Pentax - The end?

London Camera as a group will no longer sell Pentax cameras. Double discount on Pentax cameras, 11-18mm lens delayed, nothing new mentioned. Is it the end for Pentax/Ricoh?

This is a strange post especially considering that today is the Official Worldwide Happy Pentax Day I've never seen negative posts about Pentax before

Off to stroke and console my Pentax Pets now, you've upset them

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Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi

LCE stopped selling new Pentax hear about a year ago. Spoke to my local shop in Worcester and they said it was a business decision based on lack of interest and slow sales.

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Regards,
Dan

https://www.flickr.com/photos/honourabletyr/

I think you are mistaking this site for DPR. That is where silly posts like your belong.

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Peter



My Flickr page

Info from the LCE front page:
Canon - up to £270 cashback
Olympus - up to £300 cashback
Sony - enhanced cashback
Fujifilm - save up to £270

Join the club...They're all doomed...We're all doomed!

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to seeing the next Pentax APS-C - whatever it is, it's bound to be interesting.

Philip

I spot a big change People used to moan that prices were TOO HIGH!..... Now they moan that they are TOO LOW!

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Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi

It is a shame that LCE stopped carrying Pentax as it was nice to handle items before buying. If I want to do that now I have to travel to Watford. Planning a trip down soon.

All LCE have done is send my business elsewhere.

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Regards,
Dan

https://www.flickr.com/photos/honourabletyr/

No, I don't think so, and I tire of seeing negative posts like this.

I have bought Pentax from a number of outlets, LCE not one of them.

Happy Pentax Day!

Yep it's the end. Feel free to send me your discontinued FF and APS-C DSLRs with WR, your high quality limited primes and your pro grade star lenses. Even your 60 years worth of top class vintage glass. I'll hopefully find someone poor and needy to hand them off to.

Even if the company dies, we'll have been left with the K-1, KP, K-3 and K-5 cameras, all having unique features and specs for pretty much anyone who isn't a pro or excessively demanding of their equipment.

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All the gear with no idea

I really don't buy much new gear.
As tight budget means buying used works best for me, giving me much more bang for buck.
We seem to be a strange lot, forever harping on about the end is nigh.
Maybe 1 main pentax retailer is the way to go, (SRS,)
talk about having a monopoly on a market 🤔
I'm sure they wouldn't complain.

When and if the end comes, it comes.
Until then
Enjoy the gear you have and lust after the gear you'd like to have.
But most importantly, continue taking and making, wonderfully fabulous images with the gear you already have.

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I know what i like, If not always why.

Well I’m still using Contax gear, so does the end really mean the end anyway, and like others have said before me, I buy all my cameras used, the last new camera I bought was a Ricoh xrx and I still own it.

Fed up of these posts - reports of Pentax's demise have been circulating since the dawn of AF in the mid-80s

Happy Pentax Day!

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AKA Welshwizard/PWynneJ
Assorted Pentax/Nikon/Mamiya stuff

8 years in the UK and never heard of them; I blame SRS Microsystems :p Went in once, and never go anywhere else if buying in Europe. On a side note, we've been dead for over two decades if I heard correctly - relax and enjoy your gear; the funeral invitations haven't gone out yet.

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'Photography...it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten....' (Aaron Siskind)

The decision by LCE to drop Pentax is down to their staff actively promoting other brands and no interest in selling Pentax. I suspect this is down to their large stock of used lenses and accessories in those two brands, so every Canonikon sale is a new customer for their used stock. When I decided to get a DSLR I went into the local LCE and asked advice. I was shown Nikon and Canon, and to be honest a fairly basic Nikon was what I had in mind and I have never liked the round-shouldered look of Canon bodies, but handling the Nikon was a disappointment. At the back was a modest Pentax display so I asked about those and immediately fell for the K50. I saw it was available in white (mmm, cool!) and they said they would call me about availability but they never did so I ordered it from Clifton Cameras who gave a better deal anyway and who also benefitted from future business. The last time I went into the LCE they said they had had a K1 for quite a while but no-one asked about it, probably because it wasn't on display! Like I said, staff actively avoiding Pentax sales unless specifically requested - hence "lack of demand".

On a slightly different tangent but relevant to this post we hear an awful lot of noise on forums and youtube about mirrorless cameras leading to the imminent demise of DSLR. Couple this with the declared intention by Sony to be bigger than Nikon and Canon and I see a rather sinister pattern. Could Sony be responsible for actively encouraging the dissemination of this antagonistic attitude in the same way we have seen political manipulation of the internet? Rationally minded people would see both systems developing independently so consumers have more choice, and hopefully Sony will continue to supply sensors to Pentax.