Pentax Lens Price Drop Coming?

The prices are back up at BH....what is up with this?

It is really crazy... They change the price back..... I will buy a Sigma, Tamron or M42 lens instead.

Wow!!! Up and down pricing in less than a week!!!! CRAZY!!!!!

looks like Adorama did not follow B&H's lead in cutting prices back -- and now B&H has changed their prices again, reverting to the post-increase prices!

I'm from the manufacturing industry and usually manufacturers are always looking for ways to cut costs but adding value by making innovative designs/products. In Pentax's decision in simply raising prices, there was no added value to the customers. I'm sure Pentax lost a lot of the "usual" sales since the price hike. It has made a lot of the loyal Pentax customer base to jump ship and hop over to the competition.

The US Market is a very lucrative market if properly executed. If ALL of the Pentax Limiteds became weatherproof or ALL of their lenses utilized the new DC motors, now there's added value so a marginal price hike could be justified and customers would actually replace their obsolete gear if elements or speed was currently their bottleneck.

Funny how everyone probably had the same idea @ the same time from the previous prices, and lens buying dropped precipitously off a cliff!

Still too steep for my liking. My mind regarding reasonable prices is stuck in 2007 when I got my K10D. I can't help but think of the prices of all those lenses I -didn't- buy at the time when I think I might buy one now.

Blue, Then guess who is going to get my business if I decide to buy at the new-old-new prices? ;)

So far, only BH is reflecting adjusted prices and the related Amazon links. Ador is still at the PRIC pricing.

Pentax is crazy.

jonhock
I don't know about the rest of you, but this really, REALLY is reflecting the same thing that happened with our gas prices! "Hey, lets jack up the prices to a ridiculous pricing and then bring them down just a little to make everybody feel better about it...."
It seems to me that is Pentax R & D would start on a truly nice "full-frame" camera that they would't have to spend so much money on dumb stuff(re:prices)

Guess those of us that criticized PRIC weren't crazy, stupid, or just ignorant......
Sad that it took loosing so many Pentaxians to get them to figure out that what they did was poorly conceived and executed.

Always a pleasure to observe how focused criticism by, and the closing of the wallets of, educated consumers can redirect corporate thinking. A job well done so far by the Pentax user community!

Cool...can't wait for the 50 1.8 and now the 35 2.4 is much more affordable...can't wait for the new k30 or maybe the kz

Now if we can just get them to knock the prices of the 25mm and the 75mm for 645D users

Man, I'd be pissed if I had just bitten the bullet on a lens that has since come back down.
But I didn't so I'm just relived. I do want to get some kind of sealed lens for my K-5 relatively soon.

As zosxavius said this is what should have been done to begin with. I do have some sympathy for price increases if it really will help get into some B&M places, but they went way too far. For Ned B. to say there is technically no increase was an insult. They could have adjusted the MSRP and enforced it or done the rebates right away but neither was done! And anyone who went ahead and bought a lens at the new prices so quickly....what can I say...they should have know this change could not last....but I'd certainly write a letter to corporate!

The Pentax corporate guys had dinner with the Sigma corporate guys and tried the the Fantasy Cocktail that lets you think you can just charge what ever you like and people will just buy it. Remember the whole Sigma SD1 ordeal? Lets charge $9,000 for a camera that's really only worth around $1600. Even at $2200 it's a joke.

Now would someone please tell my local store about the price decrease...

I still haven't seen a Pentax lens locally other than an N.O.S. FA kit lens that had been on the shelf since the 90s. I guess it helped the assembly lines catch up with orders.

These prices appear to have held constant at B&H after their weekly downtime. The price of the DA 35mm, for example, has also propagated to Amazon, but I haven't seen these prices anywhere else yet. Interestingly, the "availability time" through Amazon shifted overnight from 1-3 months to 1-4 weeks. Maybe they said that they wouldn't bother at the higher prices. :)

"Small" global camera companies must all be struggling (recent news of Panasonic taking a large stake in Olympus for example). Even tho Pentax has a planet-wide presence, it is not enough to really have the corporate resources on many fronts to compete with bigger rivals. Thank goodness for Ricoh, who has business in other areas with (presumably) positive cash flow. I do hope that they can "recalibrate" Pentax's business and research into a sharper-edged, effective company. They have some effective products and need to weed out and redesign others. Let us hope that Ricoh puts fire to feet and makes it happen soon. It seems worth having a small amount of patience to see what happens (maybe a year), and then reassess. Just my (quickly depreciating) 2 cents (where are those gold-backed bonds when you need them???).

P.S., The more USA politicians, Wall Street, and the Fed keep printing money to fund their obscene derivative games, the more prices will go up across the board here. Inevitable decline.....

What would be nice to see and a way of restoring some faith in brand is to offer those that bought at The higher prices some sort of rebate or even a decent discount on a lens of their choice. Second option is likely to be less costly to them and better over all as this gets more product sold and hopefully makes customer feel happy that they got a decent sense of customer satisfaction.

It's all well and good us crowing Pentax's pricing, but there is nothing stopping you off loading your current gear and switching brands. Make sure you let us know first so we might pick up a bargain as we assume you'll sell the stuff well below what you paid for it (it is S/H after all) and clearly well less than current RRP for a new item - because we'd hate to think you might like to try and profiteer from your sale(s)

I think what happened is a global recalibration, in light of current currency valuations and stuff. The prices in Canada weren't affected by this fluctuation. But it has brought US and Canadian prices closer together (I mean the recent prices). It didn't make sense that US prices were so much cheaper for such a long time. In a way, it's actually brilliant to hide a price increase with a spike first, because then it feels cheaper when the prices come back down to reality. :-)

@John279, I do think bringing the prices back down on the APS-C lenses is essential here. Otherwise it would hurt the APS-C market too much, I think. They can't have DA* lenses at those price points. They need to have a smooth transition where both FF and APS-C * and Ltd-type lenses are a reasonable value for what you get.

The slight increase in FF prices, to me, does say that they'll be even more desirable soon.

Even though I have a fairly complete lens collection, the new prices worried me in how they were damaging the viability of the brand. It was essential that desirable lenses such as the DA15, DA*55, DFA 100, and DA*50-135 come back to a reasonable price, because they again become reasons to buy Pentax over another brand. Who wants a K-30 (or the next, probably similarly desirable cameras coming down the pipeline) if the glass isn't affordable?

There's a DA 14?

@sdflyer
Watch out for the front (or up) dial of the 60D. The one of a friend of mine stoped working, and the camera is almost new.

Still pissed at the original price hike and haven't bought any lenses since. Even with these lower prices still not sure I will in the future. Even at the old price points I thought Pentax lenses were still on the expensive side, but the DA Limiteds are so nice I let it slide.

This would not have been enough of a change to keep me from jumping to Canon. Sorry Pentaxians, but the games that they have been playing with lens prices for the last several years has become ridiculous. And now I'm shooting with a 60D and loving it.

Does anyone else see the proponderance of FA lenses in the "went up" category? Is B&H betting on a FF release anytime soon...?

... and still no 300/2.8, 400/4, 400/5.6, 500/4 :(

These prices actually seem fairly reasonable to me. I'd be willing to pay a small premium in order to buy a lens locally. Let's hope that Ned is indeed able to get some of the few remaining camera stores to pick Pentax back up.

Still 1000 for the da* 16-50 is criminal. Let's face it. Wide angle zooms on pentax suck imo. The 100 kit lens is about as sharp stopped down. The 16-50 is nothing special and is no way near worth 1000. The tammy equivalent is a better lens for pete's sake and that's sad. I really pentax has some good stuff cooking for glass because they need some more wide angle primes (hello 28mm!) and a better standard zoom in a bad way.

I'm coming into some money soon it seems. I thought about buying a 5d mk2 and some zeiss primes used. You know what I'm going to do? Buy a k-5 new and a bunch of pentax glass, probably used off the marketplace. The iq I get with out of my pentax glass makes me smile. I love pentax and nothing else compares for me when it comes to ergonomics.

In hindsight they should have retooled their pricing so that when the unilateral policy went into effect, people wouldn't have felt so shafted. This move should have come first. To the people saying that the people that bought lenses before the drop got really screwed: they didn't have to buy lenses at those prices. The smarter thing to do would be to have waited. The prices had to come down. Pentax realizes it has to at least be competetive on price. I don't think they are comitting sucidie at all. These moves might be painful, but I think they show ricoh has a major long term investment in pentax and shows that it has interest in strengthening the brand. Give things time. The k30 was a brilliant move I think. A k-r successor would be most welcome I think. Make it nice and cheap too. The k-x set the entry level market on fire. They can do it again.

I love roller coaster rides, but this up and down just feels like you are yanking my chain.

@wed7, you must be joking about Pentax "quality" (or the lack thereof) right? I have had to exchange virtually every one of my lens in order to get decently made copies.

I wish I could buy the FA 43 for 590 dollars, it's more like 950 dollars here in Czech Republic :(

@Jean Poitiers, I feel the same way, and I do hope that Pentax would never give up one of their soul advantages (size and quality).

Thank you Canon ... for your new and lesser expensive 40mm pancake lens !!! Let the competition and ensuing price wars begin !

"The FA 50/1.4 went up in price? Is that a joke? Who remembers when it was $199?"

And what was the value of the US$ relative to other major currencies at that time?

Well...it would be nice if they'd make a max price in addition to the min. price - Store here wants almost 40% more than these prices. Then they wonder why I'm never buying stuff from them(Past my K-5, got that for 949$ back in December)

The FA 50/1.4 went up in price? Is that a joke? Who remembers when it was $199?

Assuming that the B&H price drops are sanctioned by Pentax USA, one must wonder how on earth Ned Bunnell intents to increase the "perceived value" of Pentax lenses (see his PhotoReporter interview) by presenting customers who bought the 50-135/2.8 for $1600 with a new $999 price.

One can only hope that no one has bought the lens for $1600 and that more people will consider the excellent alternatives by Sigma and Tamron until Pentax lens prices have normalised again.

Way to piss off your customer then back paddle Pentax. The price drop is appreciated, but you have already left a sour taste in many and need to work extra hard to gain back the trust.

Pentax sure knows how to screw with their customers. The silver lining is that if enough of us don't buy any new Pentax lens, Pentax WILL lower their prices. I see a possibility of Pentax going to pre-Hoya price.

Very helpful. Thanks!

Looks like some heavy backpedalling from Pentax.

Nice work compiling this. Thank you!

Wow...those that bought the DA* zoom lenses at the high prices took a big loss with the new prices.