Lens prices!

Dom

Dom

Messages
454
Edit My Images
No
I've been looking at lenses again and I'm getting a bit ****ed of with the prices.
It would appear that we are getting fleeced by the manufactures, again.
The price of prime lenses is absolutely rediculase.
Now I use Pentax but to be a bit fairer I'll use Canon fit lenses for a comparison.

Sigma 500mm f4.5 EX DG HSM Lens - Canon Fit £3788.99
Slowis prime.

Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3 EX DG Lens - Canon Fit £1058.99
Reasonable speced zoom.

Quite a difference. WTF is going on?
 
#1, change your supplier! Since I have a mag open in front of me at a Mifsuds ad, I'll give you their prices for the same lenses. 500 prime is £3299 and the 50-500 zoom is £977. OK, they're still not cheap but compared to your quoted prices, they're a bit less expensive and compared to genuine Canon lenses (500mm prime, f/4 £5499) they're a bargain!

#2, the 500 prime is significantly faster at 500mm than the zoom and is also an HSM lens - both of which will bump up the price.
 
500mm at f/4.5 is hardly slow! I'm not sure where you'd get a 500mm more than 1/3rd stop faster TBH.

Bob
 
Bit of a pointless rant this, the 500mm prime is long and fast which means massive glass which means huge cost. It is also aimed at a totally different market segment than the zoom ie those that put quality above everything including price as oposed to those that want a cheap versatile very long zoom.
 
Unfortunately all manufacturers have put their prices up hugely in the past 6 months.

That 500mm lens was £2500 at Jessops before Xmas. You struggle to find one used for that now (in fact, you struggle to find them used at all).

The official line is that the Yen has strengthened so much against most currencies, (220 to £1 last year, 120 to £1 in January) that they've had to. Although I notice that there's been no mention of drops now it's back down to 160 to £1 :(
 
Isnt the exchange rate having a big impact? selling uk stuff to other countrys is ok at the mo but importing stuff is bad... i think
 
SuperAP said:
The official line is that the Yen has strengthened so much against most currencies, (220 to £1 last year, 120 to £1 in January) that they've had to. Although I notice that there's been no mention of drops now it's back down to 160 to £1 :(
Click to expand...

The reason prices haven't started dropping yet is that not the whole of the exchange rate increase was passed on. Prices are probably very close to what they should be based on the Yen's position.

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top