Originally posted by Winder I just sold several of my Pentax lenses on e-bay as I transition over to Sony as my main system. The Sony lenses are all more expensive than the Pentax/Sigma lenses that I was selling, so My idea was to sell on e-bay and buy used Sony on e-bay. I listed my 31mm LTD 3 times before getting a bid. Of the 3 times I listed it the highest number of people watching the lens was 6. After several weeks of my 31mm sitting on e-bay it sold for $650 to the only person who bid on it. I attempted to buy the Sony-Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 FE on e-bay, but there were very few for sale. The ones I did bid on ended up with 20-30 bids on them and the prices ranged from $1,200 - $1,400. I finally just bought a new copy from B&H for $1,499.
My Sigma 85mm in K-mount actually held its value better than the Pentax glass. I paid $899 for that lens new and sold it for $725. The Sigma 85mm had the most bids and watchers of any of the lenses I sold.
Nothing scientific about this, just my experience. The cost of switching over is going to end up being a lot higher than expected simply because there is very little demand for Pentax glass.
Ricoh needs to find a way to keep the brand relevant. They make really great equipment and they are very close to having some of the best you can buy, but they have to solve some really big problems. Since switching to the A9 as my primary camera I have had nothing but a great experience with the performance of the camera. No frustration with AF or buffer. Image quality is excellent.
The problem with buying into the "value" brand is it costs you money when you upgrade.
In my mind, Sony only makes sense for pro-shooters, and shooters with lots of money. I'm happy things worked out with your A-9, but it's kind of like a sports car driver complaining he does't get the same performance out of his half ton.
For those of us for whom photography costs us money, and that's 99% of the population, the concept of an A9 and a $1500 lens is a really bad joke. But it's interesting to here these comments as irrelevant as they may be. It does want me want to ask if your photography pays for this or you just have a lot of cash to burn on whatever you want? The pertinent part being, do you make enough more money with the A9 set-up to actually justify paying the big bucks, or this just you can so you do?
One could easily see this kind of post as bragging about how much you spend to people who don't spend as much. This kind of post belongs in a Sony thread in the non-Pentax forum, where we talk about Sony cameras, as long as we don't want to talk about how much they cost, compared to Pentax product.