How much would you pay for a badge?

I'm really sorry if this has been discussed else where on the forum, i can't find any similar topics...

With the K20D/K200D launch imminent and the SRP's being set by Pentax, it seems that the new cameras will be about £100 more than the Samsung equivalents, is this to much?

I discussed with Pentax and I personally think, as a shopper, i wouldn't pay more than £50, even if i was a reaaaall big fan of the more expensive brand.

Their answer was 'The K10D was £100 more than the GX10 and it done ok!'

Personally, i think this is also wrong, this time round they will have way more people looking at there products, more reviews and more comparisons between the two new cameras.

So, i thought i would come to the 'horses mouth' as it were and ask the people who it matters to most

(Again if this has been talked about somewhere else or i'm annoying you please just ignore/delete my thread!!)

I did go for the K10D over the GX-10 so £100 was ok to me at the time. Still thought it was rather silly though.

There's not a huge amount about the pricing of the Samsung, other than 'expected price £699'. However, this doesn't always make it clear whether this includes an 18-55mm lens or not.

However, Amazon have them listed at:

Body only: £621.05
Body + 18-55: £668.82
Body + 18-55 + 50-200: £716.61


These are significantly cheaper than the K20D, not by just £100. You could save yourself over £80 and get the two lenses for 'free'.

Pentax should address this. £50 more yes, £100 more maybe. Not this difference though.

Dan

I bought the GX10..

At the time Samsung were offering a £100 cashback so the twin lens kit cost me £437. Personally if the capabilities are the same I'll go for the cheapest

simon

It's the same camera. The price should be the same, or at most 25GBP difference. People would buy the Pentax rather than the Samsung on the name and reputation alone. Now they will buy the Samsung on the price alone.
All hypothetical for me as there is no sign of the Samsung in Holland.

I bought the K10D when a retailer on Amazon forgot to add the VAT onto the price, so I saved nearly £100 on it. I'm not sure I'd have got the Samsung, but I know I wouldn't have got the Pentax at the higher price.

Dan

Hello everyone. I've just registered but have been visiting the forum for sometime.

Having just paid SRS for a K20D, I am clearly happy to pay £100 for the badge (over the Samsung). However, isn't the bigger conundrum whether to pay £350+ over a K10D? As an original istD user, I'm getting a lot of extra features for the upgrade and may as well go the full distance to the K20. But this would be a harder decision if I had bought a K10 last year.

I answered "C" as I think Pentax have a fair case for asking more (they can't spread their costs on anything like the scale that Samsung can and need to make more per unit to have any hope of covering their own initial investment), however, I think the gap is simply too wide - unless Samsung at selling at very near - or even below - cost just to get market recognition. They wouldn't be the first company to do this! If that is the case then I feel sorry for Pentax because they can't really compete with that sort of marketing and Samsung need to be careful they don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Ideally, I'd like to see future models from Pentax/Samsung to be completely different, that way you'd have greater choice for K mount users. Perhaps Samsung would make more consumer-oriented cameras with lots of user friendly gizmos and gadgets at low prices to tempt people in to the system and Pentax could concentrate on mid/high end products for serious amateur / pro use. The budget K mount lenses could be badged as Schneider and the Pentax name used exclusively on Limiteds / *'s. The current set up where you have two differently badged versions of essentially the same products competing against each other just seems plain daft to me...

I voted £50 as I thought this was reasonable, I might part with nearly £100 more but from the pricings I've seen it's likely to be much more than this If the final price is more than about £80-£90 different I reckon Pentax will be making a big mistake.

I voted 50, though I may go with availability over loyalty if it comes right down to it.

Now - a picture of that tatoo! :

Is there a difference in build quality?

Chris

Yes I want to see that too

Well, the menus and software are different arent they?
And pentax also updates more frequently than samsung, as seen with the k10d, did it not?

I dunno, Id pay £50 for pentax, and probably £25 because id know the menus were similar to me k100d, but £100 is stupid

Then again, if someone asks you what camera you're using, would you rather say pentax or samsung =/ interested camera guy or generic electronics bigspender =/

I have never agreed with badge engineering and would not willingly pay more for the same thing because of the name.

up to GBP100 would be ok with me, but just.
If it is more then GBP100 it will be hard to justify the difference since resale value isn't really an issue if you look at camera bodies, I mean, who is going to fork out cash for a used *ist DS or a used *ist D? The development goes so quickly that the unit is old when it is released.

For lenses I think it is different, glass will hold it's value much better and there the Pentax brand will make a difference in the resale value I think.