[bilybianca]

I'd say, the only way to find new buyers, or rather let new buyers find the product, is to make them available. Being a Pentaxian for 20 years I still didn't buy my first DSLR (*istDS) until I had had the opportunity to hold one in my hand. And that opportunity was provided by my brother-in-law, not by a photo dealer.
Give the dealers some equipment to be sold on commission, to be payed after they have been sold. That's what they do with cheese, bumper stickers, chewing gums, wallpapers, whatever. It's an investment, but without investments you are dead. And I want Pentax to survive!

Kjell

[reniegreg]

I will never get rid of my trusty Super Program, 28mm, 50mm, 75-150 mm, 200 flash. But after scouring Chicagoland for a KM, I came up empty. Central Camera had a 200, but it's bigger and heavier than I wanted. I ended up with a D60.

PENTAX, PLEASE GET THE PRODUCTS INTO THE STORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not going to drop $600 on something I cannot touch. That's why we go to stores armed with internet info. Just like buying a car.

My last rant, when will local retailers realize it's an electronic world? I went to Gary Camera and tried to get them to even budge on their price. No way, no how. I would have loved to buy locally, but $200 is a chunk of money. Their excuse is the stores in Chicago and online are not local or competing with them. Same with Ritz/Wolf stores.

End of rant

[nostatic]

I'm not going to drop $600 on something I cannot touch. That's why we go to stores armed with internet info. Just like buying a car.

My last rant, when will local retailers realize it's an electronic world? I went to Gary Camera and tried to get them to even budge on their price. No way, no how. I would have loved to buy locally, but $200 is a chunk of money. Their excuse is the stores in Chicago and online are not local or competing with them. Same with Ritz/Wolf stores.

End of rant

Do you see the disconnect between those two paragraphs? On one hand you say you won't pay sight-unseen, but they you aren't willing to pay a price to see it in person.

I buy things at my local store and pay a premium and others online (sight unseen) for a better price. But I frankly don't go to my local store to handle their merchandise then go buy it online cheaper. That's tacky imho.

[whatever7]

I will never get rid of my trusty Super Program, 28mm, 50mm, 75-150 mm, 200 flash. But after scouring Chicagoland for a KM, I came up empty. Central Camera had a 200, but it's bigger and heavier than I wanted. I ended up with a D60.

PENTAX, PLEASE GET THE PRODUCTS INTO THE STORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not going to drop $600 on something I cannot touch. That's why we go to stores armed with internet info. Just like buying a car.

My last rant, when will local retailers realize it's an electronic world? I went to Gary Camera and tried to get them to even budge on their price. No way, no how. I would have loved to buy locally, but $200 is a chunk of money. Their excuse is the stores in Chicago and online are not local or competing with them. Same with Ritz/Wolf stores.

End of rant

At least in this country, everthing is slowly more online. All the niche products you just have to buy online, come very soon.

I have brought many things sight unseen for a while now. And my reason is not even I can't see them in person. I am too lazy to go to the stores.

[er1kksen]

You can buy gear online without it being "sight unseen" without feeling like you've ripped off the camera store. Most online shops have very good return policies. Buy the product you want to try, and if you don't like it you return it, if you do like it you keep it. Obviously not applicable to all cases but it's an option to consider.

[SteveM]

Re the Canon and Nikon in stores and Pentax in stores….Canon and Nikon online is just as prevalent as Pentax. People can look at Canon and Nikon and buy based on market recognition....and what they can hold in stores. Pentax needs to get product in stores but as one of the large camera stores in town told me last week, they cannot get Pentax product to sell to people that ask for it. Of the main camera stores in town, Pentax has a banner for 1/3 of the store (left over from year ago), but product is 5% to 10%.
I bought my a K10d due to London drugs (camera store in BC) pushing the k10d and k100d to a customer while I was walking by….the k10d nailed the other cameras near it’s price range. The k20d, although a great camera, didn’t match the k10d vs other cameras to choose from.
Pentax was a "line" of a lens/glass company Asahi until 2002....now they are a “line” of Hoya.....and hopefully Hoya can pump them up as Asahi did in 1979. Cancelling the 645d and rolling out the K-m is Hoyas first hand......lets watch what happens next....

[Ratmagiclady]

Well, I got my K20d sight unseen, but I'm sure that getting a chance to handle a K200 in the stores certainly helped... At least there was some confidence that if they could make a littler one handle nice, they could likely do a bigger one. Didn't have much choice, on other counts, myself, but I ended up very pleased on that count.

Maybe you can't pay the markup on a new body at your local chain store... I certainly can't. Well, OK. Try and support them somehow, if you want that to be there. . Most of their business is in other things, anyway. I try and get my paper and chemistry there, and whatnot, for instance.

[Ratmagiclady]

Well, regarding this exchange here:

---" Originally Posted by rparmar View Post

Would Pentax products be better if they were are popular as Canon? No, I think they'd be worse.---""

"Why do you think they'd be worse?
You seem to have a very optimistic view of current Pentax marketing. Not that that's a bad thing. However, others have a very different view. Personally I could care less whether they have TV ads, a ton of magazine ads, or whatever. The thing is, such presence would help expand the number of Pentax users. While popularity is not always the absolute best thing, having more customers would increase the ability of Pentax to release new products."

The fact here is that popularity is a fickle master, so to speak. If you have more *mass consumer appeal,* and have a huge business to support *based* on this, you a) have to continue to (increasingly) pander to that very consumer base, and b) Can incidentally start telling 'serious' photographers what we do and do not need for a given amount of money....

It's not like Canon and Nkon make bad products, or anything, they've just been missing the boat on making *anything* for people who can't write off a five thousand dollar camera every two years.

The 'popular' maket for celebrity-endorsed point-and-shoots that are like Iphones without the phone ....isn't actually going to help most of the Pentax DSLR crowd, here. I, for one, have little interest in them becoming a third player in that market. It's expensive, for one. They should certainly get their products out there, but I could care less how big they are as long as they stand to be around a while making what I need.

[dylansalt]

Yes, certainly time will tell whether Pentax Imaging will create more of a presence in the market place.

For a newbie coming into the market (without a bunch of legacy Pentax lenses) his first choice will first lean towards a Nikon or Canon mainly because of the "presence" created in the market place by the these two camera companies (and generally all his buddies will have either one the two major brands)

I run quite a large company here in SA (my own) and trust me "SALES" are very important and this is made easier by creating a good presence (Advertising/Marketing/Word of mouth) in the market place, coupled with good service & backup

[Bophoto]

Yes, it's not pentax fault. The yen has became stronger while the swedish krona has lost compared to many currencies.
Luckily, we don't live on Iceland though...

The English £ has also get down, the $ goes down to sometimes, but they don't pay for that. I sad that "now prices often are more than twise here in Sweden compare to US" . 2 days ago it was a thread in a Swedish Forum, a Swedish gay in London wanted advise about K-m in kit with DA-L18-55 and DA50-200. He got it for /in SEK/ 3720:- and in Sweden in a cheap internet-chop it cost 5790:- !!!
And it come from the same place, Pentax Europe GmbH.

It can be Pentax Germany that put up the prices for Scandinavia, i don´t now.
But if the chops in Sweden want to sell lenses whey have to start import direct from US or somewhere in Asia.

So no more Pentax for me to this prices.

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist this, you made a typo, it's in bold below, sexual orientation is not relevant..

The English £ has also get down, the $ goes down to sometimes, but they don't pay for that. I sad that "now prices often are more than twise here in Sweden compare to US" . 2 days ago it was a thread in a Swedish Forum, a Swedish gay in London wanted advise about K-m in kit with DA-L18-55 and DA50-200. He got it for /in SEK/ 3720:- and in Sweden in a cheap internet-chop it cost 5790:- !!!
And it come from the same place, Pentax Europe GmbH.

It can be Pentax Germany that put up the prices for Scandinavia, i don´t now.
But if the chops in Sweden want to sell lenses whey have to start import direct from US or somewhere in Asia.

So no more Pentax for me to this prices.

[Confused]

Re the info.....

a Swedish gay in London wanted advise about K-m (Kinky masochism ?)

Oooh aahh....it seems some people have all the luck, don't they ducky.....lol !

[Bophoto]

Re the info.....

a Swedish gay in London wanted advise about K-m (Kinky masochism ?)

Oooh aahh....it seems some people have all the luck, don't they ducky.....lol !

Don´t you say guy both about a homosexual and a friend?

[awo425]

Yeah, man, if gay people can buy it for 3720, naturals shouldn't be paying 5790:- !!!
This is just wrong...

[jct us101]

Woah, now we're getting in offensive territory...