The Last DSLR Maker Just Discontinued Its Whole Lineup

Ricoh is ending production of its current Pentax K-series digital SLRs and starting work on a brand-new line built on what it calls an entirely new concept. The move retires the existing lineup while the company tries to reinvent what a DSLR can be.

The news comes from an official announcement Ricoh Imaging posted on September 8, 2026. The company frames the change as Pentax digital SLRs moving to a new stage. It thanks longtime K-mount owners, walks through its history from the *ist D in 2003 to the K-1, and says it is developing a new series of digital SLR cameras while keeping the K-mount that Pentax has built over more than half a century. Ricoh is upfront that this will take time, and it promises progress updates as it has information to share.

Ricoh says it is discontinuing the current K-series as part of the transition, and it says a fresh concept is in development. The new cameras are not announced, not spec'd, and not dated. There is no model name, no sensor, no price. What the company is describing is a direction, not a product you can buy. It also says it wants to reexamine the value of taking photographs and build cameras around the enjoyment and process of shooting, not just the finished image, and that it wants to reach both existing enthusiasts and newcomers.

The timing fits a slow unwinding you have watched for a while. Ricoh stopped making the K-3 Mark III in January 2025, and the specialized K-3 Mark III Monochrome eventually ran out of stock and was withdrawn from major retailers. More recently, the full frame K-1 Mark II reportedly went to discontinued or "sold out" status across major Japanese retailers, and the entry-level KF was reportedly discontinued in Japan in May, which had left the K-1 II as the last Pentax DSLR standing. Treat those retailer listings with the usual caution, since Japanese shops sometimes flag a product as discontinued before it is official. This week's statement removes the ambiguity for the whole K-series.

The wider backdrop that makes this notable is that Pentax is the last major brand that continues to actively develop DSLRs, and about six years have passed since Canon and Nikon released their last models, the EOS-1D X Mark III and the D6. The format is fading fast in the numbers. CIPA data shows DSLR shipments continuing their sharp slide in 2026, with one month down 37% year over year, and the average DSLR carrying an export value of roughly $282 against about $711 for a mirrorless body. Compact cameras, meanwhile, are surging. So Ricoh is doubling down on the one category almost everyone else abandoned, and it is asking whether an optical viewfinder and a mirror can be sold as an experience rather than a spec sheet.

If you shoot Pentax and have been waiting on a K-1 III or a new K-3, this is not that camera and it is not close. Ricoh executives spent the past year talking about designing something for a younger generation and rethinking what a DSLR should be, and this announcement turns that talk into an official plan with an open-ended timeline. If you have K-mount glass, the commitment to keep the mount is the line worth holding onto here. Everything else about the next Pentax DSLR is still a promise, and the company is telling you plainly that it will be a while before you see it.