Have I missed them?

Do they wait this long to post them?

I am hopeful about the lens pricing!!!

[BigMackCam]

This Friday is when I think we're most likely to see them (the clue's in the name - "Black Friday" ). A few reasonable discounts have already been announced by the main US dealers - $100 off, that kind of thing. Beyond that, I don't think you'll see anything more before Friday. One of our main UK Pentax dealers here in the UK, SRS Microsystems, has already sent out e-mails intimating that they will be offering good BF deals. Last year, their prices were excellent on a subset of the lenses.

[LFLee]

patiently waiting for K1 and Sigma 35 art....

[jab2980]

For those that are in the market, here's to hoping that they discount the K3II like they did for the K5II in 2014... $529 for the K5II, 64GB SanDisk class 10 SD card, and the D-BG4 grip!

[Adam]

Just posted a couple of threads- early deals are already here!

[stillshot2]

For those that are in the market, here's to hoping that they discount the K3II like they did for the K5II in 2014... $529 for the K5II, 64GB SanDisk class 10 SD card, and the D-BG4 grip!

Don't remind me of that! I still wish I jumped on that deal haha

[The Squirrel Mafia]

For those that are in the market, here's to hoping that they discount the K3II like they did for the K5II in 2014... $529 for the K5II, 64GB SanDisk class 10 SD card, and the D-BG4 grip!

That was a pretty good deal. I missed it. I waited for something similar with the K-3. Never happened.

The K-3II with the grip is currently $849 at B&H. If it drops as low as $729 with the grip, I'll more than likely get it. That's the lowest I've seen the K-3II go for in the past.

If it doesn't drop, it's all good. I'll get to find out what happens with the next generation APS-C flagship hopefully next year & maybe the K-3II will be sold at an insanely low price during "Black Friday" 2017 as they're trying to phase them out.

[KiloHotelphoto]

B&H lowered prices today on a few items in my wish list. The FA31 is now under a thousand bucks.

[stillshot2]

If it doesn't drop, it's all good. I'll get to find out what happens with the next generation APS-C flagship hopefully next year & maybe the K-3II will be sold at an insanely low price during "Black Friday" 2017 as they're trying to phase them out.

These are my same exact thoughts!

[mee]

Yeppers... The K-3II successor should be pretty incredible.

Pentax doesn't seem to lower prices significantly anymore.. even during sales. Past couple of years have been rather conservative with their sale discounts... I think the days of 30-40% off discounts might be over in Pentaxland.

With that in mind, I'll buy less often and make it last longer.

[6BQ5]

The prices are already pretty low. Not sure how much lower they can go and still have healthy margin.

[mee]

The prices are already pretty low. Not sure how much lower they can go and still have healthy margin.

I bought the K-5II + 18-135WR bundle for 800 on BF weekend 2013, day before it was listed at 1200 dollars.

The K-5II alone dropped to 600 that weekend.

I bought the bundle figuring I could sell the lens for 300 easily, thus making the K-5II only around 500 out of pocket. That didn't happen, I discovered the lens was really nice and ended up keeping it.

That said.. B&H and Adorama offered this price, neither of them screamed or folded. This was a month after the K-3 was launched so it was a blowout. I know the price can go lower, but the K-3 didn't share the same experience -- they kept the price high and instead tried to pull buyers in by offering larger bundles. A similar situation occurs with game console makers, instead of lowering the price, they offer bundles thus giving the illusion that their product has more value (instead of cutting the price which they very well could and making it look like the item is worth a lot less on its own).

What we've seen over the past 4 or 5 years have been several different ideas and methods to pricing by Ricoh as they attempt to discover where exactly Pentax exists in the market. They've gone 'dirt cheap', they've gone 'premium' back and forth. Yen to dollar valuation doesn't explain it away since they've admitted as such in interviews if one reads carefully. But, yes, the prices could go lower. We're just used to Nikon and Canon hyperinflated pricings and compare off of that. Pentax, in the past, has shown there is a fairly considerable markup on these products (even their own).

But, like I said, I don't think they're trying the 'dirt cheap' route again anytime soon. In the latest interview they said they viewed themselves as a "premium" manufacturer. So I think that means keeping the prices inflated, and offering bundles.

[lithedreamer]

@mee, are you taking the significant hike in the Japanese yen into account? Right now, the yen is trading at 112¥ to the dollar. On November 25, 2013, the yen was trading at 102¥ to the dollar, almost at a 10% discount. The recent natural disasters in Japan have probably put strain on sensor vendors (i.e. Sony), and then the rest can be explained by Ricoh pivoting Pentax to become a more 'premium' brand at a 'value' price. They'll likely never expect you to pay the Canon/Nikon tax, but they don't want to stick around during the crunch times of enthusiast digital photography for pennies.

I know you covered some of these points in your post, but I wanted to see if I could get some more reasons behind Ricoh's actions out of them. If we know why they're doing things, then we can hopefully develop some insight into what things they'll improve (maybe their wifi user interface, since their firmware has been getting more frequent feature upgrades) and what they likely won't (marketing, unless they decide to push some Pentaxian Instagrammers or something similar).

[mee]

@mee, are you taking the significant hike in the Japanese yen into account?

Yes, I mentioned that in my above post. Their BF sales just used to be more significant dollars wise. Now they bundle junk to make the offer look sweeter instead of dropping the price significantly.

Though I'd be happy to be wrong.. but they haven't done that since 2013 I think..

[lithedreamer]

Yes, I mentioned that in my above post. Their BF sales just used to be more significant dollars wise. Now they bundle junk to make the offer look sweeter instead of dropping the price significantly.

Though I'd be happy to be wrong.. but they haven't done that since 2013 I think..

It looks like it's nothing impressive, again. Though I don't think it's fair to single out the camera market for that. I've heard complaints in just about every non-commodity market that BF "deals" have been lackluster for past few years. Personally, I wasn't looking buying anything before then, so it's just felt like it has always been a junk holiday.