Wow, you would really have been unhappy back in the 1960's when Pentax didn't
offer their cameras in the US until 3-4 years after the were available in Japan.
--
Joseph Tainter wrote:
Roland Mabo, formerly of PDML, posted the following on dpreview. It was
in response to my rant about not being able to get the DA 14. Thanks to
this post and others, I think I am now starting to understand the new
manufacturing strategy. The future looks like it will be frustrating for
those of us who want quality gear, and want to be able to get it when we
want it.
P�l may have been partly correct about U.S. dealers not ordering enough
of the DA 16-45. But I think this was correct only for their initial
orders. Dealers surely know by know that the lens is in demand, so the
unavailability of the lens has to be the fault of Pentax's production.
And Pentax is surely at fault for taking so long to get the first DA 14s
into the U.S., two months behind availability in Europe.
Order early and order often.
Joe
------------
From Roland:
Pentax has * not * stopped producing lenses, but all lenses - except for
the budget zooms - are built to order. This means that Pentax tells the
distributors about the new lenses, the distributors place orders for
them and Pentax produces this amount. When this batch has been produced,
Pentax awaits new orders from the distributors until they make new ones.
They can't make one at a time you know, they have to build up an order
stock.. Having lots of unsold lenses in stock cost very much money and
Pentax can't afford this. The Pentax distributors obviously expects poor
sales since they're ordering only a few lenses.
