Following yesterday's nationwide price drop to $959, it seems than B&H photo is now matching the Amazon price of $919 for the Pentax K-5. This is an all-time low K-5 price from an authorized Pentax dealer in the US- even lower than the great Cyber Monday deal that was offered earlier this year. Now that only $70 separates the K-5 and new mid-range K-30 in terms of price, the decision for new camera buyers will be harder than ever, but we'd like to help you make the decision by offering a brief comparison of the two cameras!

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Tamron has just reintroduced 5 instant rebates for their most popular lenses for Pentax- while they're all mail-ins and fairly low ($25-50), any type of savings is still welcome news given the high Pentax lens prices.  Below we summarize the current rebates.

Summer Tamron Mail-In Rebates - thru 6/30
	Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 This lens is one-third of the price of the Pentax DA* 16-50mm, and optically better as we've found in our in-depth review. Read our Tamron 17-50mm comparative review	Price: $474 $25 Rebate
	Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 This zoom lens was designed for full-frame cameras, but still works wonders on APS-C.  See also the Pentax FA* 28-70mm in our lens database.	Price: $474 $25 Rebate
	Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 The Tamron 10-24mm competes with the PEntax DA 12-24mm, and is $250 cheaper after the mail-in rebate.  It's very close to the Pentax in terms of image quality. Read our Tamron 10-24mm comparative review	Price: $449 $50 Rebate
	Tamron  18-200mm F3.5-6.3 This all-around zoom is an affordable alternative to the Sigma 18-200mm or Pentax 18-135mm WR.	Price: $249 $50 Rebate
	Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro The Tamron 90mm macro is arguably one of the best macros available for Pentax right now.  It is almost half the price of the Pentax D-FA 100mm WR, which we've compared this lens to in a recent review. Read our Tamron 90mm vs Pentax 100mm comparative review	Price: $449 $50 Rebate

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Earlier this week, Sigma announced some exciting new rebates on three popular lenses: the high-end 24-70mm and 70-200mm F2.8 lenses, and the new 18-200mm super zoom lens. With this rebate, the price of the super zoom falls to $399, which makes it very attractive, given that the Pentax 18-135mm now costs $529.  All these rebates expire at the end of the month.

May Sigma Instant Rebates - thru 5/31
	Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 HSM This is a fast standard lens optimized for full-frame cameras, but it still works well on Pentax APS-C.	Price: $824
	Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II HSM The brand new 18-200mm mark 2 from Sigma is an all-purpose super-zoom lens featuring silent HSM autofocus and improved optics.	Price: $399
	Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 HSM We think this is one of the best sports lenses currently available for Pentax- and given the recent price hike by Pentax, it's cheaper than the DA* 60-250mm and DA* 200mm. In-depth comparative review	Price: $1299

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Topaz Labs, maker of award-winning post-processing plugins (for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, and other programs), has announced today a special weekend-long sale to celebrate Mother's Day.  The coupon code "TopazMoms" will save you 30% off any Topaz program, including the plugin bundle, through Sunday.

Shop Topaz Plugins

We've posted in-depth reviews of the following Topaz plugins, which we hope you'll enjoy reading!  The results from DeNoise are particularly stunning, as it does a much better job of reducing noise than Photoshop.

Topaz BW Effects Post-Processing Plugin   8.4

Topaz DeNoise Noise Reduction Plug-In   9.2

Topaz Adjust 5 Review Editing Plugin   8.2

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The Pentax Q is the world's smallest interchangeable lens mirrorless camera.  Launched at an MSRP of $799, its price was officially dropped to $749 earlier this year.  Now, an instant rebate is in effect that drops the camera's price to $499, a whole $250 below MSRP!

Check out the $499 Pentax Q Deal | Read our Pentax Q Review

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The price of the Pentax K-5, the weather-sealed APS-C flagship from Pentax, has finally dropped to $999 at B&H Photo Video and Adorama, the main US-based Pentax retailers.  It seems that Pentax has officially lowered the MSRP of the K-5 down to $1299, and when combined with the $300 instant rebate that retailers offer, we arrive at an amazing price!  The rebate and $999 price expires on March 31st, so this is a one-time US offer!

The Pentax K-5 has gotten much praise over the year and a half that it's been available, and it still delivers best-in-class image quality and sensitivity through its 16.28 megapixel sensor, which has a very wide dynamic range and can go all the way up to ISO 51,200.

We've reviewed the K-5 twice: once on its own, and once comparatively against the Canon 7D.

• Pentax K-5 Review by PentaxForums.com
• Canon 7D vs Pentax K-5 Comparative Review by PentaxForums.com

Here are links to the most popular Pentax K-5 kits:

• Pentax K-5 Body-Only at B&H ($999)
• Pentax K-5 kit w/ weather-sealed 18-55mm lens at B&H ($1199)
• Pentax K-5 Body-Only at Adorama ($999)
• Pentax K-5 kit w/ weather-sealed 18-55mm lens at Adorama ($1199)

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To celebrate St. Patrick's Dat, Topaz Labs, maker of some of our favorite image enhacement products, is offering 30% off all their products through this Sunday, March 18th!  Topaz products plug in to your favorite photo editing programs (such as Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture) in order to further enhance features such as noise reductiona and black-and-white conversion.

In order to apply this discount:

• Add any product to your cart at the Topaz Store
• Type in the coupon code TopazGold at checkout

After the discount, some products can be had for as little at $21, or you can buy the Topaz Budle (which contains all 11 Topaz plug-ins valued at $550) for just $210.  We hope you enjoy this discount while it lasts!

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The stylish 16-megapixel, 18x zoom Pentax Optio RZ-18 is currently on a special at Adorama and B&H!  Launched in September, 2011, this camera is an affordable alernative to the recently-announced Optio VS20, which we posted about two weeks ago.

Using the Adorama coupon code S1790018 you can take $20 off the list price of the RZ18, for a total of $179.  At B&H, you do not need a coupon code.

For more details on the Optio RZ-18, please visit the RZ-18 camera database entry.

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