Tell Ricoh to Bring Backt the 35mm GR1

[Disappointed_Horse]

I was thinking about the almost complete lack of new 35mm cameras on the market today and in particular the high demand for quality 35mm compacts like the GR1. It occurred to me that since Ricoh has been quite successfully marketing the digital versions of this camera, why wouldn't they consider bringing back the 35mm film version? It's not like they'd have to change much (if anything) from the original design that they made 20 years ago, so I have to think the R&D costs of bringing the GR back to market would be pretty minimal.

So, I thought I would drop Ricoh a line and suggest that they reintroduce the GR1 film camera. Perhaps if enough of us contact them, they'd give it some consideration.

Here's the contact page that I used to contact them (Ricoh Imaging U.S. site):

https://us.ricoh-imaging.com/index.php/contact-us

No harm in asking, right?

 

[rhl-oregon]

None at all. A lot of us would be happy if Ricoh could reissue GR1, and figure out a way to license reissues of Hexar AF, Contax T/G....okay, I'm raving. As Lennon wrote, 'You may say I'm a raver / but I'm not the only one.'

 

[ruby.monkey]

Even if *all* of us contact them, they'll put the suggestion where it unfortunately belongs - in the round file.

 

[bayernfan]

if you create a formal petition or something, i would definitely sign it.

 

[pvdhaar]

For many film compacts, it wouldn't even be possible to reintroduce them without sometimes major redesign. Some electronic or mechanical components aren't available anymore, and would require resurrection of production facility and a complete logistics chain.

Sometimes it's environmental issues that comes into play. For instance, the nail in the coffin of the Hasselblad XPAN was the type of soldering material required to mount the electronics on the circuit boards.

 

[FrozenInTime]

RoHS was a lame excuse to discontinue the XPAN - it would not have been that expensive to go lead free. They simply forecast diminishing returns from the film camera market at the time and lost interest.

Coinciding with the Pentax merger/acquisition, Ricoh seems to have lost direction.
The flagship digital GR III is overdue - if it does not appear soon it will be taken as a sign there is no spirit left in Ricoh.
On the other hand if they can pull a 28mm and a 40mm version of the GR III out of the hat, there will be rejoicing on the streets !

 

[Archlich]

The cost of manufacturing and marketing such a camera would be enormous for a small operation like Ricoh's (non-Pentax) camera branch, and the demand would be low with hundreds of $200-300 used GR1 floating around. Remember, the GR1's MSRP was equivalent to US$800 when new in 1996.

No harm in asking, yes, but the sun is long set...

 

[zuiko85]

Sure......Why not. Maybe Olympus could bring back the SPn too.
But I think we'd all gag at the price they would have to charge to break even on such an item.