Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
05-07-2009, 02:14 AM   #16
Forum Member
Vinfer's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Ottaviano (Italy)
Posts: 56
QuoteOriginally posted by jack56 Quote
I was in a Ritz Camera store yesterday and the sales guy, who has been there a few years informed me that Pentax is in trouble and may fold. And why they were not carrying Pentax DLSR's any more. This was in the largest Mall in the NW.

Any truth to that? I hope not.

I had just bought a new Pentax K110D w/18-55mm last week for $269 from another Ritz store that was closing. Everything was 50% off. I just missed out on the K10D which I really wanted.
What a drag! But all these people working in the Pentax management? Bah.
I hear that the Pentax is in trouble since I started surfing on the net in 1995. :ugh:

05-07-2009, 09:59 AM   #17
Pentaxian
reeftool's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Upstate New York
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 9,543
Pentax probably made them pay for the cameras they stocked and sold. It seems Ritz doesn't understand that concept.
05-07-2009, 10:15 AM   #18
Veteran Member




Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Boston, PRofMA
Photos: Albums
Posts: 3,026
A Ritz near Boston had a K10D for $370 if you're interested. I just laughed at it and the old flash they wanted to sell with it (not even a 360FG).
It's no surprise they're closing. It's just too bad they ran the mom and pop stores out of business :-P

Not sure if any of you folks are in the Boston area, but Hunt's has an annual photo show. This is the second one in a row where the flyer didn't include Pentax but did include Olympus (I'm fairly sure Olympus kicks in some marketing money)...that's a bit troubling to me because they're otherwise a good shop...
05-07-2009, 12:51 PM   #19
Veteran Member
farfisa's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,274
QuoteOriginally posted by jack56 Quote
I can't wait to get a 50 f1.4 lens. In the old days when I had my Nikon FM, Olympus OM1 & Pentax K1000, that was the best lens to start out with.
Sorry, this comment is going to have to be moved to "SLR Lens Discussion."






Just kidding!

05-07-2009, 01:36 PM   #20
Veteran Member
omega leader's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Niagara Region, Ontario Canada
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 417
New Forum

Why not create a new forum "Is Pentax Dying?"
05-07-2009, 01:49 PM   #21
Veteran Member
Ratmagiclady's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: GA
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 13,563
QuoteOriginally posted by omega leader Quote
Why not create a new forum "Is Pentax Dying?"
I think you'd have to call it 'The Board Of No.'

There was a long while where I wasn't following the photo trade very closely, and they'd apparently decided chrome paint on plastic was gonna do something good... *Then* I was looking away out of respect to Pentax-that-was.
05-07-2009, 01:56 PM   #22
Banned




Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Virginia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,363
I had a kid at our local Ritz say the same thing a few weeks ago when I went in looking for a flash. I told him that he was mistaken, it wasn't pentax it was ritz in trouble. He quickly shut up.

I think a lot of it is because these kids have no idea that pentax existed before the digital age. When I was their age I wanted a K1000 since I actually had a hope of affording one.

05-07-2009, 02:00 PM   #23
Veteran Member
Buddha Jones's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Charlotte, NC
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 2,587
For the record, the fools that work at Ritz/Wolf and spew that mindless banter are all tools.
05-07-2009, 02:09 PM   #24
Veteran Member




Join Date: May 2008
Location: Abilene, TX
Posts: 339
I just got my new B&H catalog and what do you know, they still carry Pentax. Adorama even has them in stock. Guess they didn't get the inside info that some of the lower tier emplyees at the more successful camera dealers were privy to.
05-07-2009, 02:22 PM   #25
Senior Member




Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: NYC
Posts: 256
QuoteOriginally posted by GoldenWreckedAngle Quote
I just got my new B&H catalog and what do you know, they still carry Pentax. Adorama even has them in stock. Guess they didn't get the inside info that some of the lower tier emplyees at the more successful camera dealers were privy to.

They can't say that Pentax is in trouble because they actually have Pentax stock they own & need to get rid of unlike Ritz Camera...
05-07-2009, 02:28 PM   #26
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Copenhagen
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,842
QuoteOriginally posted by jack56 Quote
That makes sense. He was trying to get me to sell my Pentax on craigslist and buy the Sony they had on sale.

And this post/threads got me wondering too:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-rumors/26454-pentax-canada-close-down.html
Read post nr. 64 and 66 in that thread, and you'll realize that it was just a big joke, or somebody trying to make unfounded rumors
05-07-2009, 02:35 PM   #27
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Southern California, USA
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 729
Fry's!

I think if Pentax is dying, then Fry's must be dying too!

There is a post in DPR forum of members reporting the appearance of Pentax DSLRs and P&S at Fry's.
I can proudly report that Fry's at City of Industry, CA got Pentax Km, Optio W60 & X70 on display shelf and in stock.
They have fresh batteries inside that sweet Km too, in case you want to test how fast the AF is.
05-07-2009, 02:45 PM   #28
Veteran Member




Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: California
Posts: 851
There is only a couple of really significant camera retail stores in the San Diego area and Georges is probably the biggest. When I was in there a while ago to rent some lighting gear I asked if I could see a K2000 (I had not actually seen one in person yet). The guy told me that they did not have any. He then explained that Pentax had virtually vanished as a presence at their store because the Sales Rep for Pentax had gone. Instead there was a "regional" sales rep who showed up about 2x per year to drop off brochures. He said the last time the rep had barely said "hi" before heading for the door to catch a plane to the next city.

I helped the guy out a bit by explaining some of the Pentax gear to him since they were still sitting on an inventory and he knew almost nothing about it.

I assume it is all part of a Pentax marketing strategy aimed at online sales since they have such a small market share.

To bring this story back around to being on the right subject, the guys in the Brick and Mortar stores know almost nothing about Pentax because Pentax doesn't tell them very much. Unless your salesman just happens to be a hard-core Pentaxian there is a strong possibility that they know next to nothing about the brand (except the old spotmatics and 6x7's which everyone seems to remember fondly).
05-07-2009, 03:13 PM   #29
Veteran Member




Join Date: May 2008
Location: Abilene, TX
Posts: 339
QuoteOriginally posted by kunik Quote
There is only a couple of really significant camera retail stores in the San Diego area and Georges is probably the biggest. When I was in there a while ago to rent some lighting gear I asked if I could see a K2000 (I had not actually seen one in person yet). The guy told me that they did not have any. He then explained that Pentax had virtually vanished as a presence at their store because the Sales Rep for Pentax had gone. Instead there was a "regional" sales rep who showed up about 2x per year to drop off brochures. He said the last time the rep had barely said "hi" before heading for the door to catch a plane to the next city.

I helped the guy out a bit by explaining some of the Pentax gear to him since they were still sitting on an inventory and he knew almost nothing about it.

I assume it is all part of a Pentax marketing strategy aimed at online sales since they have such a small market share.

To bring this story back around to being on the right subject, the guys in the Brick and Mortar stores know almost nothing about Pentax because Pentax doesn't tell them very much. Unless your salesman just happens to be a hard-core Pentaxian there is a strong possibility that they know next to nothing about the brand (except the old spotmatics and 6x7's which everyone seems to remember fondly).
To be fair, I LOVE photography and take a paycheck from it fairly regularly; I read about 30 photo related blogs/day and write one of my own, but put me behind the counter in a camera store and I'm not going to be very helpful on anything beyond Pentax and maybe Canon and Nikon. It's a bit much to expect the floor help in most camera stores to know anywhere near as much about our preferred brand of gear as we do, even if the manufacturers are feeding them a steady diet of new info every day.

If a sales rep has to be spoon fed info from the manufacturer they aren't going to retain much of it anyway. Everything they want to learn is free for the taking on the internet, but even the ones who subscribe to every blog and camera review site on the planet, and ingest camera info for breakfast, are going to be at a disadvantage to someone who does their homework on a particular brand before they go shopping. If I ever go into a camera store and encounter a sales rep that actually knows more about the model I'm shopping for than I do, it will be a sure sign to me that I'm nowhere near ready to buy.
05-07-2009, 04:19 PM   #30
Senior Member




Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 167
My local retailer here in Norway is a shop called JapanPhoto. They are probably the biggest chain in Norway for photography. A bit like Jessops in the UK. The one I go to have very well informed staff, though regretably, just like other places, they have very little knowledge concerning Pentax and Olympus gear. They know a bit about Sony though as they are an official Sony pro retailer, so the staff has all been on training courses. This lack of knowledge though doesn't translate into a lack of equipment. They have a rather large cabinet which contains just Pentax and Olympus equipment. They even have Zeiss lenses for Pentax. So if I ever need anything, I can be pretty sure I'll be able to get it from them. It's just a shame they don't have someone with a bit more knowledge about the Pentax and Olympus systems. If you ask them though they always go over to their computers to look up the products on their internal database for a full list of features, pros, cons, etc, instead of redirecting you to Canon and Nikon products.

I was browsing once when I overheard them helping a customer chose a dSLR. He was showing him the Nikon D60, but after showing him it, he showed him the Pentax K200D and explained how, for more or less the same price, he could get more features such as weather sealing, bracketing, etc. I was quite surprised by this. I rarely see a camera salesman take a customer away from a Nikon to show him a Pentax. He then went on to explain how Pentax have better prime lenses than Nikon if that was of interest to him and how he could easily get hold of some cheap manual lenses which the customer seemed to like as he'd used manual cameras for a while.

I think it's a shame that salesmen don't know more about Pentax and Olympus. I really like Olympus, especially the E-420 when combined with the 25mm pancake lens. I would rather have a Pentax K20D or an Olympus E-3 than their Nikon and Canon equivelent as I believe they both have very interesting features. The K20D is weather sealed, TAv mode and excellent lens compatibility. I like the look of the E-3 becouse its affordable, 2x crop factor which is great for telephoto lenses, etc. To me Canon and Nikon seem a bit booring. Maybe I just like to be different

I think popular magazines should take some of the blame though. A recent issue of a Norwegian photography magazine was comparing FF cameras as they are becoming more popular among amateurs. I was surprised to see that they recently had a comparison with Canon 5D vs Sony a900 vs Nikon D700 vs Olympus E-3! The Olympus E-3 wasn't a FF camera like the others and also cost less than half the price of the other cameras according to the prices they provided. Despite this they gave the E-3 a bad review becouse the image quality wasn't as good as the others, without taking the price into account. I was also surprised that, seeing as they chose to include the E-3 in a FF comparison, they didn't include the K20D.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
pentax, pentax news, pentax rumors, ritz, store
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Pentax K200D battery trouble alehel Pentax DSLR Discussion 18 03-11-2015 05:53 AM
Trouble with my Pentax A 50mm 1.7! Tuner571 Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 23 09-21-2009 02:09 PM
Is Pentax in trouble? I think so! jack56 Pentax News and Rumors 55 08-13-2009 12:42 AM
Pentax Gallery Trouble? Mike Cash Photographic Technique 12 04-13-2007 06:36 PM
Hoya-Pentax merger in trouble? NaClH2O Pentax News and Rumors 9 04-10-2007 03:52 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 07:58 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top