Pentax brings countries together...

*navcom* · 10-05-2008, 07:32 AM

Had a great experience yesterday. My wife and I are visiting Duluth, Minnesota...her home town and a great place for fall color photos. We were walking through their famous rose gardens composing pictures and just enjoying an absolutely beautiful day. I happened to notice about 100 feet away another gentleman with a decked out SLR doing the same. After a few minutes I made it a point to walk up to him and talk photo gear.

I walked towards him and he noticed me coming. I looked down at his camera and noticed the Pentax logo on the front. Cool! He's a Pentaxian! Mine was a K10D and his was a K20D. He had a really nice Sigma lens and he looked at my 10-17mm Pentax wide-angle.

The only thing that was strange was that he didn't understand Engish...he was from Germany (in Duluth visiting his daughter)....and I can only understand a few German words and phrases. Never-the-less, we had the cameras in common and proceeded to show each other our lens collection. We "talked" for several minutes. We exchanged business cards and I wrote down the address to this forum. He seemed to understand and was pretty excited about a Pentax community. Hopefully he will join in and I might actually be able to talk with him through a computer translator!

I've had many experiences with folks from other countries including Germany and France (my family is originally from Germany). I even helped with a refugee committee in our local area helping folks from Vietnam and Bosnia relocate and help them get their lives started again. It's always fascinating hearing other peoples experiences even if you can't understand everything they are saying.

It just proves that Pentax is a language all it's own!

*mithrandir* · 10-05-2008, 08:25 AM

If you want world peace, buy everyone a Pentax SLR and let them join the forums.

*Eaglerapids* · 10-05-2008, 09:31 AM

Very cool story:-).

Arpe · 10-05-2008, 05:50 PM

I wonder about other brands, do they show the same camaraderie? Or is it just the minorities (which is what I suspect). I remember when my folks bought a Fiat, there weren't many around. Every other Fiat we passed the drivers would wave to each other!

*navcom* · 10-05-2008, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by Arpe

I wonder about other brands, do they show the same camaraderie?

I know they don't. It's not the same. You are absolutely right. With smaller numbers comes camaraderie. There is also the fact that most people who own Pentax products have done a little more research about their camera and know the brands history. There is a better chance they know their capabilities and paid less than the N&C crowd as well.

rburgoss · 10-06-2008, 10:27 AM

About ten years ago, someone from Houston, Texas, contacted me via e-mail (I live in Costa Rica), because he was planning a trip to Venezuela and wanted some info about film, airport x-rays and such. This guy got my e-mail from an online photo gallery.

I told him I've never been to Venezuela... (perhaps this guy figured that anything south of the Rio Grande is the same....), but to make a long story short, I convinced him to come to Costa Rica and so he did.

He and a friend came over for a short trip (4 days), which I took them in a photo spree all over the country, from the Pacific to the Caribbean, to active volcanos and mountains 10 thou ft above sea level to tropical jungles packed with poison dart frogs.

Up to date, we still keep in contact and we even had a couple of brews, last July when I traveled to Houston. He is still a Pentaxian.

No doubt. Pentax brings the world together.

Robert B.

*navcom* · 10-06-2008, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by rburgoss

About ten years ago, someone from Houston, Texas, contacted me via e-mail (I live in Costa Rica)........

Cool story! A friend of mine is from Costa Rica. He calls it "the island" because so many people think it is an island (that south-of-the-rio-grande everything is the same thing).

He also has a vanity license plate that proudly reads "El Tico"!

rburgoss · 10-06-2008, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by navcom

Cool story! A friend of mine is from Costa Rica. He calls it "the island" because so many people think it is an island (that south-of-the-rio-grande everything is the same thing).

He also has a vanity license plate that proudly reads "El Tico"!

You should come over and see for yourself. You won't regret it. Best time of the year, January. (No rain, its not hot -well, here never gets hot or cold- just right) and the skies are perfectly clean... no clouds!

RB

Big Dave · 10-06-2008, 03:57 PM

I use Nikon also for film and have for many years. I find Nikon users just as Enthusiastic as Pentax users. Of course the number of contacts that I have made in my life are far to few for me to make blanket statement. I think that serious photographers are the same the world over.

Dave

Originally Posted by navcom

I know they don't. It's not the same. You are absolutely right. With smaller numbers comes camaraderie. There is also the fact that most people who own Pentax products have done a little more research about their camera and know the brands history. There is a better chance they know their capabilities and paid less than the N&C crowd as well.