Ricoh has put up a new teaser page for its upcoming full frame Pentax DSLR. Back in February 2015, Ricoh announced that the camera would arrive by the end of the year. It looks like that date got pushed back a bit, as the website now says the debut will happen in Spring of 2016.
The Pentax 645D has received yet another major drop in price. Originally retailing for $10,000 when it was introduced five years ago, this 40 MP medium format monster is now selling for $4,000, less than half the price. We may not all be ready to whip out our wallets, but at less than $4,000 the 645D boasts one of the best digital medium format values on the market.
I’m an experienced wedding photographer who has wanted digital medium format for a long time. I use a pair of 1D Xs with the typical lenses that you would expect a wedding shooter to use. I never was intending on replacing my Canon gear, but rather supplementing it. My idea was use the medium format for location shooting, and use my Canon’s for everything else.
Shooting flash photography with a wide open aperture on a bright summer day can feel almost impossible sometimes. You have a collection of beautiful shots that could use flash, but due to the sheer amount of light coming into your lens your flash units can’t keep up with the situation. You may be able to use an ND filter to cut down on the light, but your flash units will also have to compensate in the process. Now, professional lighting company, Priolite, has a solution they say will allow Pentax photographers to shoot Hot Sync flashes at speeds up to 1/8000th of a second.
Ricoh wants to win photographers over to its Pentax K-S line of DSLRs. The company's first offering, the K-S1, was laughed at for its strange futuristic design that included strange glowing lights in different parts of the camera body. Some called it the worst camera of 2014, and a botched marketing photo didn't help the cause.
Today Ricoh unveiled a successor that aims to turn the tide of public opinion. The K-S2 is a 20MP APS-C sensor DSLR that opts for a safer and more traditional design.
If you're a Pentax shooter who has been waiting for years to buy a full-frame K-mount DSLR, your wait will soon be coming to an end. Pentax parent company Ricoh has finally officially announced that it's developing a full frame Pentax DSLR.
Ricoh Imaging added a set of 'tasty' new colors to its Pentax K-S1 lineup this past week, but its marketing for the camera appears to be backfiring. Photographers are groaning about a promo for the new camera colors. The ad (shown above) uses a badly Photoshopped stock photo to show off the camera.
If you prefer your camera to be as fashionable as it is functional, Ricoh Imaging’s newest editions of the LED-laden Pentax K-S1 series are just for you. The three new cameras are part of the ‘Sweets Collection,’ a moniker that accentuates the white bodies and vibrant color accents that each of the new versions flaunts.
Details on the matter are scarce, but Ricoh’s European Product Manager Laurence Bouly has officially confirmed in an interview that Pentax is hard at work developing a full-frame DSLR, even going so far as to pull the curtains off two FF lenses at Photokina.
Ricoh last night unveiled the newest camera in its portable Q-Series line of mirrorless shooters: the Pentax Q-S1. The new camera is beautiful, and extremely customizable in that regard, but if you were hoping for serious hardware improvements, you might be left wanting.
Leica and Hasselblad should take a page out of Ricoh's book: when you release a limited-edition camera, you don't slap a hello kitty sticker or some fancy wood on it. You do what Ricoh did with the limited-edition Pentax K-3 'Prestige' and cover the thing in gunmetal.
Make no mistake, this K-3 can beat up your K-3... or pretty much any other DSLR you own.
Photo bogs are always speculating what the next 'megapixel war' will be. For high-end cameras, it seems the answer to that question is the high ISO war, but for the entry-level shooters, an argument could be made for a 'burst mode war.'
Case in point, Ricoh just debuted the Pentax XG-1: a new entry-level superzoom that packs in some serious speed and reach, while hobbling the camera in other areas.
The video-capable medium format Pentax 645z boasts 76 weather seals that make it cold-resistant, dustproof and weather-resistant... but just how "dustproof" and "weather-resistant" are we talking here?
When the medium-format Pentax 645Z was announced, we were given a price point of $8,500 and a release date of "June 2014." Of course, there are 30 days in June, so if you've pre-ordered yours and you'd like a more specific date to anticipate, you'll be happy to note that Ricoh Imaging Japan has provided one.
If you're commissioned to make an ad for a major camera company, might we make a small suggestion? Don't show any cameras. It might seem like a stupid idea on the surface, but when you consider the effectiveness of the Canon ad we shared a couple of weeks ago and this Pentax ad we're sharing today, you might just agree with us.
It's here. The Pentax 645Z Medium Format camera has arrived just as the rumor sites said it would, and the camera's release date was far from the only rumor that has proven to be 100% true. In fact, we'll have to look hard to find anything they got wrong.
In addition to actually announcing the much-praised 50mm f/1.4 Art lens last week, Sigma also revealed a useful unknown feature for the new 50, as well as some hardware updates for their entire glass line-up.
The rumor sites are hard at work when it comes to Pentax's soon-to-be-released medium format shooter, the 645z, and it looks like it paid off. In addition to the leaked photos and details from yesterday, we now have a comprehensive spec list that contains some very interesting tidbits indeed.
If you're just now considering getting into digital medium format photography, then you've picked a great time. CMOS sensors are making their way into just about every brand, 4K video is too, and now, it looks like the entry-level price bar might be dropping as well.
To the world of lens mount adapters comes a new creation by Adaptist. Called the Pentax K+ Multi-Mount, this adapter takes a unique approach to the mounting system allowing you to attach Nikon F-mount, Olympus OM-mount, Contax/Yashica C/Y-mount and Konica AR-mount lenses (in addition to the standard K-mount, of course) to your Pentax DSLR, all within this one integrated solution.
We weren't able to send anyone all the way to CP+ this year, and some of the products and details emerging from the trade show have us a little sad about that.
We already shared the news that Fuji will soon be debuting a 50mm tele conversion lens for the X100/s, and now we've got some specs and price information for the upcoming Pentax 645D CMOS Medium Format camera.
So much for a medium format CMOS sensor being a novel idea. Following closely behind Hasseblad and Phase One's CMOS medium format announcements is the news that Ricoh is working on its own CMOS MF model, a followup to the 645D that is tentatively being called the Pentax 645D 2014.
In addition to the rugged cameras announced earlier, Ricoh also unveiled the long-awaited 1.4x rear teleconverter first mentioned at Photokina in 2008 (H/T to PopPhoto for that little tidbit). Fortunately, they seem to have done a bang up job with it, so we'll excuse the delay.
It's February, which means Ricoh is right on schedule when it comes to introducing the new 'rugged' cameras in the Pentax WG line... except they're not called Pentax anymore. For the first time since acquiring the brand, Ricoh has dropped the Pentax name from these cameras entirely by introducing the updated Ricoh WG-4, WG-4 GPS and WG-20.
You might not thing there was much economic clout left in the Kodak brand, but apparently it still carries some weight in the courtroom.
The one-time photography monolith recently won a $76 million judgement from Japanese electronics conglomerate Ricoh to settle a dispute over patent licenses and royalties.
Since its spec sheet leaked on Monday, there's been plenty of buzz surrounding Pentax's newly-released K-3 APS-C DSLR. Many are particularly atwitter about the K-3's unique anti-aliasing system, which relies on a vibrating sensor to remove moire-effects. Because it's not filter-based, the effect can be turned off.
Therefore, the K-3 offers the moire-eliminating effect of an anti-aliasing filter when it's needed, and the greater sharpness of a filterless sensor when it's not. Not only do people care about this innovation, but for many it was a cardinal feature of the camera.
The K-3 webpage leaked yesterday (and along with it much of the information we now have) but now we're done with leaks and rumors: Ricoh Imaging's Pentax K-3 is official. A beastly APS-C shooter with a stacked spec sheet, the camera is sure to please serious photographers.
We've said it before and we'll say it again, October is looking to be a big month for camera announcements. And of course, along with announcements come leaks. Case in point: the upcoming Pentax K-3 isn't supposed to be announced for another 24 hours or so, but someone at Ricoh accidentally let the webpage go live briefly.
Early last month, just days after Carl Zeiss rebranded itself simply as "ZEISS," Pentax Ricoh announced that it would be dropping the Pentax from its name, reverting the "Pentax" name to brand status. Now that people have had a month to let that news sink in, Ricoh is making the first major post-name-change alterations by rebranding the Pentax websites and social network accounts.
A few days ago, we shared the news that Carl Zeiss was rebranding. In an attempt to present a "more consistent image," the company decided to officially change (or rather shorten) its name to just ZEISS. It was minor news but it seems the idea has caught on, because earlier today, Pentax Ricoh announced a name change of its own.
Pentax had a big announcement day today, unleashing three new cameras on the world of photography. The K-50 and K-500 are new mid- and entry-level DSLRs (respectively), and the Q7 is a new mirrorless camera that carries on the pint-sized tradition started by the Pentax Q back in 2011.
For beginners in the world of photography, getting a good grasp on the types of lenses available and when you might want to use them is an important step. So, given that there's a lot of glass out there, we thought we'd share this basic lens intro from Pentax.
Pentax has announced its latest line of uber-durable "adventureproof" compact cameras. There are three distinct cameras in the lineup: the WG-3, the WG-3 GPS, and the WG-10. All three are designed to take a beating and survive in locations that would be hazardous to other cameras' health.
Olympus isn't the only camera company toying around with the concept of cheap body cap lenses. At the CP+ show in Japan, Pentax took the wraps off a body cap lens of its own for its Q system line of mirrorless cameras. Officially called the "Mount Cap Lens," the accessory is a pint-sized hyper-focal lens that will reportedly produce toy-camera-style photographs.
It seems camera companies are trying to target Japanese anime fans these days. In September 2011, we wrote about how Leica had teamed up with the designer of Gundam (not to be confused with Gangnam) for a limited edition mech-themed V-LUX 30 digital camera.
Now Pentax, the king of bizarre special edition cameras, has forged an anime partnership of its own. The company has announced a limited edition line of Q10 mirrorless cameras that carry Neon Genesis Evangelion branding and colors.
One of Pentax's big announcements for this year's CES 2013 was the MX-1, a camera that is designed to compete against other retrotastic compact cameras that are currently generating a lot of buzz (namely the Fujifilm X-Series and the Olympus OM-D).
More and more camera companies are giving their products vintage camera-inspired designs these days, and Pentax wants to join in on the fun. The company announced its own retro-styled camera earlier today called the MX-1.
It's a fixed lens compact camera that features a sleek metal body, a fast lens, and a 12-megapixel sensor.
Pentax newest goal is, and we quote, "Heightening Individualized Photographic Expression." So if that just happens to be one of your New Years resolutions, and you also happen to be in the market for the "world’s smallest and lightest interchangeable lens camera system," you're in luck -- you can now pick from 100 different color combinations for the Pentax Q10.
Canon started quite a fad back in 2010 by handing out novelty lens mugs at the Vancouver Olympic games. Within two years, it seems like everyone is making and selling lens-shaped coffee mugs now. If you thought Leica had stayed out of the craze, think again. Leica Rumors spotted the pen and coffee cup above being sold on eBay last week. The luxury Caran d'Ache pen carries the familiar red dot, while the cup features Noctilux lens markings.
Happy Halloween y'all! If you're planning on carving up a pumpkin for your doorstep this year and are looking for a challenging design, check out this amazingly detailed pumpkin sent in by reader Dan Savoie.