[bossa]

/open thread

So what is reality bossa?

The reality is that you now are seeing the kind of prices the rest of us have been paying for yonks.

[bossa]

Good grief - its only been six months and you want the entire kingdom for a song!

In these corporate takeovers the buyer spends the first six months just taking inventory of what they bought. At the six month anniversary (right on time) the buyer makes a "shock" change, esrablsihing "ownership."

Ther follows over the next 18 months a series of strategic investments, changes, etc. that sets the new company direction Look for SDM lenses to be discontinued, replaced by lenses with a new AF motor - and new lenses will get longer warranties. Look for service to come back to Pentax USA - it will take a couple years to establish workshops and train workers. Look for marketing arrangements. Look for CS to come back to P-USA - same thing for time and training. Etc.\

Ricoh will invest significant capital. First they had to kill the gray market. Not all the lenses went up 65% - only the ones that will be retired soon.

I just bought a 60-250 on eBay for AU$910 and it's very nice too but I still can't get my head around the extended design. I assume this will be retired in favour of an IZ-IF design based on your logic? If all these lovely lenses are about to go bye bye then it would perhaps be an ideal time to restructure the entrie product line to include FF cameras and lenses.

[bossa]

PS: An anniversary FF with 3 LTD Primes in a matching set would make most people here go wild. Perhaps updated LTD's too with fulltime manual focusing and a new focus motor would be a good idea.

[Dave L]

Here's a link to a local camera store here in OZ. The prices seen here have been this way for at least a year or two:

Digital Camera Lenses - Ted's Cameras

Keep in mind that these prices also contain 10% goods and services tax.

I forgot abiout that in my post above, the UK prices will include 20% Value Added Tax, which might not be payable on export.

[eddie1960]

PS: An anniversary FF with 3 LTD Primes in a matching set would make most people here go wild. Perhaps updated LTD's too with fulltime manual focusing and a new focus motor would be a good idea.

An LXD type camera with a 31/43/77 kit. updated to better coatings on the rear and WR and anew focus motor, maintaining the good stuff (like aperture rings and smooth manual focus) would drive many people mad here (me included though price may lock me out). could be damn expensive if it's marketed as an anniversary package though (Somewhere close to $5000 i would bet)

[Docrwm]

Perfect assessment IMHO.

Thank you.

[Docrwm]

Good grief - its only been six months and you want the entire kingdom for a song!

In these corporate takeovers the buyer spends the first six months just taking inventory of what they bought. At the six month anniversary (right on time) the buyer makes a "shock" change, esrablsihing "ownership."

Ther follows over the next 18 months a series of strategic investments, changes, etc. that sets the new company direction Look for SDM lenses to be discontinued, replaced by lenses with a new AF motor - and new lenses will get longer warranties. Look for service to come back to Pentax USA - it will take a couple years to establish workshops and train workers. Look for marketing arrangements. Look for CS to come back to P-USA - same thing for time and training. Etc.\

Ricoh will invest significant capital. First they had to kill the gray market. Not all the lenses went up 65% - only the ones that will be retired soon.

You keep singing the same song but its off tune. Changes in pricing should not precede functional changes in the quality and range of services or you run the very real risk of killing off a large percentage of your existing loyal customer base.

[ducdao]

I have mixed feelings about this price increase.

Positive because my 300 lenses collection value just went up by approximately 30-40%
Negative because I have sold around 100 lenses over past 6 months and will probably not be able to buy new lenses at the new price, unless I trim down my current collection.

I'm starting to see old Pentax lenses price adjustments on eBAY and that's only a beginning.

[RioRico]

I'm starting to see old Pentax lenses price adjustments on eBAY and that's only a beginning.

Maybe my three M50/2s will be worth selling eventually?

[Ubuntu_user]

...Not all the lenses went up 65% - only the ones that will be retired soon.

Man! that's a lot of Pentax's current lineup that's going to go bye bye...

EDIT: Hopefully we'll see some FF stuff emerging!

[Jeff Charles]

I personally think the US price increases has long been overdue due to the strengthening yen vis-a-vis a weakening US dollar.

That only makes sense if Pentax has increased the prices that it charges retailers, but it is not clear that they have done that.

Jeff

[dgaies]

Maybe my three M50/2s will be worth selling eventually?

I wouldn't hold your breath

(I really just replied/quote you so you'd have another quote notification )

[RioRico]

(I really just replied/quote you so you'd have another quote notification )

[expletive deleted]

[joe.penn]

I wouldn't hold your breath

(I really just replied/quote you so you'd have another quote notification )

Oh! that's how it works, I thought it was @UserName... lol

[monochrome]

You keep singing the same song but its off tune. Changes in pricing should not precede functional changes in the quality and range of services or you run the very real risk of killing off a large percentage of your existing loyal customer base.

So you then believe Ricoh has no business insight, no skills and no plan, the United States is the only market on earth where they sell their products, and we are so important to Ricoh on a sales and profits basis that we deserve to purchase their products at a 35% or larger discount to the rest of the world.

Yet we Americans demand service, support, quality, marketing, local store presence and a Full Frame line up. All using Ricoh's capital FIRST while continuing to allow American online retailers to disrupt the entire world's pricing - and do so in the face of prohibitive currency exchange rates.

Fact is, the American customer base is already gone. No one here will buy anything new unless it is On Sale.