So, today is CP+ show

Tom Caldwell wrote:

What the heck is a Cadillac Escalade? Was it the aborted successor to the Canon 60D that never appeared?

Mercedes make those little manual focus cameras with the mechanically geared optical window focus device? ... right, gotcha ... (wink)

It makes no sense for Ricoh to rush something to market that is not 100% finished. They have walled themselves into a corner and surrounded themself with consumer "expectations". That is their loyal bunch of present owner's expectations - those that believe in other camera brands couldn't care less but might raise just a sniff of passing interest is if something radically new got a byline on dpreview. Think of the standout technology in the new Metabones adapter - Metabones who? Those that go to trade shows would bee-line straight to the stand of their favourite camera shutter-squeeze. There might not be crowds at he Ricoh stand. But those that got sick of pushing through to counters might casually look at a Ricoh stand to assuage their boredom.

Other manufacturers might churn out gear and have enough new stuff in the locker to make a trade show stand interesting. But if Ricoh were to (say) release a single new camera in that hoopla it would look lonely indeed no matter how exciting it might be.

Therefore as long as the devoted members of this forum have survived their breath holding experiment I have to point out that they have worked themself, and myself, into a frenzy of expectation of something remarkable under the Ricoh hood. If Ricoh were to release whatever it is before it's time and it were flawed then the skin would simply be flayed off the poor wee thing in ten seconds flat. Fuji gets this and survives but Ricoh cannot risk a flawed product and the longer it take then the better, more advanced, and more reliable it has to be. Release a prototype and an anticipated availability date? Good point, but after an excited discussion on how marvellous this product might be, a crackling of credit cards putting down pre-order deposits, would suddenly be replaced by bitter words of dismay as release dates are postponed whilst some final firmware or other bugs are sorted out.

Ricoh simply cannot win. They can't exhibit a dummy box and say "we will have this to market in three months". They cannot exhibit a beta copy and say "you can't have it yet because we are still testing it". They cannot make something if a key component is not available because of a delay by a third party manufacturer.

They can't even simply upgrade a model (such as the CX6->7) if it has been phased out due to market pressures or even is part of the new scheme of things. Why make a CX7 if (say) the new product is a GRD-size camera back that takes GXR mount rails - naturally this would be the CX7 with the choice of P10, S10 or a nw up-to date small sensor zoom module? The GRDV would be a slection of aps-c prime modules - some already available and some to be packaged into modules released with the new back.

LED's around the lens - mmm look forward to a LED unit replacing the inbuilt flash unit in the new GRD GXR-type camera back. Dispense with the present flash unit and the hotshoe and you have nearly slimmed down the present GXR back to GRD-form factor size. I think that Ricoh always intended to make the module/mount-rail system universal and this was why the S10 and P10 units have existed. That they were premature is only because the engineers underestimated the difficulties of bringing the module mount package down to GRD proportions.

People love rumours, speculation, no matter how logical, has no followers.