DC.watch interviewed Ricoh managers. And there is little info about their mirrorless strategy. Ricoh spends no word on the GXR concept (is it death?) and says they have no plan yet to launch an APS-C interchangeable mirrorless system camera.
So basically the news here is that…there is no news 🙂
8 Responses
I always somehow liked the GXR, but was never tempted to actually buy one. It was a brilliant idea too faintheartedly implemented. Why on earth fix the sensor to the lens? Beside those specialty modules with small sensors, they could have made a standard mount, which could have become the new Pentax-Ricoh mirrorless mount, to be used in both modular cameras and conventional mirrorless bodies, and they could have even made a sensor module separate from the mount module, optionally offering all kinds of mount modules, like Pentax K, Micro Four Thirds, Canon EF, Sony E…
A sensor coupled with a lens offers better performances than a standard mount for interchangeable lenses. Perhaps that quality was something Ricoh was looking for.
In my opinion it was simply too early to offer such a product: today, with the quality of sensors available (and a proper distribution), maybe some other add ons (EVF), it could have a better success.
No it wouldn’t. Today there is exactly the same problem as years ago: sensor technology evolves and improves. I remember that they were saying, when the GX system was launched, that sensors had already reached the limit of evolution, and that 12 mp are enough for all uses. They were obviously wrong. And the same is valid for today. You don’t want to buy an expensive lens that you have to substitute when you substitute your sensor. Otherwise better buy a fixed-lens compact: at least it’s smaller.
Don’t recall anyone saying that. On the contrary, they were in the middle of the megapixels race.
Today it is actually different. Micro 4/3 IS stuck at 16mp, in its fourth year now, with no change in sight. Likewise Fuji is stuck at 16mp, with no change in sight.
On the contrary. Fuji has changes in sight. M43 is being criticized because there is no change in sight. Nowadays 24mp is what everybody expect from an apsc sensor, at least, and Samsung is showing that you can expect more.
The fact is: sensor technology evolves, and will keep on evolving. If not with more mp (but you can count it will), with better DR, or sensors with more acuity, etc.
Yes, years ago many Ricoh fans (and also m43 users) were saying that 12mp is “more than enough” for everybody (please check the Dpreview fora of when the GXR system was introduced), and that hardly more mp or different technologies would help the photographers in making better images. I think that we can all agree that this was completely wrong, and it is wrong in perspective. Fact is that all those invested in the Ricoh system (especially in the first lensors) are today shooting with a sensor which is inferior to current m43 sensors.
People simply don’t want to buy an expensive lens coupled with a given sensor. Plus a relatively expensive “body” consisting in the mere UI.
And yes, all the hype for this system was about the user interface. It took just a slight improvement in the UI from the other companies, and all the Ricoh UI mantra is gone.
Best thing Ricoh could do, at this point, is a very good apsc sensor fixed-lens zoom compact, at a decent price (and a very good UI). That would be very interesting.
Ricoh: give us a medium format “GR” please!
Waited for a long time for the GXR with an integrated EVF.
I’m still getting a lot of use from my GXR with P10 and A12 modules. I would love to see an upgraded body, and some more A16 modules, at some point.
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