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03-09-2013, 08:11 PM   #1
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Put Hands on the K-30 & K-01 for the 1st Time

My wife and I drove to Camera World (downtown Portland, OR) so I could actually put my hands on the K-30 (which I plan to buy this year). What a solid camera. It's more compact than I thought it would be. I was actually a little surprised at how compact it is. The blue version was a darker hue than I thought it would be. Will likely get the blue, but I really liked the look of the black too.

Just for fun they had one black K-01 in the store (they've been selling pretty good the salesman told me) and I asked to look at it too. Also a rock solid camera. As others have said, it looks much better in person. After messing with the K-01 I see the draw to own one.

The screens on the new cameras are sure nice... coming from the K-x, all the new stuff is a nice step up.

03-09-2013, 08:14 PM   #2
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Wow! Camera World has Pentax in the retail store again? Will wonders never cease! Do they have a K5II?


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03-09-2013, 09:05 PM   #3
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Jeez, you know I didn't even think to look. Pretty good selection of Pentax lenses. I called ahead to make sure they had a blue K-30... I had a bit of tunnel vision. The K-01 just caught my eye when I was scanning the Pentax section.
03-09-2013, 09:49 PM   #4
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Glad you had the chance to do a hands on. See, Ricoh is starting to have an effect. By this time next year things will be very different.

Damned shame, though, that people are just catching on to the K-01 now that it is over.

03-10-2013, 04:13 AM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
Glad you had the chance to do a hands on. See, Ricoh is starting to have an effect. By this time next year things will be very different.

Damned shame, though, that people are just catching on to the K-01 now that it is over.
By all accounts, the K-01 caught on when Pentax decided to sell them off at prices far below anything else comparable. Not sure that's a viable long term strategy.
03-10-2013, 06:24 AM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by IchabodCrane Quote
By all accounts, the K-01 caught on when Pentax decided to sell them off at prices far below anything else comparable. Not sure that's a viable long term strategy.
Let me rephrase. Damned shame that Pentax priced it wrong initially, then reduced the price to
Clearance levels.

Average price over the run was probably about the same.

If only those who bought it cheap and like it now had been encouraged to buy it early and liked it then - by a more reasonable price.
03-10-2013, 06:30 AM   #7
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Having bought one and used it for a few days, I have to say, I wouldn't have bought this camera. What I bought was an XS 40 lens, and for an extra $100 they threw in a camera. That being said, hiking through the park yesterday, it was around my neck with the 40 XS on it. The K-5 had the A-400. I see absolutely nothing wrong with it used as a wide angle point an shoot with K-5 quality images. It will probably get a lot of landscape use. I carry the 21 ltd and 40 XZ for it.

03-10-2013, 11:53 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
Let me rephrase. Damned shame that Pentax priced it wrong initially, then reduced the price to
Clearance levels.

Average price over the run was probably about the same.

If only those who bought it cheap and like it now had been encouraged to buy it early and liked it then - by a more reasonable price.
Except the weighted average sales price is probably far lower than the arithmetic average sale price (midpoint between original and final price). IOW, the weighed average sales price certainly suggest Pentax probably couldn't have convinced many to buy a K-01 even at the arithmetic average price which they likely needed to get, if not higher, to justify further development or even production of the product. No sense lamenting that as it simply became a short-term "steal of the century" for many Pentaxians looking to pick up a MILC for far less than anything else comparable.
03-10-2013, 12:24 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
Let me rephrase. Damned shame that Pentax priced it wrong initially, then reduced the price to
Clearance levels.

Average price over the run was probably about the same.

If only those who bought it cheap and like it now had been encouraged to buy it early and liked it then - by a more reasonable price.
If Pentax had priced the K-01 body at $599 (maybe even as high as $699) then I would have bought one early last year. Since they kept the price as high as they could for so long I ignored the K-01 until the price dropped to clearance levels and I saw it advertised on multiple sites. Now I own TWO and I love this camera. No, it isn't perfect, but when it's sold at a lower price it's easier for you to forgive its flaws.

We can't rewrite history at this point, but I suspect that Pentax would have sold more K-01's at a higher price if the original MSRP was $599 or $699. Now they have to settle for $299. I just hope there is still "some" profit for Pentax at these clearance prices ... I certainly don't want Pentax to end up any worse financially.
03-10-2013, 12:34 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by JJJPhoto Quote
If Pentax had priced the K-01 body at $599 (maybe even as high as $699) then I would have bought one early last year. Since they kept the price as high as they could for so long I ignored the K-01 until the price dropped to clearance levels and I saw it advertised on multiple sites. Now I own TWO and I love this camera. No, it isn't perfect, but when it's sold at a lower price it's easier for you to forgive its flaws.

We can't rewrite history at this point, but I suspect that Pentax would have sold more K-01's at a higher price if the original MSRP was $599 or $699. Now they have to settle for $299. I just hope there is still "some" profit for Pentax at these clearance prices ... I certainly don't want Pentax to end up any worse financially.
What's your viewpoint on why Pentax is only getting around $300 or so for the K-01 if you think people would buy it at nearly double that price ($599)? Pentax might not have marketing wizards but it's hard to imagine them leaving THAT much money on the table.
03-10-2013, 01:14 PM   #11
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I used to deal with quite a few camera company sales and marketing folks in my work. Although I haven't dealt with Pentax's sales/marketing team in years my understanding is that they (just like Canon, Nikon, and other camera makers) have a system they've worked out related to the frequency of model releases, inventory numbers and cost of warehousing that essentially translates into a "life cycle schedule" for price changes for any product. The specifics of that schedule vary from product to product and can be heavily impacted by consumer demand and other unpredictable external forces like natural disasters that destroy assembly lines or warehouses that are storing inventory.

So, "in general" camera makers know they can expect to charge "MSRP" for a product for X number of months (+ or - a certain percentage for retailer changes to prices based on demand). Next, they have a second stage in the product life cycle when they can either mark down prices or leave it as-is based on the various factors listed above. Then there is the final stage in the product life cycle where the cost of warehousing old product is projected to exceed the profit from the number of units that are projected to be sold over the next X months (camera companies know that the older a digital camera gets the less people want to buy it because it's considered "old" technology). That final stage is when they put products on major clearance.

Given the radical price drop on the K-01 I'm speculating (and this part is total speculation) that Pentax and its retailers didn't move much K-01 inventory and they REALLY need it to move now. If HUGE numbers of people were buying these K-01 cameras we would probably see the price go back up ... but since it's staying pretty low that suggests Pentax has plenty of inventory on hand and they just want to get rid of it so it's not taking up space that needs to be used for new inventory of new cameras coming from the factory.
03-10-2013, 01:17 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by IchabodCrane Quote
Except the weighted average sales price is probably far lower than the arithmetic average sale price (midpoint between original and final price). IOW, the weighed average sales price certainly suggest Pentax probably couldn't have convinced many to buy a K-01 even at the arithmetic average price which they likely needed to get, if not higher, to justify further development or even production of the product. No sense lamenting that as it simply became a short-term "steal of the century" for many Pentaxians looking to pick up a MILC for far less than anything else comparable.
Perhaps - but unless we have access to monthly Pentax shipment numbers we can't ever really know. Of course mine shipped the absolute first day so I have a confirmation bias.
03-10-2013, 02:18 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
Perhaps - but unless we have access to monthly Pentax shipment numbers we can't ever really know. Of course mine shipped the absolute first day so I have a confirmation bias.
Like you, I paid top price for my K-30 as I bought it the week it came out. Came from a big store that sells a lot of cameras and up to the date I bought my K-30, they had yet to sell a single K-01 (yes, they carried them). Sure, that doesn't qualify as "sales data" but it's an indicator of how the K-01 was doing before Pentax cut the price by more than half.
03-10-2013, 02:23 PM   #14
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Sometimes I really would like to be a fly on the wall .....
03-16-2013, 03:42 PM - 1 Like   #15
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I am just floored that Pentax is back at Camera World in Portland. It has been several years since they essentially dropped the brand from their retail stores. Camera world has the largest camera showroom in the Portland area and gets a lot of off-the-street business due to their downtown location. This is good, very good.


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