At CES 2013 earlier this year, Hoya showed off a new series of lens filters called the HD2. The main feature of the filter set is its strength: each filter uses hardened glass that can take a serious beating without getting damaged or shattering.
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Back in July, we reported that Hoya had agreed to sell the Pentax camera business to Ricoh for roughly $124 million. The deal was completed over this past weekend, and now the business is officially called the “Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company”. Ricoh wanted Pentax — currently the 10th largest digicam brand — for its SLR technologies, so we might be seeing some increased activity from Ricoh and Pentax in the DSLR market very soon.
Image credit: big bang by { pranav }
Ricoh is purchasing the Pentax camera business from optical glass-maker Hoya for roughly 10 billion yen (~$124.2 million) in order to jump into the DSLR game. Hoya had purchased Pentax back in 2007 mainly for its medical technologies and was widely expected to sell off the camera division of the company. Ricoh already makes a number of quality compact cameras, but the market is slowly being eaten up by large-sensor interchangeable lens cameras and mobiles phones. The company is planning to continue using the Pentax brand name on its newly acquired camera lines.
(via Reuters via 1001 Noisy Cameras via Engadget)
Japanese website sankeibiz.jp is listing September 9th as the date Hoya will be announcing new DSLRs, presumably under its Pentax brand name. Here’s what the line looks like when translated by Google:
Word is that the DSLRs will be the Pentax K-r and Pentax K5. We’re also expecting Pentax to announce a new EVIL camera that is unlike anything currently on the market. If they don’t announce this camera on September 9th, it seems likely that it’ll come shortly before or during Photokina at the end of this month.
(via 1001 Noisy Cameras)
Yesterday Citigroup released a research report on Hoya for investors. What was interesting about the report (from a photographer’s standpoint) was a section on page 2 regarding the company’s digital camera business.
From the screenshot above (with the important part highlighted), we find the quote:
Hoya plans to release a mirrorless camera under Pentax brand that is distinct from models already on the market.
Basically it sounds like the company is planning to create a Pentax EVIL camera, and somehow differentiate it from other EVIL offerings currently available.
(via Photo Rumors)
According to Hoya founder Shigeru Yamanaka’s grandson, Yutaka Yamanaka, Hoya’s acquisition of Pentax may not have been the best business move. The younger Yamanaka said the $1 billion acquisition in 2007 was made mostly to expand Hoya’s involvement in medical optics, but turned out to be “overpriced.” Yamanaka, a Hoya shareholder, went so far as to say it was one of Hoya’s business “failures” which led to financial turbulence over the last three years until Pentax turned profitable.
In spite of Yamanaka’s disapproval of the Pentax purchase, it’s rumored that other companies might be interested in buying up Hoya’s unwanted acquisition. Canon Rumors reports that Canon attempted to buy Pentax, perhaps in order to control more of the DSLR marketshare, in direct competition with Sony. Sony may also be interested in Pentax’s user base. But so far, no word on whether Hoya’s ready to hand off Pentax anytime soon.
(via Bloomberg)
