I just checked at the DP Review Pentax forum and Ned himself made the following post:
"...your posting of my age reminds me of Mark Twain's quote 'the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.' Your google search must have identified another guy, as I'm only going to be 65 this fall, and Hamada-san is much younger than me:) "Also, I hope some of the forum members posting here are better photographers than how they interpret a press release. Sometimes what's said is simply fact. I choose to retire plain and simple. "I thoroughly enjoyed working for PENTAX, but after 7 years of commuting every week from CA to CO, it was time for me to not be a stranger to my wife and grand kids, get a little more surfing in, and think about about what I want to do for my next chapter. "Thanks for your thoughts Joseph and happy shooting to all. " Having met Ned myself (at the K-X press introduction in NYC) I can say that he's a straight shooter and I'd take him at his word. The lifestyle he must have been leading would be tough for a young person and much tougher on someone 64 years old. (In fact, I must admit, when I saw him in NYC in 2009 my impression was that he was around 64-65 then; he looked much older in person than in his photos.) I'm going to take his word that he's just ready to retire after bringing Pentax through some very tough times. -- Mark Roberts - Photography & Multimedia www.robertstech.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
