K-7 price dropping already?

If it isn't rip off Britain, then could someone please explain this one to me.

The situation a few months ago an FA 50 1.4 was around £159.

Current price rise included FA 50 1.4 is now £439 ALMOST TRIPLE THE PRICE!

276% increase in price, thought the pound had dropped around 30%?

These price hikes are the reason I've chosen to buy another used K20D body + grip + batteries for under £500.00. I'm not going for a K-7 until it's price comes down considerably.

Trouble is, the value of my lenses has gone up so much I'm half afraid to take them out any more. Many of them now sell for £1000.00+.

It's caused by people like you who rush in and leave a deposit on new camera's regardless of what price they are

The only solution is don't buy any Pentax UK stuff for about a year or whenever they drop their prices.

shim

It is a fact of life that prices vary around the world. A manufacturer will ask the price they think they can get for something. If they don't sell enough goods at the price, they will lower the price.

It has always been thus - in the seventies and eighties, when we still lived in Britain, my husband regularly went to the US on business and would bring back Levis and other American brands for friends and family - because they were (and still are!) so cheap there. No one claimed then that it was rip-off Britain - people were just happy to get a bargain from abroad occasionally.
This "poor us we're being ripped off by big business all the time" attitude is something which has appeared over the last decade, partly due to the spread of Internet making it easy to compare prices, and partly due to the red tops constantly whingeing.

I don't remember Britons whingeing like this all the time when I lived there, and I don't like to see it now. It doesn't help any and just makes Britain and Britons look bad to the rest of the world.

If you don't like the price of something don't buy it. No one is standing with a gun at your head making you buy a new K-7 or lens or whatever. Either the prices will drop or Pentax will go bust. Or both. Either way some folks on this forum will be happy (though not necessarily the same ones for each scenario).

I know it's hot out there, but let's stay calm.

We are well aware of the problems the UK is having with a weak Pound and we should all be aware that prices have been artificially low for a long time.

It looks like it's catch-up time.

Without people like this I doubt any camera manufacturer would be able to survive.

Gwyn , you're too funny.

Of course they weren't whingeing about it before because they were not aware of it. The internet has only been around in any meaningful way in the last ten years so before that most people had no way of comparing like for like. Now they do and they don't like it.

Yes, you are right, manufacturers will try and get whatever price they can in a market which is why Levi 501s are $34.95 in the USA and about £60 here and why they took Tescos to court to try and stop them buying 'grey' market 501s and selling them here at a fair price - so your point is?

Deleted, please re-post with less vitriol....

K7 Spanish price, 1249 Euros link £1,072.91 at todays rate

And that's the kit including the new WR 18-55mm lens and including IVA (VAT).

Pay my return air fare and I'll bring some back .

Or pay my return flight and I will happily fly over and fetch some

My guess is the low price of the FA 50 was undermining sales of other newer lenses of similar focal length such as the new 55 1.4 or the DA 40. I wonder if its price has gone up eleswhere?

The FA 50mm is a Japanese made lens and perhaps doesn't fit in with the current portfolio of Vietnam assembled lenses.

Despite many rumours of its being discontinued it seems to have carried on. Another explanation might be that demand has been so consistent that Pentax have actually had to make another batch. The cost of that might be many times what the old batch cost, which might have taken some time to sell.

There does seem to be something a bit odd about the FA prices - park cameras have the 20-35 for 1249GBP.

Jon.

Importing:

From the EU..no extra charges of any sort.

From anywhere else in the world, add the p+p cost to the item price, then add approx 22-25% and you will be very close to the total price you will pay. Beware UPS though, they charge very high fees.

cheers Steve.M.