Sigma 400's are very difficult, almost impossible to repair.
It's not usually fungus either, it's the cement between the
elements breaking down.

A lot of girls want to do modeling and it's wrong to say what someone can and can't do

I could never understand why they took Pan's People off Top of the Pops, obviously they weren't PC They replaced them with a PC group of mixed dancers (Ruby Flipper) who were a flop that nobody remembers and later they brought back all female dancers with Legs and Co.

http://panspeople.com/?q=taxonomy/term/98

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Mines the chrome one with the F, but I really like the
black one with the electronics logo link

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I'm having nothing to do with the Olympics, after they turned down an ex rugby league player as a flame carrier, who having been diagnosed with an incurable stomach cancer about 4 years ago has raised thousands for charity since doing unbelievable endurance events. He received the MBE in 2010 so why can't he carry the flame. I can't honestly think of anyone more deserving.

He's just run in the Paris marathon, then cycled to Calais, is about to cross the Channel in a kayak, cycle Dover to London and then run in the London marathon...... but he still can't carry the flame

Links:

http://www.steveprescottfoundation.co.uk/

Paris-to-London

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Prescott

Nothing wrong with that table. It's showing RRP's which include VAT at whatever rate it is in I presume France.

It's actually the same mark-up that I mentioned earlier, which has been the standard in the photographic trade for years i.e. 50% some slow selling lenses have been given slightly more others slightly less because of fierce competition. Obviously no one sells at these prices

Taking one that shows exactly the 50% MUP the 300mm DA* in this country that sells for £900 which is 1090 Euros less VAT which I assume is about 20% leaves 908 Euros Cost is 800.57 so the profit is 107.43 which is 10% of the SP inc. VAT which is why Pentax want the selling prices increasing.

Forget it they have an extra (cheap) glass element in the
adapter which will effect image quality.

It's not an Olympus... that has the release and stopdown buttons 180deg
apart.

Could it be Sigma's own mount?

The clothing trade have always had big markups, partly because they have to take a risk with seasonal stock which may finish up drastically reduced at the end of the season, plus it's a rip-off

The photographic industry traditionally worked on a 50% MUP which equals a 33.33% profit margin. It's probably still the same on general items such as small cameras and flashguns, cable releases etc. Cameras were cut to the bone in the 60's/70's by mail order companies like Jessops. As far as I know they still haven't recovered..... Looking at the price of a K-5 it's obvious they haven't recovered

Most importers give discounts based on how many units are ordered which helps the online retailers and cripples the small shops.

If you look around wholesalers such as Makro you can see that the margins aren't massive. In the 70's Makro actually sold photographic gear for less than a dealer could buy it for. Partly because they buy thousands of items at a time and qualify for the biggest discounts and they also qualify for wholesale prices. Kodak never gave much away because they knew dealers had to stock their stuff.

Putting out nonsense about profit margins is very damaging to Pentax.

That's total nonsense. It must have been written by someone with less than half a brain and I find it hard to believe that yours is any bigger for repeating such tripe! . Most retailers margins nowadays on high price goods are around 10-20% and they have to give a cut out of that to the Credit Card companies.

The underpants to go with that gear have already been sold