Originally posted by falconeye I notice inflation everywhere where progress of production efficiency or global trade cannot hide it.
I trust your analysis is correct, but I don't think that on its own it explains the up to 100% price increase of Pentax lenses.
It may have been the case that Pentax identified an issue with the large price discrepancy between certain US box shifters and the rest of the world. They may have observed an undesirable level of self-importing, i.e., customers avoiding local prices but still applying for warranty services through international warranties. Or they have observed that sales through the box shifters weren't helped by the high discounts to the extent you would expect.
Whatever their reasons were, I think it is pretty clear that Pentax deliberately decided to move away from a "budget solution" image, probably towards a "weather-sealed and small" image. In any event, they deliberately stopped to let their lenses have a price advantage compared to other manufacturers.
I wish the Pentax brand all the best and if MAP is what it takes to get it back to where it belongs then so be it. But I am also very frustrated by the insane lens price increases which apparently do not even benefit the manufacturer but only dealers.
In this day and age, I do not see why a box-shifter or a dealer that does not add any noteworthy value to a product (unlike educated, highly informed shop owners did in the past) should earn $600 on a lens sale.
I believe the distributor concept where there is an extra margin-adding layer between manufacturer, dealer, and customer is a dying one and find it frustrating that it take so long to disappear.
N.B., all the above are just naive thoughts. I don't have any noteworthy background in the relevant areas.
I chose Pentax for many reasons and "fair pricing" was one of them. The term "fair pricing" probably makes a lot of people cringe, but I don't care.
I'm not excited to see Pentax offering lenses at prices I don't understand. Overall, at the moment I cannot wholeheartedly recommend anyone to buy into a Pentax system with the 16-50/2.8 and the 50-135/2.8 having a terrible reputation in terms of SDM reliability but a Canikon-like price tag. I don't see how many other lenses justify their price tag either.
Luckily, Pentax do not appear to apply the same price increase strategy to camera bodies. Probably because the market does not allow them to.
Hence I still recommend Pentax bodies, but only to those who are prepared to choose their lenses electively, i.e., have no problem to choose from third-party offerings as well.