Ned Bunnell Comments on Lens "Price Increase"

President of Pentax USA on Pentax's Plans for Growth

By PF Staff in Third-Party Announcements on Apr 18, 2012

Today, Ned Bunnell, president of Pentax USA, (now known as Pentax Ricoh Imaging Americas Corp.), made a very welcome and sincere blog post commenting on the recent lens price increase.  Lens prices went up after a unilateral pricing policy was implemented for US-based retailers (including online stores) as of April 1st.

To start, he wanted to clarify that the MSRP prices have in fact not gone up for any lens, but rather, the jump was caused due to the fact that retailers can no longer offer their own unique discounts on the Pentax lenses they carry.  Thus, the "playing field" for retailers has been leveled, allowing smaller stores a fair shot at becoming Pentax dealers and competing with larger outlets.

Nothing can summarize this better than Ned's words themselves:

"For our growth as a company, and the health of the photo retail marketplace, it is necessary to set guidelines for retail pricing to protect the integrity of the marketplace, and the value of a manufacturer's products."

This brings us to Ned's second point, which stresses that Pentax's main goal at the moment is to make Pentax camera and lenses more prominent in actual stores.  He says that over the past year, 7 key retailers throughout the US now carry a winder range of Pentax products, including Samy's (LA), WB Hunt (Boston), Ace Photo (Virginia), Cameraland (Iowa/NYC), and others.

Topaz B&W Effects Review & 30%-Off Coupon

A powerful B&W conversion tool reviewed, and a great deal!

By PF Staff in Review Announcements on Apr 18, 2012

Today we're happy to announce our latest software review- this time, we take an in-depth look at Topaz B&W Effects, a post-processing plugin launched last year that makes it a breeze to optimally convert color photographs to black and white, sepia, and other tones.  The plugin works with dozens of applications, including Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Apple Aperture.

Topaz B&W Effects SampleSample K-5 photo processed in B&W Effects

In addition, Topaz Labs have reached out to us and created a special resource page just for PentaxForums.com users!  Better yet, you can use the following exclusive coupon code in the Topaz Store to save 30% on B&W Effects should you decide that the plugin is right for you:

PFBW30

Continue to the Topaz B&W Effects Review

Fast Sports Zooms Review

Pentax, Sigma and Tamron Comparison

By PF Staff in Review Announcements on Apr 17, 2012

For sports photography you would often go for a zoom lens so as to be able to follow the action all over the field from one vantage point. And a fast lens like F2.8 is desirable for two reasons:

  1. Isolate the subject using the narrow depth of field of F2.8
  2. F2.8 allows for a faster shutter speed which is important especially when shooting indoors

Last year, we reviewed three 70(80) - 200mm F2.8 lenses with sports photography in mind, one legacy lens (SMC Pentax-FA* 80-200mm F2.8 ED [IF]) and two lenses that are currently in production (Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 APO EX DG OS HSM and Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro).  Today, that review has been re-vamped with formatting an content improvements.  This is one of our post popular reviews, and we hope you'll enjoy!

See our findings here

Pentax K-01 and Optio WG-2 Win Camera Awards

Pentax's new cameras show some success!

By PF Staff in Pentax Announcements on Apr 16, 2012

Today, Pentax proudly announced that two of their cameras launched this year, the mirrorless K-01 and the compact Optio WG-2, have each won a prestigious industry award!

The Pentax K-01, pictured above and reviewed last month, was the recipient of the Red Dot Design Award in the "Entertainment Technology and Cameras" category for its innovative design by Marc Newson.  While we aren't surprised that its design is attracting attention, the news that the camera won this award comes as a great positive surprise, given our members' mixed options of the camera's appearance.

Pentax Optio WG-2
The Pentax Optio WG-2, not surprisingly, received the 2012 TIPA award for "Best Rugged Camera".  As we found in our WG-2 review, while competing cameras share similar specifications with respect to weatherproofing and shock resistance, the Optio WG-2 has more features and better imaging facilities. Namely, its shutter can fire at speeds of up to 1/4000s, which current competing cameras can only go up to 1/1500s.

B&H Photo Re-Opens

After Passover holiday break

By PF Staff in Photo Industry News on Apr 16, 2012

After a long holiday break lasting nearly two weeks, B&H Photo, the largest authorized Pentax retailer in the US, has now re-opened and is accepting/shipping online orders!

B&H carries Pentax's full product lineup, including DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, medium format, compact digital cameras, and interchangeable lenses.

B&H is also generous enough to run a dedicated Q&A section on our forum, in which their representatives will answer any general or Pentax-related questions that you may have!

Whenever you shop at B&H, you may be eligible for a free Premium Account on our forum, which increases your photo space tenfold and allows you to use our Marketplace section.

Finally, we'd like to thank B&H for their sponsorship of our recent $1000 giveaway, for which the winners will be announced in the coming weeks!

The largest Pentax dealer - B&H photo


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