They don't link to an original document. Is it actually discontinued or
no longer in production. A small distinction, but an important one.
Ricoh is a small player, at least compared to the biggest manufacturers
like Canon, Nikon, and Sony, and to have more than two cameras in it's
lineup, the older designs are most likely out of production, but they're
still not discontinued.
After a cursory review of the discontinued rumors, I found only one
official notice from the Czceh Republic, where the distributor doesn't
even have it's own dedicated web site.
USA and Canada both show the K-1 as a current product. I didn't check
any others but I assume that all the larger distributors have reasonable
supplies.
I don't expect it to be officially discontinued by Ricoh until the K-1II
has been on dealer's shelves for several months. Local distributors
are a different story.
The USA distributor for example discontinued the K50 three times, then
quietly recontinued, (yes I made that word up), that model when more
became available. They've done the same with various lenses, the demise
of the FA 35mm f2.0 has been reported in the North American market
several times, yet you can still buy them at B&H Photo new.
It's almost certain that /production/ of the K-1 stopped several months
ago, because, well, the production line had to be modified for the K-1II
so that a sufficient inventory existed by it's launch date.
So we have one small distributor of the K-1 announcing it's official
discontinuation, in the area it servers, and magically the K-1 is
discontinued everywhere.
Some people are taking this as a sign of Pentax's eminent demise.
My question is where is the K-3 III, or what ever the heck it will be
called. Ricoh has said that there will be one. That the K-P is not
it's replacement, (though it's pretty certain that the K-3II is out of
production to free up a production line to produce the K-P). The K-3
line pretty much competes with the Nikon 7xxx series bodies, and is
getting kind of long in the tooth compared to the 7500D, and the K-P
doesn't compete there except on build quality, resolution, (though how
much better 24mp is than 20mp, in practical terms is a question). and
Price.
On 2/7/2018 10:32 PM, Darren Addy wrote:
https://fstoppers.com/gear/pentax-officially-discontinues-excellent-k-1-camera-mark-ii-version-likely-219429
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