> When I bought my *ist-D the local, (30 miles away local, but the only > surviving). Camera store still carried Pentax. So I actually got to > hold one and try one out before I bought. The more or less local Ritz > camera store, actually had a K10D and a number of lenses in stock, but > was even further away, (gone now and not much lamented). I have no idea > how Pentax expects to gain market share especially as you can see Nikon > and Canon products in pretty much any big box store.
I have been pondering this for quite some time now. A few years ago some of my family members went to China. I wanted some Pentax gear but the locals said Pentax wasn't popular there so no presence in stores. This October my wife went to Singapore and I had high hopes for some gear - again, no presence in any of the shopping malls. I got a hold of one address that carries Pentax but there was no time to get there. We have one chain that is kind of the official Pentax dealer here, can even see the 645D on display. But again - no presence in any of the other stores in contrast to Canon, Nikon and Sony. Pentax gear might be good (even if we have to take things like DxO ratings with a pound of salt) but no first time customers will ever know it. The only store that sells Pentax here is on a roll with Sony now and the only sales rep that was ever passionate about Pentax there hasn't been seen for the last 4-5 years, probably retired. So even if they are a Pentax dealer they are currently focused on selling boatloads of Sony gear. I don't see any real reason for me to jump ship, I just have to ask myself if I am getting and will continue getting a good deal on Pentax if they can't sell enough cameras and lenses because of the lack of presence. Ultimately as a customer I am paying more just because of their inability to sell and they don't have the money to make anything better because I can't possibly pay them enough to make any considerable difference to the R&D budget. kris -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
