How much stock?

Following a question from Barrie, I started wonderinghow much Pentax stock is held in local Pro dealers shops.

I have 2 Pro dealers local to me and niether has a massive stock. They can get things quick enough and give excellent service, but trying a lens out can be a little awkward.

Thoughts and comments please.

My nearest one has a few bodies - at full rrp, but no lenses at all, either Pentax or Sigma. I don't much like the staff either.

Luckily I am never far from some good, big stores which do have plenty of Pentax, sometimes at good prices.

Our local (non Pro) store is an official Pentax shop but has NO Pentax in at all, not even Optios. When I first wanted a digital SLR I went there - thinking I'd support my local shop. They had Pentax on the door, even had some Pentax leaflets, but when I asked to see a Pentax ist DS they laughed. Yes they laughed. Buy a Canon was the response I got.
No thank you I said. Goodbye.

SRS seems to have reasonable stock levels although last time I went, no 12-24, no 40mm and no 50-135 and I am expecting a call from them when they get some in stock which should be a week to 10 days.

So at least some popular stuff seem to be a bit hard to get.

My local newsagent has loads

We have no local Pentax dealers here now since the closure of Kamera Photographic in St Helen's a few weeks back, not a brilliant shop but at least they did stock Pentax. The other day I had to drop me son off in Liverpool and decided while I was there to pay a visit to the new Jessops shop, walking through the door you are confronted with a Canon stand with eight or ten compacts and bodies and various lenses same with Nikon and Sony! get to the Pentax bit and you have two cameras and a couple of lenses and that's it....sad

So far it seems that getting Pentax kit 'from stock' isn't easy.

Indeed when SRS are struggling to supply items, it's no wonder a lot of people think Pentax no longer exist.

Hopefully when Ricoh take control of the Pentax brand we may see an increase in availability.

I bought my KX from Currys, My replacement KR from SRS and lenses from SRS Microglobe and Park Cameras.

I've never yet found any new Pentax fit lenses in any shops living in Derbyshire. Jessops are frankly a joke. LCE sell what they fancy of a weeka and my listed Pentax dealer is a chemist that sells mostly camera bags and tripods these days and nothing Pentax or Pentax fit!

I agree that whatever the new owners do can only be an improvement BUT buying any camera gear that isn't CANIKON is very difficult if you live outside big cities.

So where are there any good camera shops in the Northwest? as Bill has stated Jessops are a joke as are Wilkinson's.

I've done most of my recent buying from SRS and have never really had much problem with stock levels.

I would suspect the effect of the Japanese tsunami would be hitting stock levels about now, wherever the manufacturing process depends upon a supply chain in the affected areas.

Mathers of Lancashire (Bolton town centre) had stocks of a range of Pentax stuff last time I went by.

I know what you're saying John, but stock levels of canikony stuff don't seem to be suffering the tsunami effect.

We must remember that a lot of 'Japanese' optics and bodies are actually made in places like the Philippines and South Korea.

What you see on the shelves in most shops is what they have, the days of stock rooms for camera shops are long gone from what I've been told.

SRS aside, it seems the distribution of Pentax gear is scant in the least.

Mathers of Lancashire always have plenty of Pentax stuff, got my K5 from them.

I've never seen anything above the beginner models of
Canon and Nikon in any shop.... so it's a bit of a myth
that the £1,000 + cameras are readily available.

Never seen a FF of any make in a shop?

Harrisons in Sheffield is a big shop and have the pro (and full frame) Canikon models. I saw them last time I was shopping for a new Lowepro bag.

The only Pentax stock was a used KX and some ME Supers, popular with art students, I was told. The shop clearly had time for Pentax but thought it something from their past and whn i asked they said they had no real incentive to stock another full DSLR range.

I confess I did drool over the Leicas they had too just as I did working in the trade early seventies. Plenty of Asahi Pentaxes on our shelves and counters back then. I loved selling them!

To put an Oz dimension to this, I'm lucky to have the Victorian Pentax distributor in Melbourne, as well as a specialist retailer called Digital Camera Warehouse. Each has had plenty of Pentax stock, both compacts and SLR.

They also stock K-mount lenses, and not just Pentax - my Tammy 90 macro came from DCW. Not every lens is there to behold (for eg they don't stock the 31), but most.