14 DAY TRIAL // Ricoh announced a few new digital cameras at the CP+ Camera & Photo Imaging Show 2014 in Yokohama, including the Pentax 645D 2014 medium format digital SLR along with a new ultra wide-angle zoom lens, a new Q-mount telephoto macro lens, and a few new accessories.
In a recent interview for PentaxForums, Takashi Arai, product planning group, and Hiraku Kawauchi, public relations manager of Ricoh Imaging, revealed some of the firm's plans for the future of the Pentax brand.
With the increased popularity of the Ricoh GR and Pentax MX-1 compacts, the company officials said that Ricoh would continue developing premium compact digital cameras, although the overall trend of the segment is on decline due to the latest smartphone capabilities.
Moreover, Ricoh is also planning to further bring new products for its entry-level APS-C DSLR lineup, even if cameras such as the K-500 were not as popular as the K-50 model.
Regarding the future of the Q-mount cameras and in response to users’ request for EVF support on Q bodies, the two officials stated that, for the moment, there's no possibility of adding an EVF to current-generation Q-mount models, but the company is considering the possibility of adding this feature with future digital camera models.
When it comes to future lenses, Ricoh's officials said that the company is not planning to produce optics faster than f/1.4 and it's focusing more on compactness. Also, to close the current gap between the DA* 300mm f/4 ED IF SDM and DA 560mm f/5.6 ED AW optics, Ricoh plans to release a new telephoto zoom lens that covers a focal length somewhere between the aforementioned optics.
When asked about a possible full-frame DSLR model, the officials replied that, currently, the company is still involved with research and development for this segment, but no further information could be given at the time. Check out the full interview on the PentaxForums website.