Plenty of announcements coming next week: April 19 (Fuji) April 20 and 23 (Sony) and April 23 (Panasonic)

Next week it’s going to be very busy! Here is what to expect:

  1. Fuji will launch two new GFX lenses (23mm and 110mm) and the new Instax camera on April 19
  2. Sony has a press conference on April 20. Still not sure if there will be a new product there. But there is a chance we might see a new RX or A7 camera
  3. Sony and Panasonic do have a press conference on April 23. Expect new camcorders.

That’s it for now!

Ricoh officially denies the rumors saying it’s “shrinking” the camera business

Today Asian Review posted a surprising “rumor” about Ricoh-Pentax:

Ricoh is shrinking its money-losing camera business to concentrate resources on commercial applications as smartphones continue to crowd out long-established names in photography.

But Ricoh quickly reacted and said that the info posted by Asian Review is “not a fact”. That said Asian Review has quite a good track on insider info. So maybe while Ricoh is correct in saying this is not a fact yet it may be that it it’s under consideration and could become a fact soon :(

UPDATE: Ricoh announced that it will revise downward forecasts for the fiscal year. They also announced that it will focus resources on high value added products such as PENTAX and GR.

Samsung source admits they “recently stopped producing and selling digital cameras”

Anonymous Samsung sources from The Investor confirmed that they stopped producing and selling digital cameras. The source said that smartphone cameras killed their business. At the same time Samsung is seeking for new opportunities: “We will create a new camera product category to continue the business.” The new category may include cameras for smartphones and other mobile devices and the Gear 360 camera that captures high-resolution images and videos in 360-degrees.