[Graham67]

Sorry to single out SRS, as I'm sure others will follow, but:

Pentax smc DA* 50-135mm f2.8 ED (IF) SDM Lens - Only £919.00 - SRS Microsystems

£919 for the Pentax SMC DA* 50-135mm f2.8 ED (IF) SDM.

£919? That's over an 80% price hike since December 2008.

I notice all other lenses are slowly creeping up in price, and wonder which others will suddenly leap upwards like this.

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Last edited by Graham67; 06-22-2009 at 06:57 AM. Reason: Typo

[quarc]

Not to mention the priceraises on older FA lenses. I recently noted that the price fore FA50/1.4 has almost doubled from just a week ago.... The old 2.0 converter now lists at 2400 USD (yes you read it right!!!) I can understand the price raise for the converter because I am sure the volumes are very small, and that price probably more represents the cost, but the FA50??? Makes the DA*55/1.4 not look very expensive any more, only 150 USD difference now...

[Desmond.young]

50-135 is £919.......holy sh...t
are pentax going crazy?

[Clarkey]

We had a similar issue here in Canada earlier this year, but this seems fairly ridiculous. It's not as if the pound has devalued that much against the yen.

Changes in FA lens prices are either nothing short of profiteering, or to drive high end users to their new lenses, or may signal that those full frame lenses may be valuable for another reason.

So much for a recession, with little inflation.

N*on is starting to look really good for the equivalent setup I am likely to use. Just roll out another couple of wide dx primes and I am there. Whatever replaces the K200d better be good. Or the price point for the K7 better be there!

[Pentaxor]

50-135 is £919.......holy sh...t
are pentax going crazy?

UK has been crazy for a long time. they just went up to another level of craziness.

Hm..... Sorry about that. You want me to send you one or two? Maybe ten of you guys or so can pay for my airfare from LA to London and I can bring each of you a lens for what I pay here. How's that?

[quarc]

I just saw the price for the FA35/2 is going from 3200 SEK to 8000SEK!!!! One of the reasons I am shooting Pentax is that they have high quality lenses at affordable prices. If people can't afford the lenses they can just as well shoot Nikon.

I have been convinced Pentax is not going to do full frame, but with these changes you have to wonder. Or is it part of an agreement between Pentax and Samsung? Samsung will do FF, and will use rebranded lenses from Pentax for that, they will not allow Pentax to sell the same lenses much cheaper?

[lithos]

£919 for the Pentax SMC DA* 50-135mm f2.8 ED (IF) SDM.

£919? That's over an 80% price hike since December 2008.

Eighteen-hundred dollary-doos? I 'spose it is there pro-grade lens...but still, if I'm paying something like that (lens is $1600 here...) I'm rather it not be a rebadged Tokina.

Pentax must remember half the reason we shoot the brand - bang-for-buck.

[nanok]

this is not uk specific, it's been happening everywhere. i think somebody at hoya got a dream they are leica or something. canon glass is starting to look more appealing (the 70-200/4is is already cheaper than the 60-250/4, yeah, i know it's not the same thing, but if you look at the non-is version, which is half the price, you are starting to wonder what is the blody point of in-body stabilization, and would you really mind paying half and doing without stabilization, having the same excellent glass? hmm..).

i'd really hate to let go of pentax, but if this goes on, i won't even blink, if only because i don't want to have my gear "stuck" when everybody figures it out and won't buy it anymore. cameras are tools, not a religion. i won't even sigh. let's see what happens.(i really hope they get a ****ing grip on reality soon)

edit: maybe i didn't make myself clear: of course i can use third party glass, but i am sober enough to understand that pentax cannot survive by selling only bodyes. if i have the money to buy new glass, and the will, and i chose to go with third party all the way, instead of pentax, many others are likely to do the same, and in that case, sorry, but i won't be there while it sinks.

oh, and btw: now that we're at it, why is it that i can get the tokina 80-400 for both nikon and canon, new, but not for pentax? i thought they were "friends"? it's not like pentax has anything in their lineup to compete with that, so what is the ****ing problem? how about the 11-16/2.8? my nikon friend has had it for months, and loves it, and i am scratchign my head like an idiot.

yeah. when i get pissed.. watch out

[bnishanth]

Sorry to single out SRS, as I'm sure others will follow, but:

Pentax smc DA* 50-135mm f2.8 ED (IF) SDM Lens - Only £919.00 - SRS Microsystems

£919 for the Pentax SMC DA* 50-135mm f2.8 ED (IF) SDM.

Somthing's wrong there, and I guess they messed up the prices, 'cos ParkCameras are listing it at £529.00

Cheers
Nish

[nanok]

something is definetly wrong, you bet. but it has been wrong, in europe at least, for months now, and getting worse. if you want that lens, i'd suggest you get it now for that price .

i believe price is controlled by demand (by the market) at the end of the day, and they will have to wake up soon, though. unless they are planning to go down in a blaze of glory..

could it be that they are just probing the market to see how far they can go? has anybody tried this before in "photo gear history"?

[lithos]

this is not uk specific, it's been happening everywhere. i think somebody at hoya got a dream they are leica or something.

i'd really hate to let go of pentax, but if this goes on, i won't even blink, if only because i don't want to have my gear "stuck" when everybody figures it out and won't buy it anymore. cameras are tools, not a religion. i won't even sigh. let's see what happens.(i really hope they get a ****ing grip on reality soon)

Agreed. The most depressing thing that Pentax could do (apart from dying in the arse like Konica/Minolta) is become a "boutique" brand.

"Oh, we're not really working on a decent series of f2.8 zooms to cover the range from 16 to 400mm...we're working on making the lens mount on our new f4.5 24mm out of platinum."

oh, and btw: now that we're at it, why is it that i can get the tokina 80-400 for both nikon and canon, new, but not for pentax? i thought they were "friends"? it's not like pentax has anything in their lineup to compete with that, so what is the ****ing problem? how about the 11-16/2.8? my nikon friend has had it for months, and loves it, and i am scratchign my head like an idiot.

yeah. when i get pissed.. watch out

They're friends. Pentax is just upgrading their machinery to allow them to more efficiently rebadge the Tokinas.

Some people are preaching doom and gloom on Pentax due to the recent obscene lens price hikes. I have to admit that I tend to feel the same. When the brand's strength has been bang/buck, what's left if/when that's gone? Just weather sealing? I bought my first Pentax less than a year ago and have not yet acquired a "full" lens set (I'm seriously lacking a good wide or ultrawide). But with today's prices I probably wouldn't have bought a Pentax to begin with, might as well have gone with C or N.

Well, markets and pricing can change some time soon, but in the current situation I'll hardly buy more than one more lens - if even that. And most likely not a K-7 either.

[Tommy]

Swedish popular online store cyberphoto.se has the DA 12-24 listed for 12295 SEK, which is 1080 EUR / £914 / 1496 USD!!! It's a little lower at other stores but still ridiculously high!!! What has happened? Could this really be currency issues only?

I'm starting to wonder if SMC coating alone is worth 400-500 EUR....but of course, I don't have the option to buy the Tokina version since I'm sitting here with a K-mount camera that I like...

/Tommy

We had a similar issue here in Canada earlier this year, but...

I believe we had the price hike in Europe back then too. This seems to be the second wave.

Here's a graph of DA* 16-50mm's (and DA 70mm and DA 40mm) price during the last months.