[wile]

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I'd already seen the body at 1199 prior to this announcement as a $200.00 off promotion at Aden camera. It's still listed that way on their site. If the price doesn't go below that after this announcement I'll be disappointed as there will be no change in the price I was going to buy at.

[johnmflores]

Hey, everybody...WE'RE DROPPING THE PRICE!1 HUGE SAVINGS! 2

Cheers,
Cameron

1) to the same price as everybody else has had for months
2) Compared to the ridiculous MSRP that NOBODY has ever charged but us on our website

Everyone plays the MSRP game, so that's not news. In fact, the acronym has "Suggested" in it!

Yes, it's a little bit of marketing sleight-of-hand, but the effect is that I can now buy at a very competitive price from a dealer that I trust (i.e., B&H). Prior to the discount I could save a couple of bucks but I had to cross my fingers.

[RyanW]

What would really be nice is if they included a free coupon for round trip shipping to CRIS

[Qwntm]

What would really be nice is if they included a free coupon for round trip shipping to CRIS

Ironically, the user base, and this is just a guess, is probably a lot more passionate about their cameras then say those who use some big black blob camera. So youo get a skewed vision of any problems. You would think from some people's comments and attitudes that the K-5 is basically garbage, yet in reality I doubt that more than 2-5% were or will be faulty (in line with comparable product and industry averages.)

For comparison, everyone knows the Canon 1DIII really actually had a design defect. Does the K-5 deserve an equally bad reputation? Not at all. Obviously.

I would order another K-5 body right now no worries at all, (I actually need a back u,p) but the ONLY thing holding me back is that this may be the first step in Pentax announcing the next body (probably with 24mp sensor) and I might rather have that more...

And to lighten this post up becuase you did have a smily face at the end of yours, they may not include the shipping for repairs, but at least they'll extend your warranty for $20.00! That has to count for something!

[zantaphia]

Hi all.

I've been tracking the price for the K-5 here in Sweden the last couple of months, because I'd like to buy one at the best price. It seems there was a price drop ( approx. US$ 120) here at the 1st of September.Global marketing strategy? All retailers here changed the price the same day....

[Glarus]

Actually there is something to this announcement that I think has been overlooked. By running an "instant rebate," the K-5 will now appear in people's search results at the true selling price. Typically (I think,) when a product is subject to MAP, it won't show in results if the MSRP is above the customer's upper price limit. In other words, if you say "show me DSLRs under $1400," the K-5 wouldn't show up, even if the e-tailer actually sells it for say, $1274.95. For the potential buyer (like me), it's a decent savings, even if it's not the $400 than Pentax claims. $75 is $75, and $1199 has been a magic number ever since the D7000 came out at that MSRP. I'll finally be able to say "for the same price as that Nikon, I can get a better camera." That's what Pentax's reputation is supposed to be, isn't it, a superior value for customers who do more than just follow the crowd?

Pentax gets two things out of this promo: the marketing gimmick (saving "$400") and more importantly, their camera will finally appear in searches for DSLRs under $1200...just like the D7000. For "maximizers" (people who exhaustively research products before buying, particularly with electronics) looking for their first DSLR, product awareness is the first step. WIthout it, they won't even put the K-5 in their comparison charts on review sites. Announcing the K-5 at $1599 and then seeing the D7000 come out at $1199 had to be demoralizing. They took a lot of hits for the price, and people like me sat on the sidelines. With electronics, there's no catching up, you just have to hope for better luck with the next model. Despite that, hopefully they'll see a little boost from this, and maybe a few more people will learn about and buy this excellent camera. The silver lining in the cloud is that those people will discover it long after the sensor stain issue has come and gone! Had the K-5 debuted at $1199, it might have fared poorly because of that issue. ("Why would I not buy the Nikon? It's the same price, and isn't defective...")

[abacus07]

I hate this.

It's planted the seed in my head that this camera will be available in 1 or possibly 2 years <800 (probably in the used market) and I will NEED to upgrade.

[Steinback]

$800 should happen fairly quickly after the next generation upmarket body launches. The K-7 is already down to $600-650 less than 12 months after the K-5 was announced.

[pxpaulx]

$800 should happen fairly quickly after the next generation upmarket body launches. The K-7 is already down to $600-650 less than 12 months after the K-5 was announced.

Yeah, but it has been that price for almost a good year now. On top of that, while the K-7 started out at $1400 it was going for under $800 new within the first year of sales (almost a 50% fall off). Here we are at 10 months into the K-5 lifecycle, it started with an msrp $200 higher and yet has only dropped 25% of the original price - I do think the K-5 will be selling used for $800, perhaps $700 eventually (maybe another year or so), but I also believe far fewer people will be feeling the itch to upgrade this time around, which will keep the used sale prices higher. The K-5 was a monumental leap over the K-7 (where it counts, the sensor!).

[bobmaxja]

Actually on release the K5 held it's price pretty well in Canada (1599) and didn't really start to drop till late December

I paid $1420 CDN when the K-5 got out in Canada inoctoner 2010 from my loacal brick & mortar dealer

[Blitz_]

Hassled Pentax Australia on their facebook page and now they are going to announce a price cut for Aussies! If you never ask..you'll never get

[johnmflores]

Hassled Pentax Australia on their facebook page and now they are going to announce a price cut for Aussies! If you never ask..you'll never get

Way to go! Mine just arrived today. Worth every penny!

[beaumont]

Currently $1099.99 for the K5 body alone:
NEW Pentax K-5 Digital SLR Camera Body Only 16MP 1080p | eBay

Looks like it's come down?

[Ubuntu_user]

How come amazon has shot up? It's over $1300 now (that's more than I paid for mine over six months ago).

[brembo]

You'd have to ask the amazon pricing algorithm that one.