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06-08-2018, 06:39 PM   #241
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not sure if I'm off topic here, but does anybody know why is that most of the big camera stores in Australia, barely stock any Pentax camera anymore? It was not like this 10 years back.

PS: Michael Camera doesn't stock anymore and neither JB HIFI
Teds might have one or two tiny Pentax cameras
Digidirect seems to be the only still having a few

06-08-2018, 06:47 PM - 2 Likes   #242
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QuoteOriginally posted by Samwise.Gamgee Quote
but does anybody know why is that most of the big camera stores in Australia, barely stock any Pentax camera anymore?

Because Australia doesn't exist.
06-08-2018, 07:03 PM   #243
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What do you mean?
06-08-2018, 07:14 PM - 1 Like   #244
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QuoteOriginally posted by Samwise.Gamgee Quote
What do you mean?
Long discussion here:
The shocking truth about our Australian members. It's all a sham!! - PentaxForums.com

06-08-2018, 07:27 PM   #245
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QuoteOriginally posted by Samwise.Gamgee Quote
not sure if I'm off topic here, but does anybody know why is that most of the big camera stores in Australia, barely stock any Pentax camera anymore? It was not like this 10 years back.

PS: Michael Camera doesn't stock anymore and neither JB HIFI
Teds might have one or two tiny Pentax cameras
Digidirect seems to be the only still having a few
Most camera stores of any size in the US, and electronic stores, and any other store that might sell Canon, Nikon or Sony cameras, don't sell Pentax; four years ago, just before I started looking for a Pentax, Target {basically a WalMart competitor} carried the K-50, but only the K-50, and then they stopped. I haven't talked to store management, but I do know they have to limit shelf space to items that sell well, so I'm guessing that they don't expect to {or in the actual experience of Target, didn't} sell enough volume to justify the costs to them of carrying Pentax. Even with B&H, one of those that does sell Pentax, when you list camera bodies by "popularity", the first Pentax is halfway down the list, long after the first Canon, long after the first Nikon, long after the first Sony.
06-09-2018, 12:01 AM   #246
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QuoteOriginally posted by reh321 Quote
Most camera stores of any size in the US, and electronic stores, and any other store that might sell Canon, Nikon or Sony cameras, don't sell Pentax; four years ago, just before I started looking for a Pentax, Target {basically a WalMart competitor} carried the K-50, but only the K-50, and then they stopped. I haven't talked to store management, but I do know they have to limit shelf space to items that sell well, so I'm guessing that they don't expect to {or in the actual experience of Target, didn't} sell enough volume to justify the costs to them of carrying Pentax. Even with B&H, one of those that does sell Pentax, when you list camera bodies by "popularity", the first Pentax is halfway down the list, long after the first Canon, long after the first Nikon, long after the first Sony.
In Romania we have the largest photo shop from SE Europe. There is not even a Pentax logo anywhere in the store. But they do have listed some Pentax products on their website.

We have another photo shop who wanted to promote Pentax and wanted also to help us, passionate photographers, with gear at photo tours to test and play with it in exchange of some publicity for the shop on our Facebook pages or on our websites. The owner of the shop wanted to involve our Pentax dealer because at that time he had Pentax gear in stock and as a business man he needed to sell as soon as posible in order to be able to grow his business. The answer of the Pentax dealer was a clear sign that they don't care about publicity or about how much they sell at the end of the year. From that moment the owner of the shop stopped buying new Pentax gear for his shop and after he sold the Pentax products he had on stock he put on Pentax products the note "available on order" or "available in 5 or 10 days". That was 3 years ago. Now he doesn't even have Pentax products listed on the website.

Same story with local vloggers and bloggers who asked and asked our Pentax dealer for Pentax cameras and lenses to wrote about them at the request of Pentaxians. But Pentax dealer didn't provide them anything and the bloggers got tired of asking. Sony, Fuji and other dealers do the opposite. They approach the bloggers, they provide gear to them and ask them to write about the experience.

2-3 years ago Pentax had a small presence here, in Romania and there was a small interest in the brand. Guess why almost no one is interested anymore in Pentax, not even the photo shops? Because:
1. the photo shops sell so little Pentax gear and they rather invest their money in products that sell quick rather than block their money on something that doesn't sell
2. Pentax dealer does absolutely nothing for this brand
3. There is no online presence of Pentax (it was better 3 years ago than it is now in this regard)
4. Vloggers and bloggers are not interested anymore in Pentax because it doesn't generate traffic anymore on their website.
5. Photographers and even the photo shops are assaulted by Olympus, Sony, Canon and Nikon with offers, articles, discounts, workshops and so on

If what some of you are saying is true and Ricoh is interested mostly in the sales from Japan, then it's a sad news and somehow explains the lack of attitude of romanian Pentax dealer.

I understand that being conservative keept Pentax alive, but this attitude that it seems to be common in some countries it is not going to help Pentax in the next few years.

Last edited by Dan Rentea; 06-09-2018 at 12:20 AM.
06-09-2018, 04:06 AM - 3 Likes   #247
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Pentax and Pentaxians will have to accept that there will be speculations about the future of the brand as there are hardly any new products on the market. All the rest of the camera manufacturers are releasing new products, not all of them breathtaking, but new products. The delay of the K3 mark III and the delay of priomised new lenses like DFA 50 is not helping the company.


The last flash to be released was in 2015, The last lens in 2016. There are in Sweden only 4 camera models sold branded with Pentax name. One is the Efina from 2013. Firmware updates for KP and K-70 has occured during 2017 but they haven't givven the cameras more than stability, no new features.


The K-1 is a fantastic camera, but once you bought it the only income Pentax will get from it is incomes from lenses and other gadgets and there aren't enaough new products to buy. Frankly there are maybe too many nice old and good pentax lenses on the market to kill Pentax as a brand. I love taking photos with my K-1 but I think it's kind of boring to be a Pentaxian when it comes to buying things. The K-1 mark II is not anything I care to pay for. Give me a K-3 mark III with fantastic specs and performance and we are talking!

Pentax is a company and they cannot survive on our praises only, they need cash to survive and a lot of them too.It hurts to admit but I do believe Pentax won't be on the global camera market in 2019 if they don't come up with some revolutionary products soon. Not even the company itself is marketing Pentax as an innovative brand based on the information they present on their websites.


Oh, I do hope I'm wrong!

06-09-2018, 04:40 AM   #248
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In Bismarck, North Dakota I drove by Bob's Photo in May 2017 and they had a big Pentax Banner hanging in the window. I drove by it last month and the store was closed. Bob had retired after 38 years in the business. I used to always purchase something there when I was in town just to help support the place. This was the only Pentax banner I have ever seen since I got back into photography again in 2012. And this was in North Dakota! Now it is gone. Those not living in the US, he county I live in in western, NY has more residents than the entire state of North Dakota.
06-09-2018, 10:01 AM - 2 Likes   #249
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No new products? Some must be living in a parallell universe.
Camera stores are mostly history. People do research and buy on the web.

Last edited by Pål Jensen; 06-09-2018 at 10:14 AM.
06-09-2018, 10:46 AM - 3 Likes   #250
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QuoteOriginally posted by Hildalill Quote
Pentax and Pentaxians will have to accept that there will be speculations about the future of the brand as there are hardly any new products on the market. All the rest of the camera manufacturers are releasing new products, not all of them breathtaking, but new products. The delay of the K3 mark III and the delay of priomised new lenses like DFA 50 is not helping the company.


The last flash to be released was in 2015, The last lens in 2016. There are in Sweden only 4 camera models sold branded with Pentax name. One is the Efina from 2013. Firmware updates for KP and K-70 has occured during 2017 but they haven't givven the cameras more than stability, no new features.


The K-1 is a fantastic camera, but once you bought it the only income Pentax will get from it is incomes from lenses and other gadgets and there aren't enaough new products to buy. Frankly there are maybe too many nice old and good pentax lenses on the market to kill Pentax as a brand. I love taking photos with my K-1 but I think it's kind of boring to be a Pentaxian when it comes to buying things. The K-1 mark II is not anything I care to pay for. Give me a K-3 mark III with fantastic specs and performance and we are talking!

Pentax is a company and they cannot survive on our praises only, they need cash to survive and a lot of them too.It hurts to admit but I do believe Pentax won't be on the global camera market in 2019 if they don't come up with some revolutionary products soon. Not even the company itself is marketing Pentax as an innovative brand based on the information they present on their websites.


Oh, I do hope I'm wrong!

Ford hasn’t released a new car model in 6 years, and they just announced they’re ceasing making cars altogether (except the global Focus), only trucks and SUV’s. Years ago they ceased making the largest commercial truck bodies, over-the-road tractors, and divested farm equipment to Fiat - just making global city delivery vans and in USA, full-size vans now. Ford dealers are being closed if they don’t sell enough vehicles, meaning only big city dealers and one large regional dealer every hundred or so miles.

Though I love Ford as a brand, I guess this means they’re on the way out. Shame, really. Ford is such a large part of our transportation history.

brap
06-09-2018, 10:46 AM   #251
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as someone (i can't recall his name) likes to say, "fake news"
06-09-2018, 11:13 AM   #252
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QuoteOriginally posted by TheGrandPrixKid Quote
Anyone... have any thoughts?
pfft... ameteurs
06-09-2018, 11:51 AM   #253
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QuoteOriginally posted by Pål Jensen Quote
No new products? Some must be living in a parallell universe.
Camera stores are mostly history. People do research and buy on the web.
Not here where I am. There are several big stores down in London which stock everything, inc. Pentax. There’s a small but modern camera shop in my town. It doesn’t stock Pentax and concentrates on a few best-sellers from the major brands, 2-3 examples being FF. It’s surprisingly upmarket. The same is true of the camera section of a local department store. How long these places will last is another matter. However, it’s not cheaper to buy online than from them over the counter. These stores do act as marketing fronts at the least. I would always use a store if there was a choice.

Online is not as easy as it sounds, imo. I think this is all very dependent on what part of the world you live in.
06-09-2018, 02:21 PM   #254
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QuoteOriginally posted by Pål Jensen Quote
Camera stores are mostly history. People do research and buy on the web.
And what do you see when you access the internet?

1. On Youtube there are only a few positive reviews regarding Pentax.
2. On Facebook groups where photographers are showing their work you barely see a Pentax image among hundreds of images taken with other cameras. I love strobes despite the fact that I tend to shoot using natural light lately, but I'm a member on a few strobist Facebook pages and if someone enter on these nice groups to learn how to control light they see only Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji images.
3. On the websites of photo shops you can see only offers, discounts and hot deals for a lot of brands, but not for Pentax.

So, please tell me how do you think that someone new to photography has more than 2-4% chances to buy Pentax as long as he is surrounded by:
- friends shooting with other brands
- offers and deals from other brands on the websites of photo stores
- lots of Facebook pages/groups and Youtube channels where he can see nice images, reviews, etc. for other brands
- lots of Nikon, Canon, Sony presentations of ambassadors and also photo tours where he can test cameras and lenses

This forum is a great resource for the ones who have heard about Pentax, but it's not enough to count in today world where guys like Tony Northrup have lots of influence among unexperienced photographers and they promote Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc. but not Pentax

So again, if Pentax is not doing anything in online, how do you think that the closed brick and mortar stores who still had Pentax on their shelves is going to be useful for Pentax as a brand? At least on camera stores people have the opportunity to touch cameras and lenses.
06-09-2018, 02:32 PM   #255
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QuoteOriginally posted by Dan Rentea Quote
*snip*

So again, if Pentax is not doing anything in online, how do you think that the closed brick and mortar stores who still had Pentax on their shelves is going to be useful for Pentax as a brand? At least on camera stores people have the opportunity to touch cameras and lenses.
I agree on most of your points.
Pentax has mostly been the preserve of well-informed people, who scoured for informations, and made their decision based on their research and not on the fashion/peer pressure.

However, with the recent trend of unreliability (aperture actuator), those very people looking for information could be potentially scared away from the brand.
Even if the issue could be considered kinda minor, it wasn't dealt with in a very transparent nor professional way, IMHO.
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