[mee]

Exactly! The price in Yen remains unchanged. It's the value of people's dollars, euros, etc. that have fallen. If Ricoh wants to keep investing in new cameras and new lenses, then it needs to make money on the existing ones.

Even at the new price, the K-1 is a huge bargain over anything offered by Nikon & Canon unless one's focus is action sports or video.

A Cadillac is a bargain compared to a Bently. Both are overpriced.

[RonHendriks1966]

Even at the new price, the K-1 is a huge bargain

This is something that is depending on a lot of different choices. ...

- is the camera essential to buy?
- does it fit my needs?
- how deep are my pockets (moneywise)?
- do I need new lenses or is it just a new body?
- does my wife think I can have that new Toy?
- is it a private or a business investment?
- does it offer what I need compared to the competition?
- the list goes on and on....

So yes, it can be a bargain, but that doesn't mean that it is for everyone the choice to make at this moment.

[awscreo]

This is something that is depending on a lot of different choices. ...

- is the camera essential to buy?
- does it fit my needs?
- how deep are my pockets (moneywise)?
- do I need new lenses or is it just a new body?
- does my wife think I can have that new Toy?
- is it a private or a business investment?
- does it offer what I need compared to the competition?
- the list goes on and on....

So yes, it can be a bargain, but that doesn't mean that it is for everyone the choice to make at this moment.

I don't think anyone implied that it's a choice for everyone, obviously people that are not interested in a FF body are not going to buy it, regardless of the price. It's a bargain for people that are looking for an upgrade basically, as it's a very new camera with great features.


---------- Post added 10-03-16 at 10:03 AM ----------

A Cadillac is a bargain compared to a Bently. Both are overpriced.

Lol, you're suggesting K-1 is overpriced? I guess they should give em out for free, or better year, pay people to get them.

[photoptimist]

A Cadillac is a bargain compared to a Bently. Both are overpriced.

LOL!

Yet if the K-1 is over-priced then the Nikon D750, Nikon D810, and all the high-end Canons are hideously overpriced.

My post was a reaction to people thinking of buying even more costly cameras or less-functional cameras because the K-1's price in their currency went up a little.

(I should have said the K-1 is a huge relative bargain.)

[Winder]

A Cadillac is a bargain compared to a Bently. Both are overpriced.

The K-1 is easily a $2,300 camera. It is under priced and supply is limited.

[skierd]

All the more reason to wait till the holidays and new years sales. As long as the prices drop down to the ballpark of last year's sales prices I'll be happy. If not, well I'll be in the "saving for the future" group still. My K-30 is still working great and makes clean 24"x36" prints, despite my own internal GAS dialogue pushing me to upgrade. I'm hoping the K-3ii will drop to below $800, maybe once a new APS-C flagship is announced?

The other thing that's been bugging me, is that a couple of the new full frame 'Pentax' lenses (15-30, 24-70) are apparently rebadged Tamron products. I don't have anything against Tamron gear, but I prefer that my Pentax lenses are Pentax. That's just me though, others may differ. I also wonder why Pentax didn't engineer their own lenses, rather than going to an aftermarket company. I'm not sure how to interpret this, but it doesn't seem like a good sign to me.

My assumption on this situation: Pentax and Tamron already have a great relationship. The current Tamron 15-30 and 24-70 f2.8 are class leading or nearly class leading, for less money than OEM lenses from Canon or Nikon, let alone $ony (check out the DXO ratings). Why reinvent the wheel? "Hey Tamron, use our superior coatings and weather sealing, and put our label on it" sounds like a strong strategy rather than investing large sums of money in something that'll cost more without necessarily being better while taking longer to get to market. And nothing says we won't see an in-house designed DFA* version of the standard zoom and wide zoom in the future.

[lesmore49]

All the more reason to wait till the holidays and new years sales. As long as the prices drop down to the ballpark of last year's sales prices I'll be happy. If not, well I'll be in the "saving for the future" group still. My K-30 is still working great and makes clean 24"x36" prints, despite my own internal GAS dialogue pushing me to upgrade. I'm hoping the K-3ii will drop to below $800, maybe once a new APS-C flagship is announced?



My assumption on this situation: Pentax and Tamron already have a great relationship. The current Tamron 15-30 and 24-70 f2.8 are class leading or nearly class leading, for less money than OEM lenses from Canon or Nikon, let alone $ony (check out the DXO ratings). Why reinvent the wheel? "Hey Tamron, use our superior coatings and weather sealing, and put our label on it" sounds like a strong strategy rather than investing large sums of money in something that'll cost more without necessarily being better while taking longer to get to market. And nothing says we won't see an in-house designed DFA* version of the standard zoom and wide zoom in the future.

Good points. You could be right, sounds reasonable.

Les

[Winder]

The current Tamron 15-30 and 24-70 f2.8 are class leading or nearly class leading, for less money than OEM lenses from Canon or Nikon, let alone $ony (check out the DXO ratings).

I would agree that the 15-30mm is as good or better than the Canon or Nikon options. The 24-70mm Tamron is not. The 24-70mm is a good value, but its probably the 4th best 24-70mm on the market. The Canon and Sony 24-70mm lenses are very, very good. They are 2x the price of the Tamron.

All the more reason to wait till the holidays and new years sales.

Sony is not projected to get caught up on sensor production until next Spring. I'm not sure you will see the K-1 on-sale this holiday season.

[mee]

LOL!

Yet if the K-1 is over-priced then the Nikon D750, Nikon D810, and all the high-end Canons are hideously overpriced.

They are.

My post was a reaction to people thinking of buying even more costly cameras or less-functional cameras because the K-1's price in their currency went up a little.

(I should have said the K-1 is a huge relative bargain.)

Well when you only have 1800 dollars to spend.. 200 more isn't going to grow on the money tree magically. So if you were looking to go FF on an 1800 budget you're up a creek at the moment.

If you think that is small potatoes then let me send you my Paypal account and I'll gladly take a couple hundred from you.

[Kunzite]

If you only have 1800 dollars to spend... perhaps spending them all on a camera isn't such a great idea

[awscreo]

They are.




Well when you only have 1800 dollars to spend.. 200 more isn't going to grow on the money tree magically. So if you were looking to go FF on an 1800 budget you're up a creek at the moment.

If you think that is small potatoes then let me send you my Paypal account and I'll gladly take a couple hundred from you.

K-1 is still available for the 1800 price. Check Kenmore camera ebay store, that's where I bought mine. It's bundled with a 64gb card too

[mee]

The K-1 is easily a $2,300 camera. It is under priced and supply is limited.

They could have pulled a Nikon and increased the markup.. but even so it is still markup. fluff.

To me, the K-1 is a 1200-1500 dollar camera. It is only worth what you're willing to pay for it... just like any product.

The surge we saw with the K-1 was clearly consisting of a ton of Pentax users who were waiting for a digital FF mixed with those on the fence wanting a modern digital FF DSLR body and not wanting to pay Nikon inflated prices.

The same thing (to some degree) happened with the 645Z launch.. 8.5 grand for a modern, digital MF DSLR body was incredible. For a time, retailers couldn't keep it in stock. It is now selling for just under 7 grand and available everywhere.

---------- Post added 10-03-16 at 04:28 PM ----------

If you only have 1800 dollars to spend... perhaps spending them all on a camera isn't such a great idea

on a camera.

Context is key.

[Kunzite]

Doesn't change my point (obviously, you wouldn't spend your food money on a camera - at least I hope nobody would). A camera can get broken, in a warranty voiding way, or it can be stolen; then, if you buy the most expensive camera you can afford, you wouldn't be able to replace if such unpleasant events occur. Always leave some margin.
Then, there are the lenses...

[Winder]

It is only worth what you're willing to pay for it... just like any product.

To you, yes. But you are not the entire market. Right now Ricoh is selling all they can make and there is a waiting list some places, so yes. It is under priced for the general market. If it were over priced there would be a surplus.

[Dave L]

I've kept an eye on camerapricebuster UK where the K-1 had been £1599 since launch, after reading this thread I checked again and see it is now £1799, don't know when it went up though.

* just read in another thread that it went up a week or three ago

The British pound has depreciated by 17% against the Japanese yen since K-1 was released, mainly due to the Brexit vote. So K-1 is still good value at £1799, which is a mere 12.5% price increase. There could well be a further price increase in the UK as the pound will probably never recover to its pre-Brexit levels and could dip further.

We are paying the price of voting to leave the EU. In the US, be thankful for small mercies as your price rises won't get near what we'll see in the UK. There will be no escape to other brands either, as all UK-imported camera brands (so all of them!) will have to see similar price increases when current stocks run out.