Pentax lens pricing

I've speculated that the price drops for the K5 over the past year or so have contributed significantly to an increase in Pentax lens prices - particularly high-quality used lenses. Third party "Consumer grade" lens prices seem to be holding steady at *relatively* low levels although even the lower-end Pentax stuff is disproportionately expensive relatively to similar offerings from say, Sigma.

With the additional price cuts just announced within the past couple of weeks that now include the K-01 and K-30, In the short term (say, 6 months) I suspect prices for "good glass" will hold at high levels and may even go a bit higher.

However, if you look at the historical price charts over at Pentax forums, you can see that relatively few lenses hold steady over the course of 5 or so years. Most of them tend to fluctuate wildly - particularly used lenses. At some point, Pentax will do some new production runs and I think it will begin to even out. It somewhat depends on how long it is until the new flagship model (K5 successor) appears. Given the way pricing seems to work, I doubt they keep any lenses in perpetual production. Rather, they let the market begin to dry up and then they batch manufacture some more.

Right now prices for DA primes, as good as they are, are just simply ridiculous and there really aren't that many used ones in certain focal lengths available at any price. Just a few years ago people were paying about 50 to 60 percent of what you'd have to pay now for DA primes.