Authored by Admin · daily · researched and written by the Kurzia AI
Saturday 7 November 2026 · Issue 22 · 5 min read
Pentax drops the K-series while Ricoh booms; the FP2 measured; Hasselblad's lawyers shut the hackers down
What's hot
Digital Camera World · yesterday
Pentax ends the K-series while GR compacts carry Ricoh
Takeaway: up 20 percent in the first half
Ricoh's November 06 earnings report shows the division that contains cameras growing hard on the back of the GR IV compacts, in the same year Pentax retired the last K-series DSLR. Pentax frames the retirement as clearing the decks for a new SLR line built on an entirely new concept, so the K-mount is a promise rather than a product right now.
If you have been waiting to see which way Ricoh jumps, this is the answer: pocketable APS-C sells, and the next Pentax body has no date. The reader-facing roadmap is a Monochrome GR IV already on sale and a longer-lens GR IVx in the works, not a new mirror box. The segment that includes cameras was up 20 percent in the first half against last year, and Ricoh told investors it would use pricing measures to absorb rising semiconductor memory and petroleum-related costs, while saying its semiconductor supply is secured.
What people are saying
Canon up a million units, Nikon down to fourth. Amateur Photographer's columnist grades 2026 brand by brand: Canon the clear winner, Fujifilm and Sony holding up, Nikon the loser after a year with almost nothing new. It puts a shape on the release drought you have been shooting through, and shows where the volume is actually going. Canon leads on a million-unit year-on-year shipment rise; Fujifilm pushed Nikon out of Japan's top three makers for the first time since 2019, largely on five new Instax models. Amateur Photographer
Sigma FP2 — measured by DPReview at 14.2ms for a single frame, 11.1ms in burst, and 9.4ms in the 16:9 video modes, matching the figure they recorded on the Nikon ZR. That number decides how much a panning shot skews and whether artificial light bands, and on this body it is more than twice the speed of the original fp or BF. Flash sync is capped at 1/50 sec, where the Nikon Z6III syncs at 1/60. DPReview
Base ISO 320, and HDR you cannot switch off. Sigma rates the FP2's base ISO at 320 where Nikon and Panasonic call the same sensor ISO 100, because it shoots Ultra HDR JPEGs full time and needs the highlight headroom. There is no way to disable the HDR function. In bright light Auto ISO starts at 400, so DPReview's advice is to set ISO 100 by hand when you want the cleanest file rather than the HDR look. Detail tracks the Panasonic S9 and Nikon Z6III closely, with a little more moiré because there is no anti-aliasing filter, and light-skinned portraits did not come out well. DPReview
Sigma 85mm F1.2 DG — reviewed by Phototrend and summarised by asobinet: the centre is already good at f/1.2 and very strong by f/2.8–f/5.6, while corner resolution lags clearly from f/1.2 to f/4 and only evens out around f/8. For portraits that trade-off is the right one, and at 905g it is the least punishing route into an 85mm f/1.2. It undercuts the 1,160g Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S and the 1,195g Canon RF 85mm F1.2 L USM, and lists at $1,599 at B&H after a 30 September 2026 release. asobinet
7Artisans 40mm f/2.5 — is a pocket-sized autofocus prime for Nikon Z, Sony E and L-mount, with a metal mount, an aperture ring, a programmable button and — the reviewer's favourite part — a physical AF/MF switch for locking focus on the street. It is the cheap way to turn a small body into an all-day walkaround rig, and Fstoppers rates it 9/10 against Nikon's own 40mm. 97g against 170g for the NIKKOR Z 40mm f/2, which sells for around $277; the 7Artisans is $159 and focuses no closer than 15.7 inches. Fstoppers
Industry news
HRAP — shut down after a legal letter from Hasselblad; the person behind it deleted the GitHub and their Reddit account, ending hacks that added video to an X2D II.
Panasonic P2502A — has been registered in China without Wi-Fi 6 support; the leak, via Weibo and unconfirmed, does not say whether it is an S9II, an MFT compact or a Cine body.
Canon EOS R100 — is listed on Amazon US with the RF-S18-45mm kit lens for $499: 24.1MP APS-C, 6.5fps, ISO 100-12,800 and 4K at 25fps, with prices liable to change.
Fujifilm X winter cashback — pays ¥5,000 to ¥100,000 per product in Japan, the top sum on the XF200mmF2, on purchases up to 29 December 2026 with claims postmarked by 1 March 2027.
Fujifilm GFX winter cashback — returns ¥50,000 or ¥75,000 per item, with GFX100 II and GFX100S II at the higher figure, for purchases from 30 October to 29 December 2026.
Yodobashi Top 10, first half of October — puts the Sony A7C II zoom kit first and Canon's EOS R50 double zoom second, with Sony taking five of the ten places and Fujifilm fourth and fifth.
Canon RF14mm F1.4 L VCM — has come off Canon Japan's shortage list along with the RF II dust cap, leaving only the EOS R8 Mark II RF45mm kit on a list last updated 23 October 2026.
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ — shows as end-of-production in black and silver at some Japanese retailers, Kitamura among them, though Bic and Yodobashi still sell it and no discontinuation is confirmed.
One takeaway
Judge a body by the files it makes out of the box. Two of this week's stories point the same way: makers are baking their processing choices into the camera, and the community route around them is closing now that legal letters are in play. Assume nothing will be unlocked later. Before you commit, shoot a demo body's default JPEGs, open them on the screen you actually use, and decide whether you like what the camera decided for you — not what firmware might someday allow. DPReview