[neme-q]

Count me in

[Racerdew]

This past year I bought two lenses. One from my local store and the other from B&H last October. Both lenses 10 -24 mm and 90 mm are Tamron lenses. Of course I wanted the same in Pentax but I could not afford to buy the high priced Pentax lenses when there was not a big difference betweent the two companies. Tamron, Sigman and others can sell to many different type of camera oweners, while Pentax can only sell to Pentax. They have a smaller market than the other camera companies and they have a smaller market than Tamron does. Can Pentax really afford to have super high prices? They are loosing tens of thousands of dollars to their competitors because of their high lense prices and poor marketing. They make great products but they are only of value if they are in the hands of consumers.
pentax please help yourself and listen to your customers. We do have choices...

Racerdew

[donaldchalfy]

Count me in. Bring these prices back down to a fair and reasonable price.

The disproportionate increase in many of the great Pentax lenses available of late is not only a poor decision, but bad business.

Dear Pentax,

Pentax DSLRs have started to really come into their own and for that I thank you and am grateful. I shoot with the K-5 and enjoy great results. I also realize Pentax is now owned by the Ricoh Company and I believe this is the impetus for the recent and sudden increase. If this is the way they are going to conduct business, they are really starting to make me think twice before I invest another cent in Pentax.

[Lelax]

The informative sales histogram suggests there may be a corporate marketing strategy behind the price structure. Namely, to sell the bodies cheap thus creating a market for pricey lenses. Make money on the back side of the each camera purchase. (If so, then it worked on me already.) Or... whatever? Any camera marketing gurus out there?

[donaldchalfy]

I'm not a marketing guru, however, I can say that the bottom line is that Pentax equipment still has a way to go before it can afford to push around its customer base in such a fashion.
Canon and Nikon's equipment on a comparative level is still just too good and affordable for Pentax to do what it is doing. This has me looking at them.

[RoyGee]

It's time to put the online MSRP thing to an end. Back in April, through a "Unilateral Pricing Policy" (UPP), Pentax USA forced online retailers to start selling Pentax lenses at full MSRP rather than the then-lower MAP prices. Refer to the article below for an overview of the price jumps. Some lenses nearly doubled in price!

Brutal Pentax Lens Price Increase: 15-90% - Pentax Camera News & Rumors - PentaxForums.com

Since this change, online sales of Pentax lenses have virtually come to a standstill because of the high, artificially-inflated prices. I'm sure you guys can testify to that, especially if you opted to use the Marketplace or get Sigma lenses rather than new Pentax ones. Just because the DA* 16-50mm has an MSRP of $1500 doesn't mean that anyone in the right mind will buy a used copy at the new high price: in fact, used Pentax lens prices are generally lower than the old MAP prices.

All of a sudden, this Black Friday weekend, the UPP restriction was temporarily lifted, and Pentax lens prices fell sharply for a few days (but some were still higher than the old prices). Here's a little insight into what gear really started moving:

In just one day, well over 100 new Pentax lenses were sold to PF members alone. That's more that the total number sold to PF members after the introduction of the UPP but before Black Friday.

So what good is this UPP thing doing? None at all. When it originally came about, Ned Bunnell, former President of Pentax USA, blogged about the UPP, saying that the main goal of the policy was to protect smaller brick-and-mortar stores so that they don't have to compete with really low online prices. Well, that's great and all, but you can count on your fingers how many such stores there are. And the funny thing is that if you walk into any one of these stores, you'll see the old prices. The same applies if you call B&H or Adorama: you'll generally get the old prices as long as you mention it (and if you walk in to the store, there's no question about it) On top of all this, rumors have it the Pentax USA distributor requires retailers to place large orders, which causes smaller stores to lose interest in carrying the brand, given the tiny demand that there is for Pentax to begin with.

The UPP isn't going to change the fact that the largest audience for Pentax lenses is found online, because of the fact that Pentax users are few and far between. This means that the new policy has done nothing but prevented users otherwise interested in Pentax lenses from buying them.

Above: the Pentax DA* 50-135mm is the star of the UPP, jumping from $749 to $1599

I was on the phone with B&H again today, and after I mentioned the recent Adorama deals, their buyer agreed to drop the price of the 15mm limited to $539 when in cart. B&H said that if this deal ends up getting more copies of the lens sold, they will do their best to post similar deals in the future, even if Pentax doesn't get rid of the UPP. Lowering prices after adding to cart, without advertising them, is a gray area: Pentax can't really say that it's a violation of the UPP, but they certainly won't be happy about it. B&H admitted that it was nice to see some stock get cleared out during Black Friday, so hopefully they'll be giving Pentax stuff a little bit more attention from now on.

While I'm sure B&H will be the first to offer the best online Pentax lens prices, they alone won't be able to change the way things work, because Pentax lenses and cameras are dwarfed by all other DSLR brands.

Almost all other camera brands have unilateral pricing policies. The difference, however, is that in-store prices are the same as online prices, and that no lenses doubled in price from one day to the next. This keeps prices constant across the board and successfully protects the market, unlike the Pentax policy, which one might say was late to the game. So, Pentax, consider this a petition on behalf of our entire community asking you to rethink your online marketing strategy.

If the UPP has prevented or discouraged you from buying a Pentax lens, or even forced you to switch brands, and if you want prices to go back to normal, sign the petition by replying to this thread. Let's make this the biggest thread in the whole lens forum: hopefully it'll send a strong message!

And if you want, I can go on with more reasons for why the UPP is bad:

• Competitors have similarly-priced full-frame glass
• Sigma has cheaper lenses and also offers premium lenses
• People will avoid new lenses in favor of cheap manual lenses

As much as I hate to do it, I'd like to ask that the replies be limited to members based in the US, or who regularly import Pentax lenses from US online retailers.

I have bought two lens' other than Pentax because I could not afford the high costs of the the glass. I love the Pentax glass but it's out of my reach now.
I can't understand why Pentax is trying to price their lens'out of the market. I have a K 10 and a K 20 and was thinking about getting a K 511 but the new
glass I want for this camera is to high priced. I am now looking at a different brand of camera because their high end premium glass is so much cheaper.
I have been shooting Pentax since I got my first one in 1983, A wonderful K 1000~

[Transit]

Include me.
Pentax committing suicide with this stupid pricing.
I only can afford second hand or Sigma/Tamron

[LFLee]

I'm in.

[Transit]

The informative sales histogram suggests there may be a corporate marketing strategy behind the price structure. Namely, to sell the bodies cheap thus creating a market for pricey lenses. Make money on the back side of the each camera purchase. (If so, then it worked on me already.) Or... whatever? Any camera marketing gurus out there?

Just like printers, take a dive on the hardware then clean up on ink sales

[hongzhibin1987]

+1 here.
Purchased K5 K7 K01, and Q.
Pentax need to do more to get back to the game.

[malibru]

Just say "no," Pentax USA. One of the sweet spots about Pentax lenses is that they always cost a little less but were just as good or better than the other brands. Keep what's kept you!

[rontz]

I'm in.

[Pentikonian]

In.

I have bought 2 Pentax lenses since initial purchase. Both used, in LN- condition for about 40% of new. Best price I could find. Will not purchase new Pentax glass at the current pricing.

[JesterPrime]

Joining in. I'd love more of those nice limiteds and other lenses for my K-30, but it's tough to justify those prices sometimes, especially when you see the competition.

[Big Ben]

I support this wholeheartedly. I don't even shoot digital (yet - K30 will be mine very shortly) BUT the things that led me to the K30 (in-body OS and my collection of K-mount and M42 glass) are barely enough to make me a Pentax camera buyer. I can state with certainty that I'll be looking at Tamron and Sigma when I decide to buy an AF lens. The prices on the DA* 16-50 and 50-135, which are what I'd most like to have, are just unreasonable for crop-sensor glass. If they were FF and compatible with my 35mm bodies, that would be better, but they'd still be too expensive. Thanks, Adam!