Open letter from Hoya to valued Pentax customers and partners

By PR admin | Published: July 1, 2011

This just in:

July 1, 2011

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.

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Posted in Hoya, Pentax, Ricoh| 12 Comments

2011 Pentax roadmap reveals no second camera but I am still a believer

By PR admin | Published: July 1, 2011

This 2001 Pentax roadmap confirms that the Pentax Q and the Pentax NC-1 are just different names for the same camera. Except the two new P&S cameras, there are no other announcements scheduled till the end of the year, but keep in mind that this roadmap is labeled “Compact Product Timeline 2011”.

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Posted in Pentax| Tagged | 10 Comments

Ricoh just bought Pentax for $124.2 million!

By PR admin | Published: July 1, 2011

“Japanese optical glass-maker Hoya said on Friday it would sell its Pentax camera business to copier and printer maker Ricoh , in a deal the Nikkei business daily said was worth about 10 billion yen ($124.2 million).”

Read the details on Reuters and also the notice of sale on Hoya’s website.

Hoya executives said publicly in the past that they would like to sell Pentax on several occasions.

Update – I just received the official press release:

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Posted in Pentax, Ricoh| 29 Comments

Top 10 posts for June 2011

By PR admin | Published: June 30, 2011

Here are the top 10 most visited PhotoRumors posts for June 2011:

  1. This is the Olympus EP-3 (pictures).
  2. 32MP full frame Sony a920 DSLR camera in August?
  3. Three new cameras from Fuji in September.
  4. Phottix announced Strato II Multi 5-in-1 wireless trigger.
  5. Sigma now shipping the 120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM lens in the US.
  6. The front view of the Pentax Q mirrorless camera.
  7. Olympus EP-3 specs.
  8. What are the best AA batteries for photography?
  9. Pentax Q: World’s smallest and lightest interchangeable lens digital camera.
  10. Is this the new Panasonic GF3 camera?

 

 

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The first Lytro light field camera expected by the end of the year

By PR admin | Published: June 30, 2011

Lytro just just published a brief Q&A session and it seems that we should expect to see the first light field camera by the end of the year:

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Posted in Lytro| 11 Comments

Hasselblad set for growth under new European owners

By PR admin | Published: June 30, 2011

Hasselblad got new owners and they are planning a “rapid expansion of cutting edge capture products and is set to target new imaging markets”. Read the full press release for more details:

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Posted in Hasselblad| 9 Comments

New winner of the Fuji X100 camera picked

By PR admin | Published: June 30, 2011

I had to pick a new winner for the Fuji X100 camera from Adorama because the previously announced person did not complete all the required steps in order to be part of this giveaway.

The new winner of the Fuji X100 camera is Michael Penn. Congratulation!

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Posted in Fuji| Tagged | 14 Comments

Olympus announces E-P3, E-PL3, E-PM1 cameras, 12mm f/2 and 45mm f/1.8 lenses plus a new FL-300R flash

By PR admin | Published: June 30, 2011

Olympus E-P3

Olympus E-PL3

Olympus E-PM1

Olympus announced the EP-3 ($900 with a lens), E-PL3, E-PM1 PEN cameras with a new FL-300R flash ($170) and 45mm f/1.8 ($400) and 12mm f/2 ($800) lenses. Olympus calls the E-P3 the fastest  AF interchangeable lens digital cameras.

  • Video hands-on after the break:

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Posted in Olympus| Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Leaked Pentax document indicates that there may not be a second mirrorless camera

By PR admin | Published: June 29, 2011

This upside down PDF document contains Q&A on the freshly released Pentax Q camera. Some of the answers indicate that there may not be a second mirrorless camera from Pentax this summer. I did express this concern in previous posts – the Pentax NC-1 and Pentax Q were probably different names for the same camera.  Here is the Q&A recap:

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Posted in Pentax| Tagged | 58 Comments

TriggerTrap: universal remote camera trigger

By PR admin | Published: June 29, 2011

I received this email form the person behind a new project called TriggerTrap – see the video below for a better understanding of this product:

TriggerTrap is a universal camera trigger. The device itself can do timelapse photography, and it can trigger your camera based on laser and sound. It can also do non-linear timelapse photography: You can choose to extend or reduce the gap between each photo automatically, to enable the illusion of your animation speeding up or showing down.

With the above, Triggertrap is already a really exciting product, but I think it is made doubly interesting by the Aux input. This will enable photographers to connect just about anything to their camera. Think about it: You press your car horn, it takes a photo. Your phone rings, it takes a photo. The sun rises, it takes a photo. Anything is possible – and that’s why this camera trigger is so eminently hackable and exciting to experimental photographers all over the world!

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Posted in Other| 2 Comments