News from Ricoh - K-1 III is Still Under Development and etc.

From a latest post in the Xitek Pentax forum, an interview with the Ricoh senior officials (from the product development and planning divisions) in a recent marketing event in Taipei was cited.

The key messages delivered are summarised as follows: 

 

1. The K-1 III is still under development. More time is required with a higher precision aimed on the design as well as owing to the difficulty in sourcing certain components and parts for the new camera.

2. The film camera project is in good progress but further details will not be disclosed. Nonetheless, collaboration with other film product manufacturers will be made for determining a right selling price and marketing strategy.

3. Feasibility for the revival of the Q system is being carried out, subject to the requests made by the Pentax fans in Japan. But considering the limitation of the Q system, it would be unlikely.

4. The 645 system is in its end of development, production of the remaining products will last for a certain period of time.

5. Mirrorless is not a viable option for Pentax.

6. New DFA* wide angle lens(es) and replacement of the DA*50-135 are being considered according to market needs.

The Pentax 645 Digital Lineup is Really Done

See the official discontinued lens list here, even the DFA 55/2.8 SDM and DFA 90/2.8 Macro SR lenses are now included:

So, the Pentax 645 digital lineup is really done, as it is shown and can be confirmed, regardless of any official statement made about this fact. :-(  And, those 645 gear of Pentax has become collectors' items now, just like the Q gear. 

Why Pentax Has Failed at Mirrorless?

See what PetaPixel says about the failure of Pentax in the mirrorless market, despite the efforts paid in the past two decades.

By the way, for what PP has listed out for the 37 interchangeable lens digital cameras wich Pentax has ever produced, I have bought more than one-third of all the models as follows:

From 2003 to 2021: My Pentax APS-C bodies acquired: *ist D/DS/DL2, K-100D, K-m, K-x, K-r, K-5, KP and K-3III, total 10 out of the 29 models produced.

From 2011 to 2014: I bought the original Q and the Q7, hence 2 out of 4.

From 2016 to 2021: I got the K-1, but I don't think Pentax has really produced 2 full-frame bodies as the K-1 II actually is just a mild variant of the original K-1.

From 2010 to 2014: I purchased the 645D, 1 out of 2 for the medium format bodies.

So, I acquired a total of 14 Pentax models out of the 37 that they have produced.

Besides what PP has mentioned about the causes the failure, which I generally agree with, I think from the user's perspective and practical point of view, the K-01 and the Q series failed in two major ways, which are the lack of EVF and fast Wi-Fi support. I consider that these are basic essential features nowadays, especially for mirrorless cameras and for easy social media sharing on-the-go. All in all, the external LCD monitor is really rather difficult to view under bright light environment outdoor. Without an EVF, it is indifferent to shoot blindly and composition and shooting have become rather difficult with such handicapped mirrorless cameras.

Who Will Buy This?

Metabones Devil's Speed Booster Q666 0.50x

Any market? I just wonder.. :-o

Pentax Q System is Aborted?

According to this Pentax Rumors article, the Pentax Q family of products have been removed from the Ricoh Imaging US website completely. So, does it mean that the development and marketing of the Q line has come to an end? Possibly it does, I'm afraid. :-(

New Q Lens Patents (F2.8 Tele Zoom Macro and F1.8 Tele Prime)

http://lovepentax.blogspot.com/2014/05/06-telephoto-zoom-macro.html



http://lovepentax.blogspot.com/2014/05/pentax-09-telephoto-prime-lens.html



All Q lenses are designed for 1/1.7" sensors for their image circle, of course, which seems to be the maximum size of a sensor that can be put into any Q body.

Speaking of lens patents, RP has yet got another new lens patent of an ultra-wide lens used with 43 sensors, but what 43 camera and system they have? So, this is mysterious:

http://egami.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2014-08-10



N.B. All the original links above are in Japanese.

The New Q is Named the Q-S1

http://digicame-info.com/2014/07/qq-s1.html
(in Japanese)

Probably, this is just a Q7 with an original Q shell in a different painted dress, i.e., a 1/1.7" sensor inside. As an original Q user, I am sure that I will not buy one. The colour game of Pentax and Ricoh is just a history for me and I am sure I shall not buy a new Pentax camera anymore for the sake of its colour and appearance, unless Ricoh yet produces something real in the future, which they have not done that for long! >:(

A New Q is Coming

http://digicame-info.com/2014/07/pentax-q2.html
(in Japanese)

Will be called a Q2 or Q-S1.

Q7 Premium Kit Limited

http://news.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/rim_info2/2014/20140403_004972.html

・PENTAX Q7 camera body (Color: black x black)
・PENTAX-01 STANDARD PRIME (Color: black)
・PENTAX-02 STANDARD ZOOM (Color: black)
・PENTAX-06 TELEPHOTO ZOOM
・PENTAX-08 WIDE ZOOM
・MH-RB40.5 Metal Hood for 01 (Color: black)*
・PH-RBB40.5 Plastic Hood for 02
・PH-RBA40.5 Plastic Hood for 06
・PH-RBF49 Plastic Hood for 08
・PENTAX -100 PL Polarizing filter**
・O-CB133 Camera Bag
・Special kit box

Japanese Best DSLR/ILDC Sellers in 2013

http://bcnranking.jp/news/1312/131227_27056.html
(in Japanese, Google translation to English Here.)

So, Pentax K-30 is on the list, ranked no. 11 amongst the best DSLR sellers of the big 20. As for ILDC, the three Pentax Qs are all on the list, namely no. 7 for the Q10, no. 15 for the Q and no. 18 for the Q7. Not bad results indeed.

New Q Body Firmwares Released

http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/support/digital/q_s.html

http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/support/digital/q10_s.html

http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/support/digital/q7_s.html

Well, will there be a new firmware upgrade, whenever a new lens is released and marketed? :-o

Official: Details of New Q System 08 Wide Zoom Lens

Via: http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/japan/products/q7/lenses/index.html

In short,  the following are the specs:

- 3.8-5.9mm, 35mm equivalent on Q7 is 17.5-27mm
- Maximum apertures from F3.7 to F4
- 3 glass-molded aspherical elements
- 38mm in length and 75g in weight

My Best Optimal Custom Image (Colour) Setting Combination for the Later Pentax Digital Bodies

Well, here it is:



The above was first tested out with my K-5, of which the hue output was always not correct for most of my Pentax digital lenses for all of the built-in custom image profiles, even for the Natural profile, which was supposed to be colour accurate. So, I sat down to think what's wrong and observed quite some of my old photos made with the K-5..

My conclusion was that green colours are lacking yellow. Skin tones are lacking red, orange colours could contain more red. Thus and therefore I made the above hue shift. Btw, the most unfortunate thing is that no official documentation could ever tell the user what are the actual effect and meaning for changing this setting! >:-o Nonetheless, one drawback of the above is Blue colours now contain more green, thus they could be more cyanish. But the factory defaults are too blueish for many things anyway!

Still, two obvious problems with the Natural mode is the lower contrast and saturation for most lenses and shooting situations and thus I bumped up both for 1 step. As for the sharpness, I found that the standard Sharpening method (parameter set) is yet the best and 1 step up will make the JPEG directly out of camera to be more usable, while balancing well with both sharpening artifacts and noise.

On the other hand, I noticed that some Pentax users said that the K-5 series bodies are a bit cool for the AWB. But actually I don't find the same. The AWB is accurate but the problem primitively lies with the wrong hue shift. In order to verify this, just set the camera in preset white balance in particular the daylight WB and then shoot under sunlight, this can be proven and confirmed, example test here. For instance, that is something like what they set:



So, the ABOVE is NOT recommended! The incorrect hue shift will not be completed corrected but yet new yellow cast will be introduced for quite some situations. After all, my recommendation is to leave the AWB at default settings, ONLY changing the colour profile is needed and will work.

With the same optimal colour profile used with my K-5, I put it into my Q and it still works like a charm! :-D





After all, I would not post any of my sample images this time. Just try it out yourself to see if it is better or much better and things have actually improved! :-) And, I am always happy to share even everything could just be "useless as usual", as what my haters and fanboys said! ;-p

When the Wrong Lens Hood is Used for the Same Lens..

Then vignetting or even dark corners will happen, for the case of the same Q 02 lens that is used on a Q/Q10 versus a Q7, see the following test:

http://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/K0000264454/SortID=16353126/?Reload=%8C%9F%8D%F5
(in Japanese, Google translation to English Here.)

So, the new flower-shaped lens hood must be purchased separately for the old lens owners, otherwise the old lens hood cannot be used, since it is incompatible.

It seems that Pentax had no good planning in changing the sensor size, so just causing this problem.

Btw, according to the test results, the dark corners are even larger in area when the automatic lens correction is turned off. Do note also the serious barrel distortion of the 02 lens that actually produced, which is terrible:



When it is corrected, it looks somehow better, see and compare:



So, nowadays, the trend of those camera and lens manufacturers are giving us junk lenses, and then images are corrected by software. Of course, there is no free lunch after all, some IQ must be lost and the correction would never be perfect.

Shooting Moon with the Pentax Q and a F*300/4.5 K-mount Lens

Here is the result (from direct JPEG out of the Q, no major re-touching but just only resizing along with light sharpening):



( Click to Enlarge - All Rights Reserved: RiceHigh (c)2013 )

And the combo of my gear that used:



Indeed, there are quite some advantages of using the Q in shooting this type of photos, namely:

1. No mirror slap and even no shutter shock of any during the course of shooting, as electronic shutter is solely used;

2. Large magnification with higher pixel count and not much cropping is needed. The above is with effective focal length of 1680mm in 135, i.e., 300mm x 5.6;

3. Live View mode with focus peaking is especially useful for critical focusing with highest focusing accuracy that is required.

And, some techniques of mine:

1. Use spot metering and M mode, trying to expose to the Right as far as possible but avoid any highlight clipping. (As for the White Balance, AWB is just fine and will do the job);

2. Use IR remote controller to trigger the shutter (no Q camera supports the cable release) and take the shot to avoid any vibration at that very high magnification. Actually, some oscillations could be seen if the shutter release button is pressed directly;

3. Use MF focus peaking in 2X or 4X to achieve even more accurate focusing. Choose the right magnification can help even better centering of the moon. In my case, I chose 2X, as shown below:



4. Do not use very high ISO of the Q as details will lose significantly and dynamic range will be more limited. I chose ISO 250 for the best compromise of a higher shutter speed but not too high an ISO speed;

5. Stop down the lens for sharper result. The above exposure combination is f/8 and 1/125s at ISO 250, i.e, one stop faster than base ISO.

Last but not least, a very high quality K-mount prime lens like my F*300/4.5 is required. Otherwise, all those optical imperfection will appear (as they are greatly magnified with the 5.6X crop factor) before anything is recorded! :-o


Related:

The Unbalanced Q - Part 2.5: Photo Samples

The Unbalanced Q - Part 2 (with a K-mount Lens)

Total Lunar Eclipse (2011-12-10, at Hong Kong)

Q 07 Mount Shield Lens User Samples

http://www.dchome.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1216412

So, the IQ of this lens really sucks. This can be treated as special effect, though, provided that it is liked.

New Pentax Reviews: Q7 and K-50

1. DPR's Q7 review is out. Wow, it is completed published so quickly this time. Has Ricoh done something? ;-)

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentax-q7

The overall mark given is quite low, though.

2. Full K-50 review at PF:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/pentax-k-50-review/conclusion.html

So, this is the key point of the conclusion:

"With that said, the K-50 is essentially nothing more than a K-30 in a redesigned casing.  The differences that do exist between these two cameras are subtle and do not affect image quality or usability.  The only new feature to speak of is dedicated support for eye-fi wireless SD cards.  Thus, relative to the competition, Pentax has stood still for about a year now."

"The one thing that discourages us from recommending the K-50 is the fact that it's so similar to the K-30." 

A Latest Interview with the Japanese Ricoh Head

The Chinese Fengniao editors interviewed the Ricoh head who is in charge of the Pentax camera business just a few days ago, when he came to China for something:

http://qicai.fengniao.com/387/3874303.html
(in Simplified Chinese, Google English Translation Here.)

I've opted to translate some key excerpts of the interview and putting aside all the other marketing bullshits (although many things are still bullshiting, which I can't help and avoid!), as follows:


Q: With the integration of Pentax and Ricoh, will the brand Pentax be removed in the end?

A: No, we have no plan to do so. For those products which are special enough, they will continue to carry the Pentax badge, like the Q and WG series. Otherwise, some adjustments would be needed.

My comment: Did he mean that only mediocre products should carry the Ricoh badge? ;-p And do note that the K series is not mentioned! :-o


A: The ex-Pentax and Ricoh staff of the development team are now working together as a team and at the same place. They can complement each other for the shortcomings amongst them. Because of the integration, some staff are now travelling in longer distances. An Hi-end product is being developed by the team. (But what it actually is was not disclosed.)

My comment: I do not believe in what he said for that "hi-end" thing, according to his past tracking records! :-o 


Q: Now, what's going on for the Pentax Full Frame thing?

A: Our development team is still working on it and the project is not aborted.

Q: What Pentax is to do to tackle with the higher pixel count and new generation of sensors with new functions by the competitors, like the newly developed one used in the Canon 70D?

A: To be a responsible company, we are not chasing only the pixel count, as higher pixel count means worse noise and high ISO performance. That's the reason that we did not follow blindly.

My comment: I have only two words to say: BULL SHIT!

 
Q: All the 16MP Pentax cameras are with the same architecture?

A: No. They are different and the newer is better. If one is going to disassemble the cameras, the differences can be seen.

My comments: Bull shitting again, as usual. Is he going to tell us the K-30 and K-50 are much different, putting aside the body shell?! He forgot that there are also official specifications of the cameras?! Actually, Pentaxians are good at disassembling cameras and lenses! And my Blog has documented many of those, here.


Other things that told by the Ricoh Head himself:

- The K-01 Blue White (Smurfs) edition was endorsed by Marc Newson for the colour combination.

- The K-01 was not discontinued owing to the low demand. But it was discontinued owing to the higher demand than that the production could meet. 

My comment: Man, are you serious? Are you kidding? You are a LIAR!!


Oh, I've really given up at this point. This guy is really helpless and the replies are mostly junk. I do appreciate the direct and acute questions that the Fengniao editors have asked for us, for what we all Pentaxians have been concerning most, though! Thanks, guys! :-)

Q7/Q10 Designers' Stories (Interviews)

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/interview/20130719_607368.html

The above article is in Japanese, an Excite machine-translation to English can be found here.

Actually, there is not much useful information that we do not know, but if you still want to read it further, just click the above! ;-)

Recent Pentax Tidbits

1. An original Leica-made Pentax 645 lenses to S body adaptor:



Via: http://info.xitek.com/news/201307/17-128176.html (in Chinese)

Now those FA 645D lenses can be operated on the Leica S body with AE and AF, for compatible lens models, my beloved FA120/4 Macro lens is excluded, though! :-(

2. An original lens case for the Pentax Q 02 and 06 zoom lenses:



Via: http://www.yaotomi.co.jp/blog/used/2013/06/pentax-q-o-cc1332.html (in Japanese)

According to this Japanese shopping site, the price of this lens case is about $44 US Dollars equivalent, in average.

Speaking of buying Pentax accessories at Japan, the official Japanese Pentax online shop contains some of the old Pentax accessories that you would never imagine before that something are still available and could be purchased!


For instance, this little rubber cap for covering the cable release socket of my MZ-S (and also for the 645NII, but not the 645D, which uses the cheap CS-205 which is just the Canon RS-60 clone) melted over time and deformed, I think I would need to buy a new one!

3. New Ricoh GR Review at the IR:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ricoh-gr/ricoh-grA.HTM

Well, it can be noted that the Image Quality of the camera is not really that good, note the red colour smear and loss of details of all the test samples and crops, even at the lowest ISO speed of 100! :-o

4. New DxOMark results for the K-50:

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Publications/DxOMark-Reviews/Pentax-K-50-review-attractive-performance-but-is-there-any-improvement-on-earlier-iterations/Pentax-K-50-versus-competition

Well, it is proven that the K-50 is just the K-30 inside. As we all knew, the K-50 is simply a repackaged K-30 with a stereo microphone but nothing more! >:-(