FWIW, the price of several Pentax lenses has just increased in the UK according to the website of arguably the UK's leading Pentax dealer (SRS). The new prices are high: for example the 17-70mm f4, DA 21mm and DA 70mm now cost 509 gbp (which is about 809 usd). OTOH, the prices of some lenses has not changed, for example the DA* 50-135mm is 689 gbp (about 1095 usd) - though one suspects these too will increase in time. The price of the K-5 has gone up by about 100 gbp though the Q and K-01 remain unchanged so far and you can still buy the K-5 for considerably less on Amazon. It's difficult to know what Pentax are trying to do, because we've already had swingeging price increases here over the past three years. By way of contrast, for example, the new Nikon 85mm G series is 429 gbp (about 682 usd). The Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4 now looks a bargain at 339 gbp (about 539 usd), not least because the Pentax 17-70mm f4 just doesn't have the quality to justify its new price. The FA Limiteds have not increased in price, but they are a lot more than the DA ones anyway.
I guess Ricoh are going to need some pretty compelling new Pentax products if they hope to pull off moving Pentax into exclusive boutique territory in which their prices are not just similar to but often more than those of Canonikon and co. This country is in a dire state financially and so many folks are struggling to pay the bills. For example, I've read that another big Pentax dealer, Park Cameras, had failed to sell a single copy of the Pentax Q for several months until the price was recently reduced to reasonably sane levels. Now they've sold one or something.
Last edited by mecrox; 04-05-2012 at 01:43 AM.