I dont find any warranty risk for buying photo gear from the US (cant say about other countries). In the odd case you are the 8% unlucky buyer all you do is return the stuff through courier for repairs. For some of us with friends and relatives in the US this process should be totally risk free.
And what the heck, 92% of us are happy satisfied customers.
As for old stuff like lenses, I quote my own experience with camera stores, pawn brokers, sunday markets, safeway, garage sales etc in the US, they are half the price of India. I picked up some (3) primes for an average $12 per piece - almost new or mint condition. Filters, adapters, caps, other small stuff for $ 2 per piece.
And in the past 22 years customs have never bothered me. So dont listen to sellers in India who frighten you with customs cost add-ons. In fact I found many stuff in the by-lanes of Flora Fountain Mumbai close to the US price and cheaper than that from Dubai.
Friends you can freak out in the US. Go ahead buy w/o fear of warranty.

I got my Pentax k-x kit last week from Singapore. The distributor there (EMJAY) and a few Dealers (Orient Photo, SLR-Revolution) are pretty good. The price difference from US is around 10% (higher in S'pore).

I chose S'pore over US because I know more people who travel frequently to the former, so in case of any issues, I can get my camera shipped there more easily.

Plan to buy accessories, 2nd hand lenses etc from US also.

Ricoh India announced a Click-A-Thon from B'lore. It is very exciting.. if you are interested and can make time on Dec17-18 go register it immediately on the 'ipentax' google groups, it is limited seats only. Enjoy!

Hello my fellow Pentaxians,

I an ex-Mumbaikar based in California. I am a Pentaxian since over 10 years and have used almost every single Pentax camera mode from the K100D onwards. I will be in Mumbai and Pune later this month. I am struck by the LBA bug and have accumulated several lenses. If you are interested in any of my lenses listed here onf the forums, do let me know. I can bring them with me from the US and ship them locally - or if you are in Mumbai or Pune we could meet personally. Please go to the "For Sale" forum at this link and in the search -> Advanced search type in manishved in the username field, Change the next field to "Threads Started By" and verify that "Photography Equipment for sale" is selected. Next, hit the "search now" button to view my current listings. I also have several other lenses like the Tamron and Sigma 1.4x AF teleconvertors, Kenko 1.5x TC, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro, FA 35/f2, FA 28 f/2 and a few others that are not yet listed.



Thanks,

Manish

Hi Manish,
You have great collection of lenses. If you want to sell them in India, try posting ads in jjmehta forums also. Lot of people can see your ad and you can sell them quickly. Also it would be good if you can mention expected price in Indian rupess also.

Agreed with Rao here. Please post in JJM or in iPentax Facebook group. I am also looking for some TCs to go with the FA*300/4.5 that I got recently.

SInce few years we have Ricoh Pentax distributors in India... who are able to give a reasonable discount and warranty within India.
The 150-450 is on a huge sale amount on Amazon - price is less than used on PF Marketplace!
Amazon.in