Introducing PentaxTips on PentaxForums

Pentax tutorial videos and tips on YouTube

By FozzFoster in Tutorial Videos on Oct 9, 2021

Hello to our favourite forum - We are PentaxTips!

My name is Stephen and I've been an active member on PentaxForums since 2015. You might know me around here as FozzFoster. My wife Michelle and I have relatively recently launched PentaxTips, a YouTube channel dedicated to Pentax enthusiasts - We are Pentaxians!

First, a big thank you to PentaxForums.com Administrator Adam for allowing us to share our content with the community. Over the course of the coming months, you will see many PentaxTips videos appear alongside the usual homepage content. 

We will begin by presenting some previous PentaxTips videos in the coming weeks to get everyone caught up on what we are all about and to share the educational videos and content that we produce. We look forward to providing tips, talk, and demonstrations of photography and Pentax-related equipment and sharing these videos with you. If anyone has an idea for a video or would like to see something specific, please let me know (or add your suggestion in the comments) and we will see what we can do.

Thank you all for the support. We hope you enjoy!

First, I would like to provide a bit of a biography on how I got into Pentax:

I must give my parents credit for starting me in this awesome hobby. As a university graduation present, I was offered an entry-level camera of my choice. Being completely naïve to photography, and perhaps as a welcome distraction from finishing my studies, I started researching different camera makes and models and found that Pentax closely fit what I had in mind for a camera.

I studied in Environmental Science including post-grad concentrating on river management. I was in the field often, and my stuff got wet. Therefore, a new camera must be weather resistant. This statement alone strongly disfavored most (all?) other major camera brands. For both Canon and Nikon, you would have had to afford their mid-tier, enthusiast-grade gear to get the weather sealing. As a poor student at the time, these options seemed more cost-prohibitive. And speaking of cost-prohibitive, mirrorless options seemed absolutely absurd.

In addition to weather-sealing, Pentax offered in their entry-level camera (2015; Pentax K-S2 vs. Canon T6i) what other companies withhold until you upgrade into much more expensive models; pentaprisms instead of pentamirrors, dual-control wheels, faster max shutter speed, wider viewfinder coverage, and more AE bracketing stops. On top of that, Pentax offered in-body stabilization, no anti-aliasing (simulated if you wanted it), and astrotracer capabilities - all in a smaller, tougher-built, more affordable package. It was an obvious choice.

Before I even graduated, without any camera body to use, I started buying lenses through my local Value Village (thrift store) and Kijiji (online buy & sell). In no time, I had myself a neat Super-Multi-Coated Takumar kit in addition to a couple M series K-mount lenses. I eventually found a *ist DS and an M42 adapter to use even before the K-S2 arriving after graduation. From there, I’ve really fell down the rabbit hole of photography. I’ve owned LOTS of cameras and lenses and I am constantly buying/repairing/selling used gear to be able to afford gear that I want to keep in my main kit.

I look forward to continuing to participate with PentaxForums and and ecstatic that Adam presented this great opportunity for PentaxTips to be featured on the homepage. 

Thank you all and I hope you enjoy our videos!