[Bophoto]

What the hell is Hoya thinking?!

First they take over Pentax, then they cut down costs so we get worse service.
(newsletter before and a better homepage...)
And they reconstruct/change Pentax, reconstruct lenses and later a camera(K7).
Rice prices on lenses to crazy numbers in some counties.
At Photokina they had a big space for business, but a small space for visitors, Olympus had ~10 times bigger.

So then do we get better homepage and a newsletter,
reasonable prices on lenses, Cameras and test of them before and not after Christmas,
Working peace for people at Pentax(latest Pentax Europe change from Hamburg to Paris), as good as Olympus at Photokina and other exhibition,
and no more new type of lenses for a couple of years, DA WR? series is enough for now.

I get tired........

[chocoberry]

First, there was a price shock already in Japan, on February. Second, the price shock is limited to FA(and A) lenses- not DAs, not DA★s, and not DFAs.

However, the price increase seems super higher. FA 35mm f/2: €695? seriously? That's Euro, right? Honestly, it's much more expensive than Japanese MSRP.

[janneman]

What the hell is Hoya thinking?!

First they take over Pentax, then they cut down costs so we get worse service..

Nothing new here. That was started a long time ago hen Pentax was still Pentax.
A few years ago Pentax closed don the service centre in Breda and outsourced the servicing to a Belgian third party who used to be the Belgian Nikon rep.
Hoya simply continues the trend.

[Mike.P®]

I really hope we're not in for another price rise here in the UK in June. We had a 20% rise in Feb, pretty much in line with exchange rates. ( Sigma went up 30+% )I can't see the market taking another rise.
I'll just sit tight on what I've got and learn to use them better!
(And maybe buy up some nice old M series lenses on eBay....)

Chris at SRS has said there will be a new round of Pentax price rises from 1st June, he has stocked up on everything so should be able to hold them for a while but once gone they will go up. The Sigma price rises were totally over the top though, nearly £1200 for a 100-300 f4 now .. thats 25% more than the Pentax 60-250mm f4.

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Last edited by Mike.P®; 05-18-2009 at 06:11 AM.

[LensScribe]

Similarly unexpectedly I see that the FA 50 1.4 has gone up to +/- $270 on both Amazon and B&H since last week. It was $200 previously.

[gazonk]

First, there was a price shock already in Japan, on February. Second, the price shock is limited to FA(and A) lenses- not DAs, not DA★s, and not DFAs.

However, the price increase seems super higher. FA 35mm f/2: €695? seriously? That's Euro, right? Honestly, it's much more expensive than Japanese MSRP.

All the quoted prices are way above the Japanese (and even Norwegian!) prices. That's why I sincerely doubt that we will see anything like this in the rest of Europe.

[vinzer]

I dunno if it helps, but the DA* 16-50 here now costs around $895 from the sole distributor who carries Pentax, with the DA 17-70 at $770. I'm going 3rd-party or used from here on out until prices go down to more reasonable levels again.

I seriously hope Hoya's not into that Leica-level type of doing business since they certainly won't get their market share that way.

It would've been nice if Samsung/Schneider steps up to make their own K-mount lenses and price them right, but I guess they're too busy with their NX system.

[pirat]

Second, the price shock is limited to FA(and A) lenses- not DAs, not DA★s, and not DFAs.

Yes, that's the same I was told last week: FA lenses are dropping from main production to small series so their prices are coming up very very high, accessories go up because they are not big sellers and everything together is going up because of exchange rate. For example 35 Limited jump from 8500 to 11000 CZK last autumn and is expected to jump another 30 % now.

[janneman]

I seriously hope Hoya's not into that Leica-level type of doing business since they certainly won't get their market share that way.

Why is this price drop bad???
Many people stil l think that expensive is better quality... Maybe they will sell more if their prices are up to Nikon/Canon level

[Mike.P®]

Indeed we have many times seen people saying the K20D is too cheap for what it is and that if it was priced higher then others would take it more seriously.

[awo425]

FA 50mm f/1.4 for €434 is really laughable considering the fact that it is under $200 on ebay.

[Steelski]

The price hike will probably subside after a few months with the K-7 out.

Thats a guess, there was such a price hike in Canada, but then it was corrected a month or so later.
Hoya are testing the Markets I think.

Interesting about the lenses they have chosen to use on this. Maybe they expect them to be really favorable with K-7 and expect an influx of orders. After all, the K-7 is a dream camera for many outside of Pentax. A pro body fit to travel light with. goes with the Pentax Primes collection.

Also the FA50 1.4 was way way under priced in many respects. Maybe they saw that not many were buying the DA55 so this is a way to make people consider it more.

[Bophoto]

In Sweden perhaps - I don't think there was a price shock in Norway (norwegian prices are shocking anyway ).

The quoted prices from Lithuania are so high that I sincerely doubt that it's more than a local phenomena. Maybe due to the economic turbulence in Lithuania, but the local currency is fixed to Euro now, isn't it?

1. Strange if Pentax cameras and lenses in Norway don´t come from Focus trading?

2. Did´t you see about DA*300 in New Zeeland and many other posts?
5000New Zeeland dollar in New Zeeland and send to his door from BH-photo in New York under 2000!!!

[Bophoto]

First, there was a price shock already in Japan, on February. Second, the price shock is limited to FA(and A) lenses- not DAs, not DA★s, and not DFAs.

However, the price increase seems super higher. FA 35mm f/2: €695? seriously? That's Euro, right? Honestly, it's much more expensive than Japanese MSRP.

But in Sweden/Scandinavia we got the shock in January, and i say it was around 30-55% price rice on DA and DA* lenses. And that´s a chock.
But i most say that now in May, they have cut down some prices ~best internet price;
DA*300 = 1420€
DA*60-250 = 1375€
DA*50-135 = 1010€
DA12-24 = 850€
DA17.70 = 580€
FA50 = 260€
FA35 = 299€
Perhaps they realise too many buy from US instead?

[Bophoto]

Nothing new here. That was started a long time ago hen Pentax was still Pentax.
A few years ago Pentax closed don the service centre in Breda and outsourced the servicing to a Belgian third party who used to be the Belgian Nikon rep.
Hoya simply continues the trend.

That is not that i write, Pentax Scan. had their own service up till perhaps 5 years ago.
That i say is that Pentax.se was better before Hamburg took over, and we had newsletters before too.

You can´t mean that worse homepage and reconstructing all lenses and Cameras and moving around Pentax Europe every second year is OK?

I want Pentax to be working, not a bureaucracy that change everything all the time.