Ricoh to Enter DSLR Camera Market, Buys Pentax

Rossi Fernandes|Jul 02, 2011, 13:20:01 IST

Ricoh, the popular printing solutions brand is probably going to enter the DSLR market. Hoya, the popular glass specialist known for lenses, filters and also the ones who bought Pentax back in 2007, are now selling it off to Ricoh. According to Reuters, Hoya is said to be receiving $124.2 million for the Pentax brand. Ricoh already has a compact camera business and hopes to get into the DSLR market after this purchase. The cameras will continue to be sold under the Pentax brand name, and not Ricoh. The deal is said to be completed by October, this year.

Pentax switches hands, again...

Pentax hasn’t been doing too well and they reported a 13 per cent drop in sales in March this year in the camera segment. The mainstream DSLR market has been dominated by Nikon and Canon. There’s also news that Ricoh is planning to lose 10 per cent of their manpower to boost profits. Hoya saw a rise in the share market following the news of Pentax being sold off. Ricoh, on the other hand, saw a drop of 0.2 per cent.

By Rossi Fernandes

Our resident Hardware Ninja, Rossi, lives for speed - by uhh riding his bicycle. He's Tech2's utility man, dividing his time between cameras, software and intense bouts of Quake III. He's also a fan of all things obscure, case in point, Live for Speed (sic). Never heard of it? We rest our case. In his spare time he tries to teach our new joinees the tricks of the trade even though the blood sweat and tears, but give him a camera and all things forgotten.