Photographic gear is likely to rise by around 10-15 percent in the next few months in response to the weaker Australian dollar.

The Sigma f1.4 35mm ‘Art’ lens – good buying at under $1200 – at least until April!

While there were a range of responses to ProCounter’s queries on exchange-rate driven price rises – from the coy to the forthright – all companies conceded pricing was definitely under review.

However competitive pressures and ‘sticker shock’ – resistance from potential customers to big and sudden price increases – might lessen the impact. It’s unlikely that the full 30 percent fall in the Australian dollar will be passed on. Moreover, while the dollar has fallen dramatically against the US$, the fall against the Japanese yen hasn’t been quite so great.

‘We will increase prices +10 % effective April 1 due to exchange rate pressures,’ was the response from Malcolm Kennedy, managing director of CR Kennedy. (Which would seem to indicate right now is a great time to purchase gear from CRK’s extensive portfolio, which includes Hasselblad, Pentax, Sigma, Zeiss, Tamrac and Metz!)

‘We have had some lens price increases – around half a dozen – in January,’ said James Murray, general manager, Nikon Australia. ‘Other than that we are reviewing pricing.’

‘The currency has moved 30 percent since we last adjusted pricing,’ he noted.

He said the issue was more complex than simply passing on currency exchange rate changes, with ‘price harmonisation’ in markets around the world – which reduces the lure of online offshore retailers – one factor in consideration.

‘We want to keep the new level of harmonisation. When reviewing pricing, one objective is to keep a level playing field as much as possible.’ He said that ‘added value’ such as an extended manufacturer’s warranty for purchases from authorised Australian retailers/resellers helped the local supply chain.

Another factor is that, particularly at the high end, simply passing on the full exchange rate price increase could knock a product out of consideration. So that if the $7000 Nikon D4S is replaced by the D5 at a price 30 percent higher as a result of the weakening exchange rate, the economics of purchasing the new camera become more problematic for a professional photographer. Especially with rates most photographers can charge on the wane, and the path to obsolescence of a professional digital camera body much shorter than say, a Nikon FM2.

The current readers poll in sister website PhotoCounter asks retailers whether a (hypothetical) $10K Nikon D5 body would be ‘too hard a sell’. The  response was close to 90 percent in the affirmative.

While in reality Nikon hasn’t yet posted local prices for the D5 (its US$6500 body only price would push it over A$10,000 with GST included), some recent high-end camera prices show that Australian photographers are actually getting a relatively good deal.

The Nikon D810 is a better deal for Australian photographers than in the US – but price rises are looming due to the weak Australian dollar.

So for instance the Nikon D810 has a US body-only online price of US$2800 – around $3950 Australian – yet locally it is being advertised for A$3600, or under A$3300 once the GST component is reclaimed. And that’s with a 24-month manufacturer’s warranty not available with the US model.

The more recently-released Canon 5DS R has a body-only online price of US$3900 – or around $5500 Australian. Local online price is around A$5000 – effectively under A$4500 for photographers with an ABN who can claim back the GST.

Overall, James Murray flagged price rises of between 10-15 percent on Nikon gear, given that the exchange rate remained stable.

He said that lenses were under greater pressure because they are not replaced by newer models as rapidly as camera bodies.

Olympus was less exact when asked whether price rises were looming, but reading between the lines it would seem so: ‘To date Olympus Imaging Australia has buffered the exchange rate changes despite exchange rate reduction of over 30 percent over the past 18-24 months,’ said marketing manager, Kristie Galea.

‘At this stage we can’t rule out any changes, particularly as nearly half of this exchange rate deflation has occurred over the past 3 months.’

Ditto Panasonic: ‘Based on the current exchange rate environment, Panasonic is studying the possibility of price increases…some time over the coming months.  However, nothing has been decided at this time,’ Panasonic’s managing director, Paul Reid told a consumer electronics website recently.

While all this considering and studying and reviewing is taking place at the wholesalers’ head offices, it would seem that right now is a great time to buy – especially with the new accelerated depreciation rules allowing full depreciation in the year of purchase for small business capital purchases up to $20K