Originally posted by Sidney Porter Does pentax even create the bundles any more? In the US it appears adorama and B&H creates the package. B&H has a number of options 18-55, 18-135, 18-85, 35,40, 50 and 20-40. Adorama has 18-55, 18-135 and the 50. It also doesn't seem like you get the lens at a large discount. Accessories seem to be the discount
So it might be the retailers rather than pentax that chose not to push the 18-50 in the US
I believe you are absolutely right. The current bundles at Adorama and B&H seem to have no discount at all on the lens. I assume Pentax gives them a break when there is a lens discount, and one could be going now, but they have choose to unload flashes at Adorama and memory cards at B&H. I just bought a new KP and chose Adorama, I thought the flash was the better deal. Unfortunately I just shipped the KP back as it had a bad PDAF and the lenses were uncorrectable. They will be sending a replacement out. I suppose I should get that flash out of the box and test it, but I still may decide to sell it.
It is interesting, I have now bought five new Pentax cameras and four were body only. When I bought the K-30 they did have a really good package with the DA18-135. I did buy a used 18-55 several years ago but really didn't care much for it.