Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
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.
The Ricoh GR series cameras have become extremely popular amongst street photographers over the last few years and have picked up a very loyal following. Those who have them love them and swear by them. The Ricoh GR III feels like it’s built specifically for street photography and when you look at some of the images they can make, it’s easy to see why.
Well, now, Ricoh has announced a new limited edition Ricoh GR III “Street Edition” kit which, as well as the camera includes a viewfinder module, a leather wrist strap and a rather obvious bright orange ring around the lens.
360° cameras have come far in the last couple of years. I remember trying out the first version of the Ricoh Theta and thinking that it was a cool idea, but the quality and feature set just wasn’t there. When the YI 360 VR was released, offering 5.7K resolution, I felt they were finally starting to hit that point. But the tech that goes into 360° cameras has come much further since then.
But what are the top consumer picks when it comes to 360° cameras? In this video, Daniel The 360 Guy shows us his top five 360° cameras that you can get today. Daniel points out the good, the bad and the “ok” for each of the cameras. Possibly not surprisingly, there isn’t really a single “best” camera that’s good for all uses, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others for different needs.
A recent tweet from Japanese photographer Kimio Tanaka, a regular source of Ricoh/Pentax insider info, states that they have no plans to introduce a mirrorless camera in either 35mm or 645 medium formats. This time, it isn’t just a rumour leak. Tanaka says that in this case he is speaking on behalf of Ricoh and is not merely expressing an opinion.
Ricoh has announced its new WG-70 compact camera. All outward appearances suggest that the WG-70 is largely identical to its predecessor, the WG-60 (which was also just a minor update to the WG-50). So, not much seems to have changed. Ricoh says, though, that the WG-70 does come with a few new features including a “digital microscope mode”, and a more advanced underwater shooting mode for better colour, contrast and white balance.
Well, the specs appear to be as disappointing as the leak suggested but the Ricoh Theta SC2 has now been officially announced. It’s a 4K entry-level 360° camera with 14GB of internal memory and no microSD card slot. But, the price actually seems to reflect the specs, coming in at only $299. The shipping date is a little sooner than previously rumoured, with units expected to go out on December 2nd instead of Friday the 13th.
I guess the Japanese don’t see 13 as an unlucky number, seeing how the latest rumour on the Ricoh Theta SC2 is that that Friday, 13th December is when it will begin to ship. An official announcement is expected tomorrow, the 19th, with pre-orders opening up at that time. What we do have though, are leaked photos and some specs for Ricoh’s upcoming new 360° camera. Overall, though, it leaves me feeling a little bit underwhelmed.
vpnMentor reports that its research team discovered that Theta360’s photo-sharing platform has suffered something of a pretty major data breach. The leak, they say, has exposed at least 11 million public and private photographs on the system.
They say that while most personal information was not released, usernames, first and last names along with the captions were exposed in the database alongside the images. Images that many users had chosen to keep private.
There has been a rumor going around that Ricoh will stop using Pentax brand name because it will lose the right to it. However, Ricoh has denied the rumor, saying that it will continue to use the Pentax brand when it comes to the camera business.
In late February, Ricoh announced its high-end compact camera Ricoh GR III. However, after the first batches have been shipped, it turned out that some series have issues with the control dial pad button. It’s extremely wobbly in some cameras, so the company is offering free repairs to those who have bought faulty cameras.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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