Lens Prices...

i have to agree with everyone else,chris and his team do us proud.
i have phoned many times just to ask for advice,always been treated with respect,never spoken down to.compare to ONLY time in j"£%ops when spotty 15 year old told me pentax only manufacture compacts!!!
unfortunately it will mean i can't go into srs as often as i wold like to,but i will still recommend them to everyone

"As for Sigma and Tamron alternatives, I use them but prefer the better optics in Pentax lenses"

Thats a very broad generalisation. Some of the 3rd party optics are superb and better than most users ability to use them....tried the Sigma 50-150? or the Tamron 90 macro?...both fully the equal of Pentax and possible better..and that is just two that spring straight to mind.

cheers Steve.

It's quite a horrible feeling when you realise that you may have missed the boat and will have to pay hundreds of pounds extra for a lens - that feeling may turn to anger and you look for someone to blame. Of course, everyone here agrees that it is not right to get angry at SRS or other retailers who do not control the prices at which they purchase their stock.

But consider this also: Is it right to get angry at Pentax? In the same way that retailers need to make some profit, so do manufacturers. I doubt whether anyone here knows the numbers behind running a company which designs and manufactures DSLRs and lenses. It seems some people hoped that the involvement of Hoya and Samsung would somehow mean an injection of free cash/resource to cover design, tooling etc. and we'd all end up being able to buy bargain products at the usual cost above manufacturing cost.

How quickly do sales of a product cover the cost of its developlemt? Well, maybe Pentax needs to generate more income, to cover money it has already spent. Maybe the design and tooling for those lovely new DA* lenses needs to be paid for soon, and it is better to sell fewer at a higher profit margin. Maybe Pentax needs money for the design of new cameras/lenses (if you want a FF DSLR, you might need to pay for it upfront!).

When you consider the cost of your weekly supermarket shop or a tank of petrol, cameras/consumer electronics etc. actually seem like a bargain. What makes them unaffordable is the amount of income you have left when you've paid for essentials.

I think Pentax have offered some fantastic gear at bargain prices for quite some time and whilst they may not be able to maintain this during the current economic climate, I really don't think anyone can claim they are now trying to 'rip us off'.

Really, we have no reason to think that the price increases are anything other than necessary for the ongoing business and future of Pentax. What would you rather, price increases and a future for Pentax, or cheap lenses today and no Pentax tomorrow?

We are so well off in this country compared to so many in the world and yet people feel hard-done-by when they can't afford luxuries. Cancel Sky, walk to the shops instead of driving, ditch your mobile, stop taking holidays away from home. If you can't afford all the luxuries you want, you may have to choose.

So let's try to show some respect for Pentax, as well as for retailers.
Sorry, not meaning to have a go at anyone in particular (sorry john941, I started typing before you posted), I just thought it needed to be said.

We have a saying in our family, goes something like this: "at least you're not having a baby up a tree". Can't remember which flood it was, somewhere in Africa I think, but there you go. At least you're not having a baby up a tree.

Regards,
Derek.

PS I don't think we want to see Pentax in the same state as most motor manufacturers

I haven't waded into this argument, and no-one knows the full facts, but I imagine that the lens you buy today will still be a very valuable tool 5 or ten years from now. I have had most of mine 28 years and I think I can still take decent pictures with them

Bottom line: 5 years from now you will have long forgotten the price you paid for it and simply remember the enjoyment it has given you and since it is not a repeat purchase you have to make often, the price becomes amortised somewhat. Unlike some products Pentax doesn't have the opportunity with its lenses to keeping selling the same product to the same customer over and over again.

For most of us, each lens focal length will be a one time purchase. You only need one 50-135 or one 60-250 and so on. Bite the bullet and buy it now and enjoy it or don't buy it. It's your choice. Pentax isn't twisting our arms to feed our LBA. They are not pushers ( or are they?)

I always thought there where 2 exchange rates going on for camera gear. Doesn't most gear come through Germany via Intro 2020??? So yen to euro then euro to GBP no wonder things get expensive when they eventually get here...

Or maybe I heard wrong???

I'm neither a retail or currency market expert but for me the important thing to consider is when new stock was ordered from Japan. I googled the Sterling/Yen exchange rate. If the UK importer (presumably Pentax UK) ordered new stock in January/February then exchange rate was at is lowest point for the last two years. At this point the pound was worth less half of what it was at it's (recent) peak value against the Yen in July 2007.

I haven't bought anything from SRS before, after seeing the glowing recommendations all over this forum, and having watched their rather good prices for nearly a year they'll probably be my first stop when I've saved up for new glass. I have pointed a few friends their way though, more because of their pricing than anything else (they're happy, and they use Nikons....)

It is unfortunate that I shall now have to save up longer than planned, as the pancake lenses have gone up in prices by so much. I suppose I shall have more satisfaction from using these lenses when I finally can afford to buy them

I think the magnitude of the price increases is quite a hard blow, though. The prices have been stagnant for a few years now and I guess Pentax is just lumping it all up in one go - it is probably necessary for their business and could be done more gradually.

Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but I was of the understanding that Pentax and Sigma both operated an import structure of Japan -> Europe (main central distribution point) -> individual European countries.

Because the Yen to Euro exchange rate is lousy, there's one hit there, and then the Euro to pound rate is also poor, so the UK then takes a 2nd hit on the rates there.

A direct comparison of Yen to Sterling rates doesn't tell the whole story and explains at least partly why prices have gone the way they do. Sigma stuff took a huge hike several months ago, it's taken Pentax a bit longer to filter the changes through.

Could Chris or anyone else confirm that my understanding of the import structure is true?

Here's a little curiosity. The price of lenses has near doubled, but the price of a K20d body has hardly changed. Odd.

Will the Samsung lenses now follow? It will be interesting to see how independant of Pentax Samsung really is...

Judging by the number of views and contributions to this thread the subject of lens prices is a very hot topic. Whichever way you look at it, people are not happy, and the same seems to apply in the other pentaxforums I dip into occasionally.

I really hope that Pentax management read these things and pay attention because this is grass roots marketing 21st century style guys. We are you audience and you should be ours.

Pentax have the ability to score a real home run with the K7, and their pricing strategy on the new body (which should be sub-£1000 IMHO) and recent lens price 'adjustments' may just push this home run out of their grasp....yet again

With a great line up of lenses and cameras to rival anything out there they could just have recaptured their heyday of the 70s-80 with manual SLRs. They produced the very best 35mm SLR of all time IMHO from any manufacturer (no prizes for guessing which I mean - LX) and then promptly blew it with their (lack of proper) marketing. They could have followed through and been where Canon is now with that camera at the time, but they let Canon steal their thunder with the F2 (I recall).
Are they about to do it again - to innovate and get everyone worked up only to let poor marketing and strategy decisions let their great products design go unseen by the masses? Pentax is like that hot date you had as a teenager who got you all worked up, but never let you 'follow through' - very frustrating.

Pentax have a history of innovation and breaking ground (too many to mention here) but never follow through with marketing that can really capitalise and translate that into marketshare. Are you sure they are Japanese and not a British company in disguise?

Pentax marketing has been abysmal for as many years as I can remember, nothing has really changed. I think it is run by employees who are moles from the competition!

I suspect they are totally controlled by their European (was Pentax Germany but now Pentax France) and Japanese masters.

Richard, I'm inclined to agree with you but common sense says that no manufacturer could possibly make cameras and not advertise them.

It is totally perplexing.

Given how different it is with Pentax USA, could it be that Pentax regard the UK as such a marginal market that it just isn't worth bothering?

Glasgow is awash with tourists right now and whilst walking around the city centre yesterday I spotted only one Pentax DSLR

The lack of promotion does seem perplexing, but I have wondered whether it's down to available capacity to produce enough cameras and lenses and the finance being available to build new capacity.

In other words, no point going flat out on promotion if the stock won't be available to fulfill the created desire.

Just a thought.

Since prices in other EU countries are far more normal, could it be that Pentax UK (distributor) is asking such high prices?