10/12   Is it my imagination or camera lens prices have gone up slightly
        on Amazon? I've been shopping and some of the lenses I want to
        get have gone up in price. What the hell is going on? I thought
        electronics are suppose to get cheaper, not more expensive.
        \_ I don't know if prices wet up to down.  But unlike a camera body, a
           big part of a lens is the glass elements which don't have much to do
           with electronics.
           \- it could be affected by USD-JPY exchange rates. french cheese
              prices have gone up massively due to the dollar deteriorating
              against the euro.
              \_ excellent point. Imports are getting more expensive.
                 Expect cheap Japanese cars to get more expensive.
                 \_ Does this mean Japanese porn DVDs will now cost a
                    lot more than before? Shit!!!
                    \_ Aren't Japanese porn mostly in VCD format?
                       \_ True until 1998-1999          -j porn expert
        \_ my take is following: blame Canon.  and I mean it.
           Canon has been doing pretty well at making lens more expensive,
           and other manufacturers start to mimic their marketing techniques.
           Some of technique Canon used includes:
           - use a different color on lens barrel, and called it "L"
             Since most people who buy the stuff 1. want the best stuff
             2. couldn't tell the differences, they effectively created
             this "sub brand" within the lens product line.  And people
             flocking for it.
             \_ No. Blame:
                1) The common people for flocking to Canon, who are seduced
                   by superior Canon marketing (starting with Andre Agassi
                   REBEL!) plus a bunch of good looking sports stars
                2) Nikon for being old fashioned and not keeping up with
                   the time. They're moving waaaay too slow and toooo
                   conservative for the 21st century. They also lagged
                   behind in sports shooting, and completely missed the
                   market that allowed Canon to take over professional SLR
                   in the 90s (now 80% of the sports pros use Canon)
                3) George W Bush for sending US economy into tail-spin
                   and making dollar very weak and import prices high.
                                                        -camboi
           - add additional functionalities to the lenses that is not
             necessarily useful.  My favorite example is the "image stabilize"
             functionalities.  While it is extremely useful for longer focal
             length, it is actually not all that useful on the short end.
             yet, people flocking to get an "IS" wide angle lens, and willing
             to pay premium for it.   Another example is having focus-motor
             built-into the lens instead of having focus motor in the camera
             body.  Again, having a focus motor in a long focal-length lens is
             a god send, but the benefit of it (over in-body motor) is very
             small for wide angle / standard lenses.  All these functionalities
             adds up, and better, people are willing to pay a lot more for it.

             If you know what you want and aware of trade offs, you could be
             frugal and still achieve the same optical quality of more
             expensive, newer lens.  The example I can give is the old,
             Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens.  Optically, it performs on par with the
             baby "L" and it is A LOT cheaper.
             \_ What short focal (less than 55mm) IS lens do you know?
                I don't see any on their product line. And if they do
                really have it, it's very useful for micro/macro. By the
                way what camera system do you have?             -camboi