Lewis Hizer , May 23, 2008; 07:34 p.m.
Hi, I'm brand new to posting on this forum though I read it frequently. I'm a wedding
photographer who uses a Fuji S3, along with a Pentax 6x7 for the large formal
group shots. (Also a K100D for low-light grab shots, and an LX for occasional
35mm film use.) Anyway, I noticed that I spend as much on 120/220 film and
processing each year as the price of a K20D, and since it's image quality seems
to be so good, I thought I'd buy one. Of course no one in town has one in stock,
but what disturbed me is that at one store I tried, which always had Pentax
cameras and lenses such as K10D, 50-135mm f2.8 DA* zoom, etc.,, they
suddenly have NOTHING and the salesman claims all of the following:
that "Pentax is dead", Hoya is not going to continue carrying Pentax cameras,
they've "suspended production", they will probably sell it all to Samsung, maybe
Samsung will continue the cameras under Samsung brand name but won't honor
warranties on Pentax-branded equipment, etc. etc.
It all sounded a bit phony to me, but I've known the guy there since I bought my 67
from him in 2000. I'm used to B.S. about Pentax from camera-store clerks since I
started hearing it in 1976, but this store always heavily featured Pentax and its
sudden disappearance kind of shocked me. Has anyone else heard these
rumors?
Wayne Campbell , May 23, 2008; 07:48 p.m.
The way you describe it does sound worrisome.
Ronald Moravec , May 23, 2008; 08:10 p.m.
I had a a few dozen Takumars, Super Takumars, SMC Takumars. Several Spotmatics, H3V, and ES2. With few exceptions all were great cameras and lenses. Pentax had significant market share.
They seemed to fall off the wagon in the 80`s or 90`s producing strange looking cameras and lenses. Maybe the pics were fine, but I never tried one. The old craftsmanship just was not there and I had moved on to a different system. Evidently others felt the same and the brand slipped into third world status.
I guess they did not have the resources to compete in the digital revolution. Hoya capital may pull it out, but once the market shifts it is very hard to get it back. VERY HARD. Ask General Motors. They let a 57% market share slip thru their fingers.
Time will tell how Hoya/Pentax does. My vote is they are through even though the current products may be superb and state of the art.
Zane Johnson 
, May 23, 2008; 08:19 p.m.
Perhaps it's nothing more than the store choosing to drop Pentax gear and wanting to scare you into buying gear that they do stock.
Les Lammers 
, May 23, 2008; 08:33 p.m.
Leica has died at least a dozen times.
Lindy Stone , May 23, 2008; 08:37 p.m.
Recently the local camera dealers were hit with $50,000 minimum order requirements to retain their Olympus and Sony product lines. Maybe hoya pentax has decided to improve their product representation with this new marketing feature too?
Nikon & Canon have not pulled this stunt yet, however you must be a high volume dealer to obtain full frame D3 dslrs from Nikon at wholesale for resale.
Lindy
Dave Hollander 
, May 23, 2008; 09:26 p.m.
Interesting you should mention this. I went to a (the) local independent photo shop today to see about buying the new 300mm f4 from them rather than on the web
They report serious difficulties in getting good info from pentax since last year's "re-organization" (downsizing.) Bottom line: Baltimore's leading supplier of photographic equipment was willing to have me walk away and buy off the web (which I did) rather than make an effort to order the lens.
I don't know how much this reflects real Pentax problems or simple arrogance /complacency on the part of the shop. Either way, it's disconcerting.
Matthew McManamey , May 23, 2008; 09:40 p.m.
Before the K10D was released, our local shop told us that Pentax was dead too. Even
if Hoya dropped/sold the Pentax line, the K-Mount will be supported for a long time.
I'm not worried about rumors.
jim b , May 23, 2008; 10:23 p.m.
Most camera sales people are out to make a sale immediately with whatever they
have in stock. I used to sell cameras (working my way through grad school) and I
heard the most unbelievable crap come out of salesmen's mouths on a regular basis.
As a camera salesman back in 1985 I also heard the "Pentax is dead" line, and it's
almost always said for the following reasons:
1. The store doesn't have much Pentax gear in stock, so they can't run up a big sale if
they try to sell your Pentax gear. The few pieces of Pentax gear they *do* have is
"window dressing" to give the appearance of a complete line of inventory, but the goal
is to switch you to something else. They don't want to special order anything,
because they won't get a good wholesale price from the manufacturer (no volume
discounts), and don't want to go through the extra work.
2. Another camera brand (C* or N* perhaps) is offering "spiffs" on every camera sold.
"Spiffs" are incentives paid directly to the sales person for moving a particular brand of
camera. It's essentially a bribe by the camera manufacturer to have the salesman
push that brand.
3. The salesman doesn't know *how* to sell a Pentax camera as he's probably never
even played with one. Many salesman learn only a few different camera models and
are pretty much incapable of answering questions on cameras that they don't know.
Remember, many salesman exploit FUD (fear, uncertainty,and doubt) in consumers to
drive them to a particular purchase decision. The photography sales business can be
quite ugly, and now with internet business severely cutting into local stores' profits,
you have to take everything you hear with a huge grain of salt.
I am proud to say that I pushed Pentax cameras when I was doing sales, and I took a
lot of crap for it at the store where I worked. The manager hated that, but I was a good
salesman and knew how to move gear. :)
Javier Gutierrez 
, May 23, 2008; 10:23 p.m.
ru�mor (rmr)
n.
1. A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.
2. Unverified information received from another; hearsay.
tr.v. ru�mored, ru�mor�ing, ru�mors
