Originally posted by redrockcoulee Overprices refers to the value of the item for its cost not if an individual can afford it or not. If a company made a luxury motorhome that beat the competition by $50000 is would be wrong in saying it was overpriced. The Diana F cameras are overpriced and you can get two or three of them for $200 which you might be able to afford. My wife and I have three, two of which we got used because for what you pay for what you get it is not a good value for the dollar. The K1 appears to be a better value for the dollar then its completion hence it should not be considered overpriced. You might think that the manufacturer and the distributor and the retailer should or must keep the costs down to what you are willing to pay for it but they have costs to cover and a profit to make. A professional would consider if it was worth spending the money on as even if it is a business expense you still need to pay out money for it and that comes from your profits or your take home pay. It does not work out to be free for them either.
Clearly the retailer and manufacturer both are not going to sell their product at a rate at which they aren't going to turn a profit at some level (be it straight sales to retailers, sales on other items as a result of offering the product on discount, or on marketshare in hopes of making a bigger profit later on with a larger customer base). But that is not what I meant.
What I meant is, I look at a product and I value its worth to me. If the price from the seller is over that, it is overpriced to me. It doesn't matter if it costs Ricoh 1999 dollars to offer a 2000 dollar camera. It doesn't matter if I have 4000 in my camera budget. If I'm only willing to give 1500 dollars for it, then no deal.
Clearly at 1800 USD (now 2000 due to currency value change), Ricoh is turning some sort of profit. The Nikon D810 at 1000 dollars more has more fluff added to the price. It has to. I doubt it is 1000 dollars more since Nikon likely has more expenses. But the point being they inflate the price. They can, They're Nikon. Just like Canon does too... Hugely. Alpha dog. Look at what the 5D III is selling for. And it is a 4 and a half year old design. It is going for 2500 USD .. TODAY. outrageous.
As a result, the consumer base has been used to shelling out at that level. But times.. they are a changing..