Background and Identification
The Ricoh Company, Ltd. is a Japanese imaging and electronics company. Ricoh was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken), also called the Riken Concern, in February 1936. Ricoh produces electronic products including cameras and office equipment such as printers, photocopiers, fax machines, and document management applications. In the late 1990s through the early 2000s, Ricoh became the largest copier manufacturer in the world.
In 2011, Hoya Corporation, a Japanese optical glass-maker, sold its Pentax camera business to Ricoh. Hoya’s Pentax imaging systems business was transferred to a newly established Ricoh subsidiary called the Pentax Imaging Corporation. The Pentax Imaging Corporation was later renamed the Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd. In 2013, the imaging company’s name was changed yet again to Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd.
Ricoh cameras include compact digital cameras, GR digital cameras, a GPS/camera all-in-one model, and film cameras. In 2015, Ricoh released the Ricoh Theta S camera, which is marketed as a 360-degree compact camera. Some Ricoh camera products are branded under different names such as Pentax, which is the name for Ricoh’s line of digital SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras. Ricoh’s lines of compact digital cameras, 360-degree spherical cameras, and action cameras include the name “Ricoh” in capital letters generally on the front of the device.