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Math Fun: Calculating Camera Prices

If you frequent camera forums, you often see people wonder when a camera will come down in price. With a little math, it’s pretty easy to calculate how much a new camera will come down in price. Well at least a reasonable guess based on past data. I wrote this up for a forum posting and thought it would be good for the blog too.

Let’s do a calculation (using Adorama.com for current body-only prices):

The Pentax K-7 was being sold from 7/2010.
Started at $1299.99 and currently $868.88.
(difference of 431.11 over 1 year 7 months)
Means it loses around $0.75 a day.

The Pentax K5 started selling from 11/2010.
Started at $1599.99 and currently $1468.00.
(difference of $131.95 over 3 months)
Means it loses around $1.38 a day.

So in around 5 months, the K-5 might be between $1200 and $1350.

Assuming the exchange rate situation stays as it has been between the USA and Japan, I think the price is pretty valid and expect it to be around that in 5 months. Though, it shows that the K-5 was initially valued higher by Pentax than the K-7….

It is possible the K-5 will see prices around $1000 in a bit over a year I think.