[sandstone]

Having previously bought a Pentax SLR from a Canadian dealer with free shipping to the US, I was hopeful when I found a dealer in Calgary (The Camera Store) advertising a K-70 body for CA $709.99 which works out to about US $530. I phoned the store but confirmed what is said on their website ...that they will not ship to the US. Bummer, I thought I had finally found a Cyber Monday deal on a Pentax! Most Canadian retailers advertised CA $799.99 except for this one and Downtown Camera in Toronto which offered the K-70 for CA $749.

[Saltwater Images]

There were no deals on Pentax worth mentioning up here in the Great White North for either Black Friday or Cyber Monday. There was no shortage of excellent deals on Nikon or Canon at a multitude of retailers in Canada during the same time. I have a work colleague who has tried my K-5II several times and was shopping for his first DSLR on Black Friday. He was looking for a K-S2 or K-70 in a 2 lens kit. The majority of retailers up here don't have any Pentax in stock - it's always a full price, non refundable special order situation just to handle a Pentax camera body.

The few retailers scattered sparsely across this 9.985 million sq km country that do carry Pentax; hardly ever offer a decent sale. My colleague ended up buying a Nikon D-3400 kit with 2 lenses and a camera bag with a $450 discount on the retail price. It often feels like Pentax Canada is driving down the highway of business - asleep at the wheel.

[adsouza]

There were no deals on Pentax worth mentioning up here in the Great White North for either Black Friday or Cyber Monday. There was no shortage of excellent deals on Nikon or Canon at a multitude of retailers in Canada during the same time. I have a work colleague who has tried my K-5II several times and was shopping for his first DSLR on Black Friday. He was looking for a K-S2 or K-70 in a 2 lens kit. The majority of retailers up here don't have any Pentax in stock - it's always a full price, non refundable special order situation just to handle a Pentax camera body.

The few retailers scattered sparsely across this 9.985 million sq km country that do carry Pentax; hardly ever offer a decent sale. My colleague ended up buying a Nikon D-3400 kit with 2 lenses and a camera bag with a $450 discount on the retail price. It often feels like Pentax Canada is driving down the highway of business - asleep at the wheel.

Yup Pentax in Canada sucks...better off buying in the US or used.

[Ontarian50]

My advice is to buy that Pentax from your local friendly dealer, and stop quibbling about price.

It's a sad state of affairs that in this technology-rich marketplace, we photographers have so little to choose from. No, really, I mean that.

Recall that if, say, around 1980 you went shopping for a decent SLR camera in a city with several camera stores, you might come home with brochures from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Ricoh, Olympus, Contax, Yashica, Konica, Leica, Fujica, Mamiya, Praktica, Rollei, and some others I can recall right now. You could spend several happy evenings comparing features and benefits of many models within your budget, and hopefully return to the store that had the one you want, feeling happy about your purchase.

Today, if you've got $1,000 to spend on a DSLR outfit, you can buy a Nikon D5500 or a Canon T6i. That Pentax K70, in Canadian dollars, is outside your budget. So all you can do as a "smart consumer," is pick either of those two models, and then troll around the internet looking for the cheapest price.

The reason there aren't any great steals and deals in Pentax stuff, and most DSLR stuff these days is that profit margins for dealers are painfully low, and a lot of buyers seem to expect a discount off regular price. Last time I checked, the markup on a Pentax K70 is 18 percent, about $125 bucks. How much of a "deal" can you expect when the dealer has to run the store, pay staff and bills, and still pay himself from that - and spend an hour of his time helping you out with that new from the box camera?

No wonder that all the box stores rely on "deals" on camera kits that include a second lens, a bag of dubious quality, a filter of dubious quality, a no-name memory card, a spare battery of dubious quality, and an extended warranty of dubious value. They made more money on the extras than on the camera.

Keep in mind that when you see some dealer blowing out Pentax stuff at low prices, chances are they've given up on the brand and are selling off remaining stock below cost just to put more Nikons on the shelves.

It's hard not to be tempted by the great deal, but remember you probably won't be going back there again.

Treasure and support your local Pentax rep, if you've got one.

[Wolfeye]

It's hard to support Pentax locally when even authorized dealers ignore you. I mentioned several times to my local store, University Camera (BTW their website is a joke, hasn't been updated in years) that I was going to buy a K-70. I was asking about any black Friday deals they might have. The store owner wasn't available, but one of his employees took down my email and promised to let me know. Never heard from them. Amazon got my business.

We may moan and cry over the loss of local stores, but not all of them are worth your business.

[pete-tarmigan]

The reason there aren't any great steals and deals in Pentax stuff, and most DSLR stuff these days is that profit margins for dealers are painfully low, and a lot of buyers seem to expect a discount off regular price. Last time I checked, the markup on a Pentax K70 is 18 percent, about $125 bucks. How much of a "deal" can you expect when the dealer has to run the store, pay staff and bills, and still pay himself from that - and spend an hour of his time helping you out with that new from the box camera?

That would explain why Pentax gear is never discounted more than a few percent off MSRP in Canada.

However, there are deeper discounts in the U.S. Why? I think those discounts are entirely due to short-term promotional discounts from the manufacturer's distributor, i.e., Ricoh Imaging Americas. I get that impression from the "Ask B&H Photo!" sub-forum here on PentaxForums. On that sub-forum, whenever someone asks B&H if a particular piece of gear will be going on sale soon, B&H invariably replies that they haven't heard of any upcoming promotions from Ricoh Imaging Americas, implying that B&H only lowers Pentax prices when it gets promotional discounts from Ricoh. It seems that in Canada, Ricoh Imaging Americas rarely if ever provides any discounts to retailers.

[NS_Sailor]

We here in Atlantic Canada have been lucky with at least 2 local and 1 national photo shops and a camera repair facility specializing in Pentax Cameras in the region
All 3 will order special items and sometimes have Pentax items in stock but unfortunately the national chain doesn't seem to have as much Pentax equipment as they once did.
I too have been doing some price comparisons between American retailers such as B&H and of course found the prices were less than the Canadian Prices even with the exchange on the dollar and free shipping. However the one thing that prevented me from pulling the trigger was the extra year of Manufacturers Warranty that is only available on cameras and equipment bought from Canadian retailers and the ability to extend the warranty through one of the local retailers. I recently learned that this is a valuable option to have with the failure of my K-500

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Last edited by NS_Sailor; 11-30-2016 at 02:52 PM.

[Saltwater Images]

Ontarian, I personally have purchased most of my Pentax gear locally at full price. Since I can't even handle Pentax gear locally at a retailer - I buy less because holding and handling something makes it tangible. Neuroscience research shows that when someone handles and interacts with something, the cognitative load on their brain is 21% lower that viewing the item online. The recall of the physical experience is 70% higher and the desire to act is much greater. The other day I was in a Source location and handled an iPad Mini 4. I bought it because it was compact and a nice addition to my camera bag. I already have a full size iPad 4 and and iPad Air 2 at home. Did I need a mini 4 - absolutely not - but I will enjoy it. If I had been able to handle quality Pentax glass at a local store - I would most likely have a new lens instead.

I'm already in the Pentax system. Have once abandoned it and have returned. The issue on the lack of decent sales pricing in Canada is about attracting new customers to the brand. If Pentax Canada can't pull up their socks and pass along promotions to retailers like Pentax USA does, or at the very least establish a modest presence in each Canadian Province - then they should shut their doors and have Pentax USA manage the Canadian market.

[pete-tarmigan]

If Pentax Canada can't pull up their socks and pass along promotions to retailers like Pentax USA does, or at the very least establish a modest presence in each Canadian Province - then they should shut their doors and have Pentax USA manage the Canadian market.

I think Ricoh Imaging Canada is already a subsidiary of Ricoh Imaging Americas, although I can't provide a source for that info.

[DrFin]

Having previously bought a Pentax SLR from a Canadian dealer with free shipping to the US, I was hopeful when I found a dealer in Calgary (The Camera Store) advertising a K-70 body for CA $709.99 which works out to about US $530. I phoned the store but confirmed what is said on their website ...that they will not ship to the US. Bummer, I thought I had finally found a Cyber Monday deal on a Pentax! Most Canadian retailers advertised CA $799.99 except for this one and Downtown Camera in Toronto which offered the K-70 for CA $749.

Not sure if you found a place but try Camera Canada .com......currently $729.99 cdn for black k70 body....

[NS_Sailor]

Not sure if you found a place but try Camera Canada .com......currently $729.99 cdn for black k70 body....

I saw that. Right now Camera Canada seems to have the best price on the K70 and also the K3II with or without the 18-135 WR Lens. The K70 is $80.00 less and the K3II is $150.00 less than the prices quoted by the National Chain. Putting the price of the K3II closer in line with the American price even with the exchange on the Dollar.

Sadly the National Chain still considers the K70 a "Special Order" item that, as far as I can tell, be ordered "On Line" with no kind of refund policy and a long delivery time. This is a bit of a "Turn Off" in my mind because if you're not 100% committed to buying and keeping the product sight unseen it's doubtful, unless you have a very good rep-or with the local store, they would even consider bringing it in. I did notice however that the National Chain has put the K1 on sale in an effort to match the price quoted by Camera Canada.

[Saltwater Images]

I wouldn't consider "H****'s" a National chain. They have 22 locations in Ontario, 2 in Nova Scotia and 1 in Manitoba. They're not interested in selling to Pentax shooters but will try to talk you into another system. I was in the Dartmouth Crossing store last month. They had a K-1 body, no charged battery and no lens to mount. Kinda hard to sell in that state!

[NS_Sailor]

I wouldn't consider "H****'s" a National chain. They have 22 locations in Ontario, 2 in Nova Scotia and 1 in Manitoba. They're not interested in selling to Pentax shooters but will try to talk you into another system. I was in the Dartmouth Crossing store last month. They had a K-1 body, no charged battery and no lens to mount. Kinda hard to sell in that state!

I agree with you the Dartmouth Crossing Store carries very little if any Pentax products, rather they seem to want to sell Pentax products including some used gear in the Bayers Lake Store. The K1 may not have been in the Dartmouth Crossing store there very long as I didn't see or was told it was there by the staff I usually deal with and know I have Pentax equipment. As a matter of fact I bought my K500, lenses along with other accessories in that store. Many of these purchases were what one would consider an "Impulse" buy where because it was "In Stock" when I happened to see it and I bought it. I also venture to guess that if I saw the K1 there at the price I expected to pay. I probably would have gone home, picked up a Full Frame lens and maybe a battery, tested the body and bought it without giving it a second thought.

You're right "H****'s" may not be a National Chain the true sense of the expression but it is the closest thing we have since the Black's retail chain, where I bought my K100D & KR on impulse, went under.

[bobmaxja]

Here the site to look at the best price to buy camera gear in Canada. Please change province to get exact selling price including tax.
Camera Canada is the cheapest for Nova Scotia
Pentax K-70 - Canada and Cross-Border Price Comparison - photoprice.ca

[Tako Kichi]

I was looking for a K-70 just before Xmas last year and encountered the 'special order' issue on virtually every site I visited as I wanted to buy in Canada for the extended warranty. I decided to give Camera Canada a call to see if they actually had any in stock. They did, several in fact, in both black and silver. The salesman I spoke to was extremely helpful and professional and I decided to place my order over the phone and they even took PayPal as a payment option which saved me having to buy through their website. Within a few minutes of the phone call ending I had an emailed PayPal invoice which I immediately paid and less than an hour later I had another email which stated that the package had been shipped. I placed the order on a Monday and the box arrived on the following Wednesday, the packaging was impressive and it clearly showed the care taken in ensuring it arrived in one piece.

I was very impressed with the service and will consider them again the next time I am in the market for a new lens or camera.