canon too is mainly a photocopier company, Ricoh wants to kill Canon in every market so they buy Pentax for the DSLR market.

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zosX · 584 weeks ago

It's simple. Either accept it or get over it and move on. Without Ricoh there would be no Pentax anyways. Give some credit!

1 reply · active 584 weeks ago

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Sylv1D · 584 weeks ago

Too bad, all my Pentax labelled lenses and my trusty K5 won't work anymore, just because there's no Ricoh brand on them...
Come on, Asahi-->Asahi-Pentax--->Pentax-->Hoya-Pentax-->Pentax-Ricoh-->Ricoh gear can still be used !

1 reply · active 584 weeks ago

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pentaxfools · 584 weeks ago

Support for the k-mount died some time ago. Decades ago Pentax faded from the pro market then the consumer market slid into obscurity. Pentax has been in slow death mode both feeding from it's existing costumer base while at the same time driving those in this customer base with cash to other brands. While this was occurring the folks over at PF were playing with their fiddles as Rome burned. Maybe if honest decent was permitted at PF Pentax would have better understood what the folks that have the cash to purchase new products wanted. I think without the Rosy propaganda site PF Pentax may have made better business decisions.. .

+7 Vote up Vote down

Anonimity is Great · 584 weeks ago

Same old "pentax is dead" news sharing with same old some-old-geeky-lonely-got-nothing-else-to-do-guy-so-disappointed-by-pentax-that-he-just-trolls-wherever-he-went commenting. Move along, internet people. Nothing to see here.

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pentaxfools · 584 weeks ago

No one wished for Pentax to fail. Some clearly saw it coming. Am I Disappointed in Pentax? Absolutely, I am always disappointed when I make I bad investment decision. You win some and you loose some.
As fart as trolling?? Get over yourself because some one does not agree with you does not indicate they are a troll.
Are they talking about this over at PF or has the topic been banned or relegate yet?

4 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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Chris · 584 weeks ago

I just bought a K-3 - wonderful camera, probably the best APS-C, and the best affordable semi-pro DSLR on the market. Excellent ergonomics, full of features yet easy to use.... I could go on forever about this.

Next, I purchased the 18-270 SDM for movie clips, plus the 20-40 Ltd. to complete my collection. Both excel at what they were bought for. The 20-40 is very sharp, very well built, maybe a bit too big (comparable to the 31 Ltd which I own but rarely bother to carry around).

Oh yeah sure, but Ricoh has decided not to use the Pentax name on the front of one of their booths at a business exhibition. Especially the CES, which is - we all know - a specialized camera-only exhibition which would mandate the use of Pentax on the front. So we're all gonna die, aren't we?

5 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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pentaxlowend · 584 weeks ago

maybe fullframe under Richo is coming

2 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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Traitor Joe · 584 weeks ago

Not a surprise at all. I cant wait to see how the "fanboys In Denial" club at PF try to rationalize this! I wonder how long it will be before the Pentax name comes off the lenses?

1 reply · active 584 weeks ago

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Bukaj · 584 weeks ago

On the other hand, the Pentax started as a product line of a differently named company, JUST like today's Panasonic Lumix - it was the Asahi's Pentax cameras. The brand was since then used as a name of the whole company, as it was well recognised at the time. But I see this as going back to the roots of what Pentax was - I like their cameras and would be unhappy if the 'Pentax' cameras left the market, but I like Ricoh cameras as well and do not mind having the Ricoh name written on the back (like 'Asahi' on my LX). And I do not care what the name of the show booth is, as long as the company gives us quality products like it did in the past...

2 replies · active 584 weeks ago

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Linus · 584 weeks ago

I think it would be self-evidently foolish for Ricoh to drop the Pentax namesake on cameras altogether.

And I think that the smartest thing that's happened to the Pentax brand (at least with respect to aps-c cameras) in the last decade is its commitment to weather sealing.

I also think Rice High is right to continue to ask tough questions of the company.

It isn't hard to imagine that Pentax branded cameras can continue to get by with under 10% of dslr market share (and of course it's less when the question is interchangeable lens camera market share [which includes mirrorless]) for now but can they continue to be profitable and invest in the r&d and licensing to make them more competitive with Canon, Nikon, and Sony? Brands rarely last as long as the Pentax brand has already.

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myllis · 584 weeks ago

Shit happens! As long as products are as good as K-3. I don't care. And this thing was already assumed.

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Friday, January 17, 2014

PENTAX is Gone! >:-(

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