Leica's new sensor and Pentax's fight for survival: Photo news of the week

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Leica plans return to own sensors

The luxury brand Leica is apparently working on the development of its own image sensors. As Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica Camera AG, revealed in the podcast „Leica Enthusiast“, the company is developing its own sensor with an "advanced design" again.

"We are developing our own sensor again," Kaufmann explained in the podcast. While the M10 still used a sensor developed entirely in Europe (AMS in Graz with a Dutch development office and French manufacturing), Leica switched to Sony sensors for the M11. Now Leica seems to be focusing on in-house developments again – a process that, according to Kaufmann, has already made considerable progress.

However, what exactly "in-house development" means in this context, whether a complete new development or an adaptation of existing designs, remains open. The timeframe for market launch has also not been specified.

Ricoh commits to Pentax despite uncertain future

The Pentax brand, which has presented few new products for years, faces an uncertain future. In an interview with PetaPixel, Ricoh President Yasutomo Mori and Kazunobu Saiki, head of the camera business division, reaffirmed their commitment to the traditional brand – despite the difficult market situation.

"For the Pentax brand, the latest model is the Pentax K3 Mark III, but it has been on the market for quite some time," Saiki admits. The K3 Mark III was already introduced in 2021, and there has been little news since then.

Mori explains: "Inside of Ricoh, the A-team was developing GR, the B-team was developing new Pentax products. So I combined those teams and asked them to design something for the Pentax brand that is a totally new concept." They intend to stick with the DSLR system – a bold move given the general trend towards mirrorless cameras.

The executives are aware of the challenge: "If we only focus on current customers for the Pentax brand, the brand will not survive. The engineers are researching and making intensive efforts to answer the question of what a DSLR system camera should look like that appeals to the younger generation."

Following the success of the new GR IV, Saiki now sees "a good opportunity to invest in the revival of Pentax." At the same time, he admits: "Ricoh Imaging is not afraid of the challenge, but we also recognize that we don’t have unlimited time"

Compact cameras experience surprising upswing

The Ricoh GR IV is a compact camera with a fixed lens. This segment is experiencing according to the latest CIPA statistics a remarkable increase, indeed a real boom in sales figures, while system cameras with interchangeable lenses are at about the same level as the previous year.

Pocket-friendly models with large sensors and cameras for street photography are particularly driving this upswing. The Ricoh GR IV, for example, is very popular with photographers looking for a lightweight travel camera with fast autofocus, excellent image quality, and easy operation.

Data protection incident at Calumet

Not only Pentax, but also Calumet, a retailer specializing in photo products, is facing challenges. It has become the victim of an IT incident. As the company announced on its website, "an unauthorized third party briefly gained restricted access to a third-party system used by us."

According to Calumet, email addresses and possibly names were primarily affected, while sensitive data such as passwords, credit card details, or purchase information were not compromised. As early as the summer of 2025, there were initial indications of a possible data leak when email addresses used only at Calumet suddenly received spam messages.

The company is cooperating with the Hamburg data protection authority and intends to contact affected customers personally by January 10th. Calumet advises vigilance regarding suspicious emails or calls that could represent phishing attempts.

A change for the new year

To conclude, we hand over once again to our previous columnist Nico Ernst from the Heise newsroom:

After three years, the child is now old enough and can also walk – so I am handing over the "Fotonews" column with full confidence into the hands of my colleagues from the core editorial team of c't Fotografie. My focus within the Heise universe will change in the new year. Nevertheless, please don't be alarmed if I still write about photography and photo hardware now and then. I would like to expressly thank the editorial team for their support in this initially somewhat unusual format. For nostalgics, here is a link to the first issue.

The greatest thanks, of course, go to all those who read it and commented critically, but almost always in a reasonable tone, in the forum. Even if something was missing. The idea of Fotonews – we haven't come up with a better name to this day, so it remains – was never an claim to completeness. Rather, it was to entertainingly dissect at least two topics from the past week(s) and also to look beyond the horizon.

Finally, a request to all those who will write the column in the future, and to those who will read it: Demand the authenticity seal for photos, "Content Authenticity," CAI, C2PA, or whatever it is called, even more in the future. It, along with the hesitation of camera manufacturers, image agencies, and media, has been a recurring theme over the last three years. In a world where AI image generators will soon be hardly recognizable in terms of content, the verifiable origin of an image will become increasingly important. And of course, that of a video as well.

However, the press photo, which races around the world in seconds without much viewing, is still one of the most important tools of reporting. Until it is controllable for everyone on news websites and social media regarding location, time, photographer, and editing, the following applies: Every image is to be considered a forgery unless its origin can be clearly proven.

(tho)