I think the point is that some other marques make polycarbonate products in addition to highly priced high-end products whose performance and engineering are as good as any similar product made anywhere. If Pentax does not make more polycarbonate products of the K-r or DA 35mm f2.4 AL kind then it's unlikely to attract all that many new customers. The number of people prepared to drop several thousand on camera equipment is always going to be very small, and in a field with high R&D and component costs the number may easily become too small to make a sustainable business. It's easy no doubt to convince ourselves that we are all safe in our ivory tower, but out there price and relative performance matter enormously. FWIW, over-engineering can be as much of a challenge for a company as its opposite and, anyway, a well-made (nb) polycarbonate product has its virtues such as light weight, strength and no rusting.

Feeling gloomy here. Pentax lenses were already fully priced, imho, and now they are or soon will be fully overpriced. None of the present bodies offers particularly good value, either (the K-r excepted, but it is end of line). Folks have offered many reasons for the increases, but the only one I can see is that Ricoh are rebalancing their trading worldwide to allow for currency fluctuations and to discourage cheap internet sales in one territory from undercutting higher-priced sales in another territory. I'm not sure Ricoh give a stuff about selling Pentax in the UK or in other small and relatively insignificant markets. If folks are crazy enough to want to buy the brand here then fine, but the message seems to be "good luck but you are on your own, boys". It must be very tough for specialist retailers, too. You put a great deal of effort into building up your sales and reputation, then thanks to corporate politicking in Japan the brand prices itself straight out of contention and you are left high and dry.

Maybe it's a cultural thing? My experience in the UK is definitely that a big lens on the front means folks really do notice. Press, pap, council, snooper, trouble, who knows? With a short prime lens I find that folks may well notice but they don't pay much attention to you. With a long lens, they do. It also depends where you are, of course. In a touristy area, folks don't pay nearly as much attention to a camera as they do down meaner streets.

So far, I have had most success with the DA 21mm when used close and discreetly, usually waist high, and with the DFA 100mm, a macro lens I know, but the length means I can stand back and frame a shot from far enough away not be overbearing or even noticed if I get it right. I've had some nice shots with the DA 40mm and an old A series 50mm but as another poster says, framing and focus are usually a problem at this focal length when snap-shooting. FWIW, with the DA 21mm I usually pre-set focus to 5ft or so, so no worries about getting a lock, and turn off shake reduction. I've tried using a zoom but usually it is too unwieldy and obvious.

I'm quite tempted by this route myself. You have a lot of info about your choices on your blog, for which many thanks - very helpful. As for Pentax, well, sigh: if they stay with the pack, though not ahead of it, then OK I suppose but if these price hikes are a prelude to repositioning themselves as a bling brand for WAGS and wannabees, I'm out.

Look at the range of models, lenses, prices for 135-format cameras and for mirrorless m4/3 cameras compared to a few years ago or even less than that. Pentax don't have to launch a 135-format camera for them to feel the impact of this format. For example, if there were no 135-format cameras, then the prices of APS-C cameras could climb to giddy heights (assuming they had features to match). That there are constrains what can be done. Similarly at the lower end: mirrorless m4/3 cameras are cheaper to make, I would presume, but in performance they are becoming more competitive with APS-C ones all the time; it is hard to set prices against them when you are carrying the costs of producing a conventional DSLR and DSLR-mount lenses (I include the K-01 in this; it's a DSLR in disguise, I think).

Everything changes all the time. Imho, conventional APS-C DSLRs are a tricky place to be right now. Eventually I think Pentax will feel they have to launch a 135-format camera but I'm not rooting for them to do it or not to do it.

Well, some folks who would like a 135-format camera cannot afford one (or perhaps the lenses if they are after long ones) so they settle for APS-C. Still others, I expect, have an idee fixe about full frame but that's probably a matter for the psychiatrists.

Others, and I am one, would like to keep their options open for the future. There is nothing wrong with APS-C at all, but I don't want to lock myself into it by purchasing APS-C-only things if I don't have to, so I am becoming fairly careful about what I do buy.

More generally, the gap between high-end APS-C and 135-format is narrowing, costwise. This may mean that camera-makers will have to be careful about raising their prices for APS-C things too high or they risk losing users to a rival who offers FF for not much more money. These users may not be many in number but they probably buy an awful lot more branded things than a lower-end user who is content with a mid-range camera and a couple of basic lenses. Thus, imho, the more Pentax raise prices for their APS-C equipment the more exposed they will be to losing users without an FF offering in their range. I have no strong opinions about this myself, but it just looks the way things are going. APS-C is being squeezed at both sides, the top by 135-format and the lower end by increasingly capable but usually less expensive m4/3 outfits.

I may be wrong, but my impression is that's not what people think (that Pentax's overall offer is broadly comparable to Canonikon) and what people think is what influences their buying decisions even if they are mistaken. An example: I walk into the branch of Jacobs I use and see rows of cases devoted to all the major brands with the usual point of sale material, signs and all the rest. There, at one end, is not a case but just one shelf with a couple of Pentax cameras on it and not much else. That alone can influence a buying decision.

Ergo, a bit of hearts and minds promo from Pentax might be a very good idea rather than simply raising prices and disappearing. You cannot look at one thing in isolation and even at their old prices Pentax (together with all similar camera-makers) were about as far from bargain basement as one can get.

Second, I suspect that 135-format is becoming highly relevant to lenses prices. Of two equally priced lenses, one APS-C only and one which can do FF too - well, other things being equal, the choice is a no-brainer if I want some future proofing. The maker of the APS-C-only lens will need to price it lower if they want my business, which might not have been the case, say, 3-5 years ago. FF may be a minority pursuit but it looks to be a growing one.

I'm the only Pentax user in my local group and have been for at least three years now. When we meet the talk is much more likely to be about the last photo apps for mobile phones or tricks on social networking sites than it is about the conventional photographic brands. I wouldn't want to convert anyone anyway, but I have noticed that the few serious ones who move on into semi-pro land do so for FF on Canonikon.

The current round of price rises in the photographic industry makes me laugh a little hollowly. To judge from my local group (it's a Flickr one, but an organized and social one) the next generation of folks is interested in snapping on mobiles, video, connectivity. They are just as likely to by an iPhone or Xperia and really use its camera as they are a conventional SLR. By pricing themselves stratospherically above what these folks want to do with their photography and sticking firmly to "no cloud/wifi here, thanks", the established brands are well on the way to writing themselves out of the story.

The opposite could easily be the case with Tamron and Sigma. Declining sales of the Pentax brand lead to declining sales of third-party products for it and to fewer third-party products for it being made. What this move has probably done is refocus people's attitude: we've heard all the talk about the Ricoh takeover but now we are fixing our eyes firmly on what these guys are actually doing and on the products they are releasing, not on what their marketing department has been claiming and on rumours of rafts of new things just waiting in the wings. No more if.