The Future of K5 Prices

Anything you have said about "me talking about principles" is pointless semantics. I don't think what I said was that difficult to interpret but somehow you've got a bee in your bonnet over it. Strange

So you're not going to answer the question I posed previously then?

Sean, meet George. He occasionally comes out from under his bridge here at PU, snarls a bit, then goes back to smoking his pipe and watching countdown.

George, meet Sean. Play nice

When I was starting off and I bought my first new Spotmatic in the early 70's I said to myself I'll buy a SH Leica as well when the prices drop a bit lower. The M4 new at the time with an 50mm f/2 Summicron was £300. They never did drop and I never got round to buying one

Sean,

The only questions I can see are these:

One. "Can this be rationally explained?"

Yes, it can. And you'll be glad to hear that the answer is really quite simple. The camera has proved popular, so Pentax are able to charge more for it than they originally thought.

But amidst the gloom, there is good news for those who can't presently afford it. Eventually, demand will slacken off, and the price will fall.

As you grow older, Sean, you will become used to this sort of thing. Economists call it "Supply and Demand".

And now the second question. "Please explain how someone who is prepared to buy a camera at 900 pounds "cannot afford" the extra 70 pounds?"

This one isn't too hard either. Somebody who has saved £900 can't afford £970.

And somebody with £900 of credit left on his credit card can't afford £970.

And somebody who runs his life on strict budgetary principles (that word again!), and who has budgetted £900 for a purchase, can't afford £970.

I could go on... and on.

But I think it is time for a new topic.

G

George, are you taking the pithy? We've already done supply and demand on page three (sans nudes, sorry).

Doug, my posts, as always, are deadly serious.

G

I'll agree they are deadly.....

so true.
you forgot one though:
I cannot have one unless my wife lets me.

I didn't have the money for the K-5 until the 25th of January, just after the cashback offer ended. On the 25th of January I had the money so I paid £975. Okay I could have waited for the price to drop to £900 but then I still would not have the K-5. As it is I have had the use of my K-5 for a month. A month's usage for £75 is well worth the price of entry in my book. In all honesty I'm guessing it will be at least another couple of months before it comes anywhere close to £900, if then. By that time I'll have had 3 months use of the camera for £75. That's £25 a month. Absolute bargain.

No regrets about not waiting, as you may have gathered. My advice - if you can afford it, buy it. Quite simply it is a lot more fun than waiting around fretting for the price to drop, by which time you may have been hit by a bus, savaged by a ravenous bugblatter beast, or just fretted yourself to death waiting for the price to drop.

In these times George, if you think anyone would commit his/her remaining savings/credit on a 1K camera (especially when he has a perfectly good one as it is), you are really deluded.

As regards the popularity I would be surprised if this was not the the case and meerly asked the original question as I have zero information on the sales side of things in comparison to canikon (and I suppose relative to the K7 as well).

I take the point made earlier by someone else about good glass. I'm a novice but have seen the reality of historical lens prices. The same argument does not apply to bodies though.

Mark...you're logic makes sense if you just want the thing now. Whats 75 quid? (for you anyway ) I just have a different mindset and am content with waiting it out whilst at the same time enjoying the K20. It takes all sorts doesn't it including this type

So you don't have the money. Well, there's no shame in that.

G

Sean, if I was "that type" I would have had the money when the cashback offer was still on, or even when the camera was launched back in October. As I clearly pointed out I didn't, I don't know why you would compare me with the character depicted. As it happens I saved for six months (originally for a K-7), cutting out a lot of the usual 'small luxuries' to maximise savings. When I had the money, I bought the camera.

So my point is merely this - if you want the camera, and have the money, buy it. If you don't want it, why complain about the price?

If the camera is worth money at all, then more time with the camera is worth more money. Nothing in life is permanent, so the cost of any luxury item we buy amounts to money spent in exchange for the time during which we enjoy that luxury item. The likelihood is that the longer you wait to buy your K-5, the less value for money you will get out of it.

Oops
Sorry Mark.. I dont think you're that type at all, it was other folk.

Preconceptions about people are often wrong. The image in question might be of a really honourable man who is handing back a wad of cash he's just seen someone drop. He's registering extreme disappointment that it's not his and he's too honest to run off with it, but it's the burden he bears.

Don't worry, I probably didn't express myself very well in my first post to this thread.

I won't bore you with the details but I'm far from rich. I just don't let it stop me getting what I really want (eventually) because if I did, life would suck. Now I'm off to work, see you later.