That’s almost unbelievable! A company with a minimal camera division like Ricoh just bought the Pentax imaging division from Hoya! You can read the full press release here: hoya.co.jp (pdf file!). As you know both Ricoh and Pentax are currently using Sony sensors. By merging the two camera division the Ricoh-Pentax will probably become much stronger and this means more competition for Sony (In the DSLR segment Pentax is currently on 4th place right behind Sony). Ricoh is quite an innovative camera maker (see the interesting althaugh not perfect [shoplink 7499 ebay]GXR modular system[/shoplink]) and Pentax is well know for their “photographer oriented” camera design. Those are two characteristics Sony should learn from!
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Yawn.
Hoya did a lot of damage to Pentax.
Pentax has been a dying brand for the last few years.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
A Dying Brand? I guess you have selectively chosen to ignore what Pentax has brought to the market in the past few years, including the class-leading K-5, K-x and K10D…just to name a few. Just because they dont advertise all over every empty space available doesn’t mean they are dying….just quietly producing the best DSLR for the buck. (Not to mention the 645D…)
Ricoh small? Since when?
This acquisition sounds very promising.
110 000 People and 23 Billions USD revenue. A small company 🙂
The camera division is small. Not the rest of the company 🙂
> just quietly producing the best DSLR for the buck.
What? Pentax is overpriced nowdays.
Porsche buys VW…..
same scenario…
hehe, yea, somehow comparable I guess.
Not comparable at all, since VW was bigger, but Porsche had much more money – and finally Porsche ended as another brand in the Volkswagen group.
Anyway, I think it’s a good idea when smaller companies join to offer alternatives to the majors Canon, Nikon or SONY.
Ricoh is a massive company. Comparable to Konica-Minolta and Nikon, and not that much less than Canon. However, they focused on office products early, and haven been pretty half hearted with cameras for many years.
By the wording of Hoya’s press release (http://www.hoya.co.jp/english/news/latest/d0h4dj0000001fv8-att/d0h4dj0000001fwi.pdf) it seems that Ricoh is planning on seriously entering the camera business now. I’d expect a big change in Pentax’s direction (more focused on smaller form factors), and less of the coasting that permeated the Hoya years.
What’s going to happen with their lens designs is something I’m curious about. A lot of Pentax’s designs recently have been based on Tokinas. Did Hoya sell Tokina too, or are they keeping that? I’m also not sure what the sale has done for the chances of a full frame Pentax.
In any case, a genuine fourth option is nice, even if Ricoh have a lot to do to get their system up to scratch.
Tokina was sold to Kenko recently.
Sadly.
Kenko is now called “Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd.”
Isn’t Kenko another Hoya subsidiary?
no idea.
In the DSLR segment Pentax is currently on 4th place right behind Sony.
andrea did u make a top5? 😛
can we have a link?
Tokina I believe has merged in some way with Kenko, but in any case was not wholly-owned by Hoya, like Pentax is. From the press release, I believe that Hoya is selling the entire imaging business of Pentax, including the lens business, though reserving some parts of the Pentax business.
Rikoh IS a massive company, perhaps two thirds the size of Sony Corporation (not Sony Group), and FOUR times the size of Nikon. Hoya (including Pentax) is about the same size as Nikon. Pentax by itself is about 1.6% the size of Rikoh. Canon, Panasonic, & Samsung are larger than the Sony Corporation, which is the eletroics division of the Sony Group.
I keep hearing people saying that Sony is far larger than Canon. It ain’t so!
This was intended to be a reply to Carl.
Well, Samsung is a different story anyway – Samsung Electronics along is 32nd world largest corporation, with Sony Group taking 69th place and Canon taking 216 place.
But Samsung Electronics has immerse part in markets that neither Sony nor Canon even takes part in – that’s why there’s such a difference.
Does it matter for us, photographers? Not at all 😀 hehe
To don_gyo: fourth basically because there is no other significant manufacturer of “dslrs” other than those four. If you include all interchangeable-lens cameras, Pentax is also trounced by Panasonic & Olympus, and may by now be behind Samsung as well.
Yes! now you can do color photo-copy on the dslr/mirrorless LCD screen on Ricoh camera lineup.
Sony please buy Casio, I want 1000fps in FHD and digital clock in my A99 😀
Casio is also a big company. It’s normal for Japanese corporations to have lots of subsidiaries, not all of which are necessarily dominant in a given field.
with pentax own by Ricoh. all camera companies are now from Japan only….right!?
Samsung? Zeiss? Leica?
Hassel? Phase one?
Basically most of high-end equipment comes from Europe 🙂 Medium Format and uber-good lenses…. 😉
is true. if i translte into military example. so far i yet to see any asian country sold weapon to europe, us or other contigent. may be n.korea will be the 1st to sell nuklear silo 😀
MF is too expensive =.=|
Well, some make wonders like Aircraft Carrier, some make wonders like Alpha 77.
I feel like I prefer the approach of second group 😉 Preserving the nature beauty is much more my thing than preserving the Only Right Nation.
Don’t care about Pentax and Ricoh. May be a few Pentax users will jump ship to Sony.
BTW, Andrea, when will you post the A77 tester’s testing reports?
I would say that the news is a reason not to jump ship at all.
Ricoh isn’t that tiny – in the most recent full financial year it had sales of approximately $24bn.
Of course Ricoh are only a rather minor player in the photography business, but I have a slight soft spot for them in that the first camera I ever bought (and still have) was a second-hand Ricoh Caddy half-frame.
http://www.subclub.org/shop/caddy.htm
Perhaps this means Ricoh have decided they need to get serious about their photography business or get out. Frankly the Ricoh GXR modular body system is simply a weird and misconceived idea and no basis for a business.
The GR Digitals are some of the nicest small sensor compacts from any manufacturer, though. But then again, they’re also a similar size and price to a NEX…
Well, after all, the company making the failiest “systems camera” (the GXR) now buys the company with the next failiest, the impossibly ill-conceived Q system. They really need to get this ship steaming in the right direction very fast (immediately dumping both products OR lowering the price of the Q system by half). Historically, both have been very innovative companies.
“Failiest”? I know the GXR principle sounds funny but try using one. They are great to shoot and make all the others feel like toys, except for the DSLRs of course. Same applies to the small sensor Ricohs, I wouldn’t use any other compact (for trekking, when I need a compact camera). Forget about the toys from Pana etc, really.
The problem with the GXR concept is that, unlike other system cameras, your existing glass will not be able to take advantage of things like improvements in sensor technology (or anything else sealed into that lens unit). Like many photographers, my largest investment is in the glass and I’ve been able to carry this forward through generations of cameras (including film in some cases). As such, I don’t think it makes a very attractive long term option for the great majority of photographers intent on investing in a system.
The largest problem with GXR is that someone had good idea and than it got ruined all the way to the bottom.
IF we’d have a compact camera system with standardized lens bayonet and standardized sensor bayonet than it could be a huge invention, groundbreaking tech that, if priced well, could conquer the market very quickly.
But instead we have something that resembles more of an failed attempt to build an ILC, which brings nothing more than a laugh when you go to find out the price tag on this thing.
Ricoh had a possibility to build a great thing, sadly they ended up with a great disappointment. Olympus is said to build a camera like this – only in size of DLSR – I hope it will hit the market and become a nice success.
Andrea as others have said Ricoh is a massive company in fact last year they were the 402 biggest PROFIT wise company in the world. See the link below.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2010/snapshots/6822.html
Notice some of the companies listed on this page that Ricoh had more revinue then last yea
Rank Company Revenues($ millions)
402 Ricoh 21,716
404 Coca-Cola Enterprises 21,645
453 Nike 19,176
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2010/full_list/401_500.html
My only complaint is they haven’t performed financially better for those of us that have them in their Mutual Funds 🙂
Keep up the good work for those of us waiting for the next big thing from Sony. You do a great job !!!!
Ricoh produce very good printers as far as i am concerned!
So do Canon
🙂
Minolta also made decent copiers. In fact, speak with most copy techs, they’ll admit that Canon and Ricoh are some of the best in color rendering.
There’s a reason why most copier companies have their own line of P&S models since the technology overlaps in places.
If Ricoh does go further with this, then maybe they can finally fulfill that FF dream I have with Pentax glass. If not, then there’s always the hope for that NEX FF setup. Rikenons were all right from what I’ve been told, just want to see if Ricoh will up their game in the sensor tech versus Samsung let alone Sony.
Given that some rikenons sell for less than $5, they can be amazing deals. They didn’t make very many of their more exotic lenses like the 18/2.8, alas.
Pentax is well know for their “photographer oriented” camera design. 🙂
Pentax is crazy
http://www.fotorozcestnik.eu/pentax-se-docista-zblaznil.html
Try a K-5 and you might change your tune. There’s some issues with QA, but the setup is fairly solid.
And Ventizz Capital Fund IV L.P. bought Hasselblad ….
I was really hoping Sony would buy Pentax
:-/
What for? Sony wouldn’t bring any good to them while already owning the Minolta legacy. It could mean nothing else but death of Pentax trademark, what IMO would be a VERY wrong thing for photography world.
Sony would have MF
Pentax would have FF
IF mounts and lenses could be shared Sony traditionalists could have weather sealed OVF camera Pentax could order FF SLT’s in Kmount.
Maybe less ship jumpers.
I think the registration distance is close but not the same still maybe doable.
Sony would gain small market share.
Sony would produce even more sensors reducing unit cost.
Increased R&D for both sides.
Just a few I can think of.
🙂
I don’t think Sony can afford some many simultaneous lines of cameras with some of them being totally redundant. K-mount would have to be wiped out. Same with silly Q-mount. Sony already can’t handle well releases of lenses under existing bayonets, so I don’t see it going well in scenario of buying Pentax.
Probably some of it’s lenses would hit the A-mount in such case but that’s all there would be left from Pentax.
Medium format? Noone knows if Sony would be interested in this one – I guess they would need to see the sales numbers to judge anything, and I doubt total R&D would calculate well for such Sony-645D system. Even with all Pentax has now. And even more: having not really a successful MF system with one or two lenses (no, for Sony it won’t matter of 20-years-old lenses exist on market) will do more PR hurt for them than good. (I already see Canikon fanboys screaming that Sony cannot make anything pro well)
Also it wouldn’t influence sensors production for Sony as Sony already sells their sensors for all Pentax DSLRs.
Yes, four or five strong company’s making DSLR’s type camera’s and optical components keeps each other on their toes;capitalism without competition leaves you with stagnation.
Canon makes a useful development and the others match it, or try to better the competitions product. It’s one of the foundations of capitalism and yes, it called competition for that reason!
Although I’m seriously tied to the A-mount I can’t want to see Nikon’s, Canon’s and other photographic competitor’s like this one’s response to the Sony a77.
Of course if you are just a fan-boy you don’t care about a healthy industry competing to bring out even better cameras you just want Sony to win.
Good luck to the new Ricoh-Pentax group and I hope most of you keep your jobs
Sony, get your backside moving.
There’s a letter from Hoya/Pentax management to Pentax customers:
Dear Valued PENTAX Customers and Partners,
We would like to hereby inform you that we, HOYA Corporation, have made an agreement regarding the business transfer of our PENTAX Imaging System Business to RICOH Corporation today, July 1, 2011.
The effective date of the business transfer is set for October 1, 2011. The business areas to be transferred as PENTAX Imaging System Business are digital cameras, interchangeable lenses, digital camera accessories, binoculars and security-related products, including R&D, design, manufacturing and sales for those product categories.
PENTAX Imaging system business will be succeeded by a newly established company scheduled on October 1, 2011, and then RICOH Corporation will acquire 100% of its stock right after the establishment.
No operational changes of PENTAX Imaging System Business are anticipated for the time being by making this agreement. All employees will be transferred to the new company accordingly. Also, all current products will continue to be sold with the PENTAX brand name under current operations.
PENTAX, under the guidance of RICOH, will continue with our best effort to grow and evolve our business and partnerships and deliver quality products and services designed for a high level of customer satisfaction.
Again, we appreciate your continued support of PENTAX.
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Toshiaki Iue,
President
PENTAX Imaging Systems Division
“What’s a Pentax?”
Is that you, Michael/RiceHigh? Or have two people in the world independently developed hating a brand into a religion?
Orkut buys Google.