Price increase for Pentax again???

[nextimelah]

Read from Pentaxforums that there'll be some changes in the pricing from 1st April 2012 onwards.

Is this going to effect Malaysian prices?

Indirectly I think it will effect us, especially since if online retailers like BH Photo is going to price higher. No more avenue for cheaper Pentax lenses. Darn it, I knew my FA43 could have been worth more!

More good reasons to go with Tamron or Sigma!

[azerak01]

read about that too.i think what they are doing is that they are adjusting the minimum price that the dealers can sell the pentax lenses.no?

[apophoto]

Pentax pricing in Malaysia has always been absurbly on the high end compared with many oversea sellers.
The K5 was priced at below US$1K recently but you just cannot get it anyway below RM3.6K locally. It was above RM4K sometime in mid-2011.

When they try to harmonise pricing policy across the board, it would seem the other two brand names, C and N, would stand to benefit as Pentax is no longer considered a cheaper option. For better or worse, the new end-consumers may tend to ignore this brand notwithstanding the comparative favourable features like the K5. Market forces and demand are not likely to work out in Pentax's favour once the competitive pricing advantage is no longer in place.

[Netsoft]

Dafuq?
Da* 16-50mm is now $1499 ???
Like that better switch to canon and get 24-70L?

[yamesh7]

the pentax-ricoh are way off promoting their products.. haihhh

[jester]

Maybe switching to manual lenses is a viable way to go? Let's hope the old PK/M42 lenses stays low...

[norsethor]

wah, this is the new marketing genius plan, ah? lenses go up in price between 10% and 90%?
when i first bought a pentax, i did all the research and lurched from nikon to pentax. even tho
i used to shoot nikon in the film days. why? because their prices were reasonable. the ergonomics
looked great on the k10d. and yes, those lovely prime lenses were hard to resist.

AF reliability, though, hasn't been great. spotty -- great when it's working;
very frustrating when it starts to act up. but i have persisted with pentax.

i hope this price mark-up isn't true, because if they double the prices
on their lenses, i think pentax will stop growing new customers. me, i think that
would make the k5 my last pentax. and i thought ricoh was the white knight
coming to pentax's rescue. ceh.

[junojuno]

Well, this price hike makes me feel better coz I just ditch all my Pentax K mount system and get a 5D3.
Hope it does not cause M42 lenses to increase price.

[abgsiddiq]

not a good move. really not a good move.

[nextimelah]

Looks like BH Photo ain't the way to go no more... Pentax is trying to "balance" the US prices vs everywhere else. Now, Malaysian Pentax prices look "normal". But they kind of forgotten that there are other camera makers out there, who are bigger and may I say, better lens producer than themselves?

I sold all my Pentax lenses and now just using Tamron and Sigma. don't think i can ever go back to using Pentax lenses. Too expensive. still love my k-5 though.

[vinsant]

But they kind of forgotten that there are other camera makers out there, who are bigger and may I say, better lens producer than themselves?

When you say better, I hope you mean in terms of being able to mass market usable lenses, as opposed to better lens makers. Sigma has fantastic quality control at its plants, and Tamron has only one lens in their lineup I'd even remotely consider (the 90mm macro, hands down best budget macro at that length).

Edit - italics is sarcasm. I forget sometimes I'm not writing a novel.

[nextimelah]

When you say better, I hope you mean in terms of being able to mass market usable lenses, as opposed to better lens makers. Sigma has fantastic quality control at its plants, and Tamron has only one lens in their lineup I'd even remotely consider (the 90mm macro, hands down best budget macro at that length).

Edit - italics is sarcasm. I forget sometimes I'm not writing a novel.

actually, i'm talking about Canikon. Is Pentax trying to price their DA* lenses like Canikon L lenses? Unfortunately, I don't think it is up to that their standard, especially in terms of focusing speed. Also, Canikon people have Tokina versions of Pentax lenses who pay like 2 times less. Yeah, no SMC coating and weather sealing, but is that worth 2 times more?

My Tamron and Sigmas are so far very good for the price I paid. perhaps it depends on the copy we buy.

[junojuno]

If Pentax only raises the price in the USA, then it will be good news for local Pentax distributors as customer will buy local products because the price diff is not worth it to get from BHP anymore.

Now is it still valid for Pentax users to say their system is cheaper compare to Canikon?

[ultrageek]

sigh... The Sony NEX 5 is beginning to be very tempting...

I'll definitely miss the WR part... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...