Lens Price Increases!

Hi guys, maybe this is why I'm not a business man BUT, I have surfed the web and I'm astounded by the price hikes on Pentax lenses, what if Pentax did the opposite and lowered prices ??? I for one might be tempted to buy a lens or two. To me it's simple, higher prices result in less sales, lower prices would surely increase sales !!! Like I said, probably best I'm not in business

DERYN

K-7 and STD Lens wait for it........ £1,199-99p

and a K20D,Body only a few pence short of £560

Exchange rate changes slowly filtering through the system.
Apr08 1GBP~200to240YEN, Apr09 1GBP~140YEN. The pound has weakened a lot this year.

A Japanese company will sell in yen probably and unless they want ot make a loss on stuff they have made then the price has to go up.

That said the yen seems artificially high to me - too many hedge funds unravelling and buying jap govt bonds pushed the exchange rate up, if I understand it right.

I reckon come apr next year things will be better wrt exchange rate but who knows how many retailers will cope with it.

some have tracker mortgages, hopefully enough will be loyal to keep their local knowledgable stores - usually the ones with a pentax pro designation - alive.

I think that's a case of stock bought at a cheaper price a while ago vs new stock at a higher price due to change in exchange rate.

the sad thing is that over the past 2 years we've had a golden age for camera kit in the UK, seems like we're heading back to what it was like about 4yrs ago when the number in USD is now the number in GBP.

Could be cheaper to buy a discounted BA flight and get one in NYC soon

Bu isn't that exactly what happened with the pound, it was apparently massivly overvalued against the dollar and thats why the crash was so large.

I recently bought the DA 15/4 from the USA and even after all the customs fees & post etc, I still saved the best part of £100 over the SRS price...sorry Chris...(SRS)

Problem happens when you are unlucky to get a bad copy which is not unheard of with lenses and equipment and then who do you contact?

If it is local at least you get in touch with your dealer and get things sorted out.

I personally wouldn't risk getting something from abroad for a saving of £100.
But this is just my personal opinion and these are views of a newbie around here, so I might be totally wrong here.

Im pretty sure Pentax will issue a International warranty (unlike Sigma) which will cover any repairs from an authorised repair centre.

I really hope they do this.
In fact I was very surprised at first when I got to know that if something goes faulty you can't call directly Pentax, but would have to go through the dealer where you bought the goods. I find it still a bit strange, of course unless I am missing something here too.

I would have thought that provided a receipt exists of the purchase, independent of the name that the receipt has been written to, I thought the manufacturer would cover the warranty.

Let's assume for example that I decide to move to Singapore a few months after buying all the goodies from SRS and spending a bomb, what if something goes wrong? Who do I turn to?

So I really hope as Mike says Pentax issues an International warranty which covers any repairs as long as the goods have been purchased from an authorised dealer.

Pentax lenses have an international warranty. Pentax USA will also issue an international warranty on camera bodies if you ask them to. I bought my first Pentax in the US and it was no problem to get an international warranty on it.

Sigma are quite happy to repair lenses bought in the US as long as they have been properly imported, ie. all taxes paid etc.

See here

Dan

It's not good news at all - The new RRP of the DA* 50-135 is £1219. Which will probably translate into a 'street price' of about £1100.

This is kerrrazy!

Well Pentax will loose out on that new 300mm I was saving for. Maybe when they realise the instruction should have been to reduce prices by 20% I'll dash out and buy one.

What the hell are the dealers playing at? It's against the law for Pentax to fix prices and they shouldn't be issuing RRP's. The dealers are at fault they know how much they are paying Pentax for bodies and lenses.... they should place the orders for the equipment and then fix their own prices. The way everyone is carrying on is no use to anybody, it's just a detriment to sales. Give it another few weeks and people who have put money to one side for cameras and lenses will have spent it on something else. Then it's the holiday season when cash will be tight anyway. The market might settle down by Christmas

shim

I hope so Shim. The legend that is Chris at SRS is keeping a DA*50-135 at it's current price for me; as I'll be getting it in just over two weeks time.

After that; it'll be at the very very end of 2009/start of 2010 when I'll be looking for something to give 500mm reach. I really do hope things have settled by then.