K-5 Where to buy

Okay the plan was to get the K-5 via on-line shopping.

Amazon it now seems won't deliver the K-5 to Jersey, not had this problem before with anything else.

No biggie.

My wife will be in London in a few weeks time. She'll have a couple of hours to kill and get a little shopping before the flight home.

On the premise she can find the right camera shop.

I'm hoping she can pick up a K-5, along with a 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL
(IF) DC WR Lens.


So any idea's/pointers to the best place for Pentax gear much appreciated.


Best regards
D

These people seem to get rave reviews from people on this forum. link

Thanks Barrie.

I got in touch earlier on today with SRS. Problem is there based in Watford, no way my lady could get there and back in time.

Pity they don't have a place more central really.


Regards
D

Jessops had 2 K-5 cameras in London, in their Oxford street shop(s)...
I think it was the same price like in SRS, maybe 4 pounds more...
Or you could order the camera from SRS to the address of some of your friends in London?

I use several camera shops in London for Pentax gear - it's scarcer than other brands but there are places where you'll get what you're looking for. A good place to head is Holborn - near the British Museum (New Oxford Street). Jacobs and Jessops both have large stores there (Jessops have a couple), and both stock Pentax gear, certainly K-5 bodies. Just round the corner from those, off Bury Place, is Microglobe, which is a proper aladdin's cave and probably has more pentax gear and pentax fit gear than anywhere else I have found in Central London. Heading south a bit onto the Strand there is a branch of London Camera Exchange. the folks in there are very helpful... they sell Pentax gear but they don't always have so much stock in the shop. If they offer the best price then the best bet is to explain in advance on the phone what you want and they will bring that from their central store into the strand shop - will need about 24 hrs notice though I think...

There are of course other Jessops and Jacobs around and about the place as well - all have websites (mostly) with prices.

Hope that helps

Cheers Mat and cmik.

Some good info there.

I quickly looked up Microglobe, no K-5's but some nice lenses in.

Got to be worth a visit.

Don't want to confuse her too much though, so if I can nail it down to a few shops in a given area she should be okay

Would I be right in thinking this is probably the more likelier area to get what I need.


Regards
D

If I had to narrow it down to a single area for buy-from-new (rather than second hand) gear then I would probably say Holborn - and specifically New Oxford Street, just a couple of hundred yards east of the big crossroads where Oxford Street crosses Charing Cross Road/Tottenham Court Road. That is where both Jacobs and Jessops have their 'flagship' London stores (or it looks that way). Both their websites currently have K5s:

Jacobs: link

Jessops: link

and it is also very close to all the other major shops on Oxford street and surrounds so an excellent place for any other shopping!

With both you can phone up beforehand to check that they have stock etc. (I would recommend doing that as from memory the stock levels and range in store for both shops is less for Pentax than for the other major brands). Not certain whether the prices quoted online will be quite as competitive when in-person in store - certainly Jessops indicates that their web prices are not matched in store. I have used both shops and have found them both fine.

As a complete aside, I note that the Jessops 'Home' page is currently ALL Pentax! that's something I've not seen in a while...

Regards

Did you ask SRS how much would be delivery to Jersey (your plan was to buy it online anyway). SRS used to give free delivery to UK to this forum members, not sure how Jersey qualifies, but give Chris over there a call and ask.
As for central London shops, best to buy it from "pro centre" - 2 years warranty vs 1 year. You can look for dealers here:
http://www.pentax.co.uk/en/dealersearch.html

Thanks again Mat.

Think the best bet here would be to keep it to the area's you mentioned. Should imagine she'll be heading in that general direction anyway for the 'fashionable' stores.

The Jessops home page showing ''All Pentax'' is a a bit of a rarity.

Here in Jersey, Jessops is more of a non entity regarding Pentax.

piotro

I got a decent quote from SRS. K-5 with 18-135mm worked out at £1049 with delivery at £22.99 RMS for Jersey.

Now here's the thing: Because I'm a Jersey resident, I can claim back VAT on certain goods. In a lot of cases this can be resolved on-line, Amazon for instance.

SRS cannot do this without an actual visit to their shop, and filling out the relevant forms I'm told. Something to do with the computers at SRS not allowing this to happen.

However, not every shop will waive the VAT for you. In most cases it's just a question of asking first.


Best regards
D

hi
if you order on line to collect in store at a
london store you should pay the on line price
thats what i did with a manfrotto tripod
neil

Thanks gtis.

Going by Mat's earlier posted links. I checked out the Jacobs store and found what I needed. Higher price than that quoted by SRS, but that's only because I would have to pay full price on the 18-135, and not the white box price of SRS.

Still debating now if I should just get body only with Jacobs, lens with SRS. Or let my wife just get both Items from Jacobs in London and have done with it.

Jeeez!

Don't think I had this much trouble buying the last car