No way will prices drop when the pound gains strength.
Don't forget even when we had a really strong pound a year ago, stuff in the US was often close to half the price, so its a lot more than currency.
We've always had high prices. They won't drop back down until they are due replacement.
America has traditionally been cheaper for consumer electronics, clothes, petrol etc.
I'm not defending their cheaper prices but they have lower import taxes etc than europe does.
The likes of Sony and MS have previously given interviews as to why there are price differences.
I'm not convinced these prices are here to stay until the products are due for replacement.
Sony are rumoured to be doing a price drop sometime this year on the PS3.
Granted it's not assembled in Japan like the DSLR kit and yet they've announced massie profit losses.
A Canon (representative in an interview with amateur photographer (I think it was with them) stated that canon will keep any eye on the currency fluctuations on a month to month basis and will adjust prices accordingly.
Don't forget than Canon also produce inket printers and these are also set to rise in price.
I wouldn't be surprised if they sell a lot more cheap printers than they do consumer and pro DSLR kit.
There is no way the consumer market will withstand price hikes like these without major losses in sales if they are not adjusted in the future.
I'm sure we all know people who have cut their spending and have heard of potential redundancies with their employers.
Consumer spending as we all know is down and once we get out of the current recession and pound grows stronger, it still doesn't mean we will all be getting 10% pay rises.
The likes of Canon and Nikon are not involved in the mass electronic products like TV's DVD players etc.
Yet these type of companies are also going to have to raise prices.
They want customer to have more than one widescreen TFT in their homes hence the agressive pricing on this type of kit.
Once the pound is stronger they will only be too happy to reducing their prices to get their kit in the home.
Therefore DSLR companies will have to follow suit.
Another area that has seen price hikes and drops over the years is computer memory chips.
Although none of this was due to recessions, some of it was down to currency fluctuations.
As soon as production cost fell so has the price of the chips.
One thing is for sure, we've not seen a situation like this for a very long time so it's going to be interesting to see how it does pan out.