It's 2026 and a New DSLR Is on Its Way!

The new Pentax DSLR that fans have waited years for has reportedly moved past the drawing board and into production. A Japanese insider says the camera is being built now, though no launch date has been confirmed.

The claim comes from a report by Digital Camera World, which points to social media comments from Ricoh/Pentax insider Kimio Tanaka, shared by Pentax Rumors. Tanaka doubled down on his earlier reports, saying production has already started, while noting it is still unclear which exact model is being made. The outlet says a timeline can't be inferred, but a launch later in 2026 is conceivable, and the body is expected to be a successor to the full frame K-1 Mark II.

Keep the hedges in mind. This is an insider report, not an official Ricoh announcement, and there is no spec sheet, price, or ship date. Tanaka has a track record of accurate calls on the company's plans, and his comments line up with earlier signals. Back in April, Ricoh and Pentax executives went on the record in an interview with Spanish site Photolari, saying they will not abandon SLRs. In that interview the executives said, "We will never give up if there are customers," and confirmed an active internal project for a new Pentax DSLR. So the pieces fit, but "in production" from a leaker is not the same as a camera you can order.

Pentax is the last major brand still actively developing DSLRs. It has been six years since Canon and Nikon launched their last DSLRs, the EOS-1D X Mark III and the D6. Pentax's own cadence has been slow. The full frame K-1 II dates to 2018, and the APS-C KF from 2022 was essentially a rebadged K-70, a design that goes back to 2016. On top of that, Ricoh ended production of the K-3 Mark III in Japan in January 2025, and the niche K-3 Mark III Monochrome later sold out and was marked as discontinued at major retailers. A genuinely new body would be the first in a while that isn't a warmed-over refresh.

Nobody yet knows whether this is a full frame K-1 III, an APS-C K-3 successor, or something else entirely. The market is tiny. By one industry estimate, DSLRs are roughly 10% of camera sales, and Canon dominates that slice, which leaves Pentax serving a small, loyal base rather than chasing volume. That is the whole strategy Ricoh has described: meaningful upgrades for existing users, not a fight with Sony or Nikon, and Pentax users are some of the most loyal you'll find anywhere. 

Given the size of the market, the arrival is more consistent with a refresh or reworking of an existing design than a ground-up, next-generation platform. Hopefully, we'll hear more soon.