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A class action lawsuit has been filed against Ricoh USA (again) over Pentax K-30 and K-50 aperture defects

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Ricoh USA is being sued again, with a class-action suit in Pennsylvania over defects in the aperture mechanism of the Pentax K-30 and K-50 DSLRs. It’s the second time a class action lawsuit has been filed against the company, with the first being filed in 2020 in New York and subsequently dismissed in just February of this year.

The new suit filed in Pennsylvania basically alleges the same as the suit filed in New York two years ago – although the original suit also included the Pentax K-70 in the list of defective models. The defect, as alleged by both suits is that there’s a problem with the aperture mechanism that produces consistently black or very underexposed images, making the cameras unfit for purpose.

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Ricoh announces major restructuring – is Pentax about to be reborn or are they just dying?

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This announcement applies to Ricoh Japan only. For a statement from Ricoh USA, see the bottom of this post.

Ricoh, more specifically its Pentax brand of cameras, seem to have been particularly stuck in the past over the last few years. As every other single surviving camera manufacturer has made the transition to mirrorless, Pentax is still clinging onto its DSLRs. But is Pentax, as well as sister brand GR and parent brand Ricoh in more trouble than we thought?

A new press release from the company seems to suggest that they are struggling somewhat, but that they plan to do something about it, starting on April 1st. They’ve announced a major restructure of the company, stopping the mass-production of cameras and switching to a “workshop like” manufacturing process to strengthen the bond with its customers as well as promoting new Pentax and GR products in the coming future.

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Pentax releases HD Pentax-DA* 16-50mm F2.8 ED PLM AW zoom lens for APS-C

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Pentax has officially announced its new HD Pentax-DA* 16-50mm F2.8 ED PLM AW lens. Designed for the company’s APS-C K mount DSLRs, the 16-50mm lens is the latest in the Pentax “Star” lineup and offers a field of view equivalent to that of a 24.5-76.5mm focal length range on a full-frame camera.

The new lens features HD coatings to reduce flare and ghosting and a PLM pulse motor to drive autofocus. It’s advertised as dustproof and weather-resistant (when paired with a weather-sealed Pentax body), and feature a 77mm filter thread on the front.

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2020 DIYP Holiday Gift Guide – Lenses

With your new camera picked out, it’s time to get a lens. Or maybe you’re happy with your cameras, but you fancy trying a new lens. Whichever might apply to you, here are a few of our favourites that were either announced or released this year. A couple of the lenses in this list were announced before 2020, but it took a while for them to actually exist!

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Monster Adapter’s new LA-KE1 mounts Pentax K lenses to Sony E cameras with AF and aperture control

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All the crazy lens adapter combos seem to be coming out of the woodwork now. Yesterday we had the Leica M to Nikon Z adapter, which adds autofocus capability to those old manual focus lenses, and today we’ve got the Monster Adapter LA-KE1, which lets you use your Pentax K mount AF lenses to Sony E and retain autofocus aperture control and EXIF data.

You can’t buy it just yet, though. The company has announced that it has entered the “internal testing stage” and they plan to make the adapter available before the end of the year.

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Ricoh has officially announced the Pentax K-3 Mark III capable of ISO 1.6 Million

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Ricoh has now officially announced that their new flagship APS-C DSLR will be the Pentax K-3 Mark III. The news was made official in a progress update on the camera’s development. We’ve seen a couple of sneak peeks and updates in the past and the name was rumoured, although not confirmed until now.

Along with this update, Ricoh has revealed the complete spec list for the new camera, which they hope to officially launch at CP+ 2021, scheduled to take place from February 25-28 in Yokohama, Japan. Of course, as with all such announcement of this type, the spec is subject to change, as is the possibility that CP+ 2021 will go ahead as planned.

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Pentax reported to be working on a second new APS-C video-focused DSLR

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According to a brief post over on Pentax Rumors, Ricoh is rumoured to be working on a second Pentax APS-C DSPR in addition to the long-awaited new flagship APS-C DSLR that’s had Pentax shooters excited for months.

A tweet back in April said that Ricoh has no plans to take Pentax down the mirrorless rabbit hole, instead choosing to stick with DSLRs. It’s been a while since their last solid release, so if Ricoh was planning to make a statement, announcing two new DSLRs in rapid succession would certainly seem to make one.

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Pentax reveals some details about their new flagship APS-C DSLR

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In a video published to the Pentax Photography YouTube channel, Ricoh has revealed some more details on its upcoming new flagship APS-C DSLR. It’s the second part of a series by Pentax (Part 1 is lower down in this post) to “reinforce its commitment to DSLR photography“.

It might seem a little mad to cling onto DSLRs when the rest of the world is going mirrorless, but it seems that Pentax might be looking to capture the segment of the market that just doesn’t want to ditch the mirror.

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Pentax has finally released the new HD PENTAX-D FA★85mm F1.4ED SDM AW lens

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It’s been long-awaited and after a development announcement in March, Pentax has now officially announced the HD PENTAX-D FA★ 85mm F1.4 SDM AW, ahead of its original “late 2020” target. This is the second fixed focal length lens added in Pentax’s newest “Star” lens series, adding to the 50mm f/1.4 released in 2018.

There was some speculation that the Pentax 85mm was simply a rehoused Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art, but now that the optical formula for the new 85mm f/1.4 has been released, I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say that it isn’t.

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