Last Updated on 02/27/2014 by Chris Gampat
The world of prime lens users can be divided into two categories: fans of the 35mm focal length, and fans of the 50mm focal length. Some prefer the slightly wider angle-of-view of the 35mm, while others prefer the more restricted view of a 50mm. Now, when buying into a camera system, you might want to make sure that there is a lens available corresponding to your preferred focal length.
Pentax, for example, used to have a selection of both 35mm and 50mm lenses back in the days of film, but that changed with the digital age when 35mm lenses suddenly became equivalent to 50mm in terms of angle-of-view, due to the smaller format of the APS-C sensor. In the current DA lineup of lenses designed specifically for digital SLRs, you’ll find several lenses corresponding to the classic 50mm, but none that will satisfy the needs of a 35mm shooter.
Now it seems that Ricoh, the new owner of the Pentax brand, wants to win the hearts of 35mm fans over again, as the company just filed a patent describing a 24mm f2 lens for APS-C sensor, which would be almost exactly equivalent to a 35mm lens on film. Interestingly, though, the patent does not seem to describe a DSLR lens, but rather a lens for mirrorless cameras. Pentax doesn’t really have a mirrorless system (the K-01 doesn’t really count because it uses K-mount DSLR lenses), and while Ricoh theoretically has two, one features a tiny point-and-shoot sensor and the other, the GXR with M-mount module, is no longer in production.
So this begs the question: what kind of camera was this lens designed for? Is Ricoh possibly coming up with a new mirrorless camera with APS-C sensor? And more pressingly for fans of the Pentax brand, will it be a Ricoh-branded or a Pentax-branded camera? At this point, we have no idea. But it would really make a lot of sense for Ricoh to expand its mirrorless offerings with an APS-C sensor camera, considering its Q-series doesn’t really sell that well outside of Japan. Alternatively, Ricoh might be working on another GR camera, one that comes with a fast 35mm-equivalent instead of the current 28mm-equivalent.
Via RiceHigh