Next time you're in Northern Virginia, you can check out ACE Camera in Ashburn, Loudoun Co., or Dominion Camera in the City of Falls Church. I'm plugging these stores because I don't want them to pull out as well. Richoh's support for their distribution network is, by all accounts I've gotten from asking retailers, horrible. Add to that the fact that the warranty limits coverage to products purchased through "authorized retailers", and Ricoh's pretty much put a noose around their own neck.

The lack of effective reseller/customer support and the lousy viewfinder (no split image focusing possible) are my only complaints about Ricoh/Pentax. Those are biggies, however, and enough to make me teeter on the edge. So far, Pentax has just enough advantages to make me put up with 'em (until something doesn't work correctly, that is).

[Aaron28]

got my negatives and scanned images on dvd for 10 bucks.....they look ok for running the film through an old yashicaflex tlr

29360003-ppx6-1200-maskblend | finally finished my first rol? | Flickr

[MikeyBugs95]

There are a couple brick and mortar stores around me. 1 or 2 carry Pentax and can order it but none display it. I live about 2 hours outside of NYC by train so there's about 3 within 10 minutes driving distance of me and maybe 7 (including previous three) within 35 miles.

... Lucky me I went for what I wanted. Have you guys heard of the falling mirror. That's what's gonna happened to me if I got that camera.

You would've became an alternative rock band from South Africa?

[luftfluss]

I noticed at least in the area I live there are fewer and Fewer brick and mortar camera stores. And those still open don't carry Pentax products. When I make a major purchase like a new DSLR I want to be able to touch it not just blindly order online.

If @monochrome sees this, he may have some useful input.

[babywriter]

We're pretty fortunate here in the Des Moines, IA area. We have two locally-owned camera stores, both with very knowledgeable owners and staff and a pretty good selection. One of them develops film in-house, and only charges $5 for film-only color developing (without prints). In addition, one of the Best Buy stores here has a dedicated camera section, staffed by specialists who actually shoot the equipment they sell.

None sell Pentax, but that's not surprising. I did order a K-mount Tamron lens from one of the local shops, and they were able to get it for me in a couple of days. So there's that.

[monochrome]

There is no useful input to give.

I assume you refer to the demise of Creve Couer Camera in St. Louis. I posted a link to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch when they closed.

I bought my K-1 and 28-105 at CCC over the counter, walk in, from floor stock, first day of issue. They had 27 preorders and bought 13 cameras for the stores to stock. I got one of them. I have bought thousands of dollars of legacy lenses from their used department - they would call me when someone traded in good K-series lenses. I got a CLA’ed LX from them in 2014.

They had 7 stores as recently as 2016 and 11 at their peak - the first store opened in 1980 and they were one of the very few remaining primary Pentax Dealers in North America. As recently as 2014 they ran Pentax CoOp radio ads at Black Friday time.I have watched people at the Sony counter handle lenses and bodies, ask questions, take up time and just say thanks and walk out of the store.

They were a really really good dealer. Floor planning killed them, and it wasn’t the sales tax. It was the nose pickers who went home and ordered from Amazon. Honestly, this is the real reason Pentax left NA. The didn’t want to finance Dealer inventory that just sat there while people ‘handled’ it, and then it was was retuned after 12 months. /rant

[EDIT:] Not pointing a finger at the poster who wants to handle cameras. You just can’t do it any more - for ANY brand, not just Pentax.

That's the trend in just about every major city. This is one brick and mortar store chain in Los Angeles / California that carries the K-1ii.

There was a video posted from one of the large Mid-West city brick and mortars where the general manager (owner?) complained about people that come in and spent time with the (paid) stuff handling and asking questions about equipment and then buying online. At the time there was no way for them to be able to match prices and cover sales tax and make any sort of profit. The requirement that online businesses collect out of state sales tax came too late to same most brick and mortar stores. It may not help even at this point.

If @monochrome sees this, he may have some useful input.

[luftfluss]

Ugh, yeah that was it.