Ok John, fine if we are playing with words lets play with words, Pentax has now become 'harder' (not 'hard') to sell than previously.

When I came into the brand last year there was a list of advantages that only Pentax could claim. Every single of the other brands were ticking some of the boxes but none all. This year there are plenty of worthy alternatives and without the price rises Pentax would have a hard time persuading me but with the price rises it is out of the question. Doubt I am alone

I don't think anyone is calling this the doom of Pentax just what it means for some of us regarding our decisions to buy Pentax gear.

Olympus as a company is not a shining star by any means however people care for the kit the price and its merits.

Equivalent MFT primes are much much cheaper now (14mm about 130£ compared to 450+ for a 21mm, 45 1.8mm 230 compared to 500+ for the 70mm) and so on. The price increases would have gone unnoticed if they had not been that dramatic.

Given that third party manufacturers like Tamron and Sigma have almost stopped producing their new glass in Pentax mount then I am wondering how are you planning on stopping people from abandoning the brand let alone bringing new people in.

Yes am happy for the lenses I have and for the prices I paid for them but as I said if I was buying now it would be a very hard sell and it seems I am not alone in this.

Had these been the prices last year when I was swapping from Nikon, I wouldn't have gone for Pentax. It is a shame if that is going to be the level of the pricing for Pentax lenses from now on. Killed any chance for me going for a K-01...

I cannot see how the 17-70 F4 is just £150 less than a 17-55 2.8 Nikkor and twice as expensive as a 17-50 Tamron. Makes no sense... Glad I have a set of glass that I have bought in fairly reasonable prices.

And what does it say about Pentax in relation to other brands? A OM-D + a few very very good primes will set you back less than 2k, selling what I've got would probably net me a fair bit more than that and I am getting similar benefits but even smaller lighter body even better IS and some amazing zuiko lenses.

Hm.

You are not by any chance selling the 15mm as well are you?

I'll offer 210 inclusive of postage to UK address if interested let me know and I can BT the money straight away. Thanks

The reflective screen on Macs is really not ideal for photo work I don't think and I have an MBP. However the Air is a bit hard to beat at the moment for size/performance/price ratio.

They have very decent battery, the casing is much sturdier so it is harder to get the case to flex (it is easier though than the heavier thicker MBPs but much harder than my current lenovo E320 Pen Testing laptop) and they are very thin and light.

I don't have one because for anything I do I need 8GB of memory and they all currently max out on 4GB but if the next rev rumoured to come out this month pushes that to 8 then I will be having one.

As said though if your main goal is to have some space to download your pictures onto then maybe a image storage portable HD a few more cards might be cheaper way to get one. You should still try out an MBA regardless, they are soooo nice, shame you can't really run Backtrack Linux on them very easily.

Can offer £520 shipped?

For me just like the GX1/EP3 (not the EM5 as it is both price and feature wise on a different field) the K-01 is the perfect alternative to a P&S while providing the flexibility of an ILS.

I have taken the K-5 to anything from mountain biking trips to fortnight holidays to hill walks and there were plenty of times when I wanted something smaller more streamlined and definitely less intimidating. It ticks all the boxes. The K-5 even with a pancake is still a fairly serious looking camera which kinda gets on the way of a non photography trip especially a more active one. I think the K01 will give you most of what the K-5 does while staying out of the way while doing so.

It sounds like I am simply trying to sell it to myself but I have been looking into getting an m4/3 for those situations but after playing around with a K-01 I am almost convinced it would work just as well and on top of that I already have lenses for it so I won't need to spend even more for a semi decent line up of glass.

Went by SRS to have a look... It feels soooo nice to hold and looks a lot better in reality than in pictures. The back screen is gorgeous and the controls have a quality feel. It is quite big and heavy but the straight line boxy design should make it very easy to carry assuming you stick a pancake lens on. I was rather sceptical before but after seeing it and given that my 40mm could fetch 250 i would only be paying 430 for it...

Tried my 16-50 on it noticed a bit of hesitation to focus but I had no problems holding it and using it with the camera.

I can see the bright day no vf problem but not so sure it would affect me much.

All said I might be buying one!

D7k was and still is in short supply so the price has shot up. I bought mine last year for £650 refurbished... So after nearly 2 years on the market the price of the K-5 is about right as opposed to low.