[magnum1]

I shoot professionally and I use a Pentax. Most of my clients are dogs that play the piano. I did have one that played the harp but that was a long time ago when I used film. That dog was strange.

[sharko]

To be honest, unless you're competing with someone else who has a DSLR, most people from my experience don't know or care what you shoot with. They just see a big black camera with a battery grip and that's good enough for them to make you a "pro". A K10/20d with a battery grip, hotshoe mounted flash, and a long telephoto lens has that mighty intimidating look to impress most people. Produce great images and you'll be fine.

[KungPOW]

Are you being sarcastic?

Extreamly sarcastic.

Somedays the Fanboy in me just cannot take another "I'm thinking of jumping ship" thread.

The clincher on this one is that the OP has not even bought a camera yet, but is assuming that he will need to jump ship if a pro job comes along.

Normally I would just let it go, move onto anther thread, but last night I was in a mood.

To the OP:

Here is the real advice I would give. I am assuming you have little to no experiance with a DSLR. I could be wrong, but that is my guess.

Set yourself a budget. Remember that starting out there are other things you will need to buy that have nothing to do with Pentax. Don't forget about the Tripods, filters, computer hardware and software. Gear bags and memory cards.

Assemble a basic kit. To me, a basic kit has:

Camera body (K200d, K10d, K20D, Rebel, D80...whatever feels good to you)
short zoom (use the kit lens 18-55 ish. Note that the Pentax kit lens is one of the best)
Long zoom lens (55-300 ish. Find one that has a macro function)
A fast Fifty (f1.4/50 Pentax is inexpesive, and excelent glass)
A sturdy tripod.

Now go and shoot ALLOT of photos. You will soon learn what you need in your gear to do what you want to do. That is the entire point. What gear works for you?

Then decide if you want to stick with Pentax, or Nik*n, or Can*n. If you need to jump ship because you need 6 FPS to get paid, then get the tool that you need.
Some pros, on this forum, actually use two systems. Pentax for some work, and Can*n for other.

And that is my two bits. No sarcasm.

Eric.

[KevinJ]

Extreamly sarcastic.

Somedays the Fanboy in me just cannot take another "I'm thinking of jumping ship" thread.

No where in the thread did I say I was thinking of jumping ship.

The clincher on this one is that the OP has not even bought a camera yet, but is assuming that he will need to jump ship if a pro job comes along.

The fact is I have bought a camera its a K200D had it before I ever posted this thread, and I love the camera.

Here is the real advice I would give. I am assuming you have little to no experience with a DSLR. I could be wrong, but that is my guess.

Your are absolutely right I have only had the camera for about 2 weeks.

This thread had nothing to do with with me thinking about jumping ship in
any way. It was just a simple question as to whether pros use pentax as there
main or not. I have no intention of dropping my K200D. If I did need to have 6fps
they yes I would have to look at nikon or canon but that's not going to happen
because my main goal is landscape and portraits.

[TaoMaas]

This thread had nothing to do with with me thinking about jumping ship in any way. It was just a simple question as to whether pros use pentax as their main or not.

There used to be many pros who shot with Pentax cameras. It's just that most of them used the 645 or the 6X7. Pentax has yet to come up with a digital camera that is capable of attracting as many pros as their medium format film cameras did.

[nikonic]

Well I've been a Pro for 14 years and I shoot Pentax. I have Shot Nikon, Contax, Mamyia, Canon and now Pentax. I have shot 35mm film, 6x7 medium format, and digital. There are positives and negatives to all systems but Pentax ceartinly has pro level gear.

Before shooting Pentax I shot with Canon. I had a 30D, 1D MkII, and used all L series lenses. I switched to Pentax because I need all weather seals, in a light weight set up and I liked the dust removal and in camera shake reduction. The image quality was on par up to 400 ISO and it was very cost effective.

[nathancombs]

i use my K10D and K100D to make part of my living shooting photoj

good cameras i do as well as every one else

thow i am wating on a "hier" line from Pentax but i think they will put some out ( ib it VERY late)

[janosh]

If I wanted to make a living photographically, and I did for years with film, I'd be more concerned with lights and samples (portfolio) than cameras. Right now I use K20D.

Nikon D700 might be a better bet if I was building a professional system (which wouldn't involve Sigma/Tamron btw). I'm not impressed by the 5D stuff I've seen, don't think it resolves as much detail at full frame as K20D does with APS (maybe 5D is better with skin tones, don't know). Used D3 will be inexpensive soon...

[Wheatfield]

I just want to make sure that if I invested in new lenses and other accesories and start shooting portraits or weddings in the future or go pro later on (after I practice and learn everything I can) I would not be wasting money with having to switch to Canon or Nikon. Which I realy don't want to because I like the look and feel of the pentax cameras.

Pentax has a lot going for it for these activities. Pentax has about the best "look" of any camera I have seen.
Neither weddings nor general portraiture are going to really test a camera's high speed picture taking ability. I've never had a problem keeping up with the action at a wedding or in the studio with my K10 or K20, though I think the K200 with it's small buffer might not be a good bet for weddings. I had real problems with the istD shooting weddings because the camera just couldn't write to the card fast enough and the buffer filled really fast.
For weddings and portraiture, you really don't need more than a couple of lenses, a flash and a camera, so the equipment investment isn't really huge if you decide to move to another platform.
For myself, I've been shooting professionally with Pentax, shooting weddings and portraits, for some twenty years. I moved from Nikon to Pentax because I thought the Pentax glass made nicer pictures, and I haven't felt any real need to buy into a different platform for this work.

[brothereye]

Edit: When shooting with the Paparazzi, I prefer a 1911A1 and plenty of magazines.

Remmington 870 or 1100 works better in crowds.

It's sick, but funny.

[brothereye]

As far as the OP's question.

I would think that if you're working independently, you wouldn't NEED to switch brands, unless you were doing something that needed the firing rate of submachine gun. If you're doing weddings on your own, or portrait work on your own, what would be the point of owning a particular brand? If you're lucky(? I'm not sure if that's really the way to put it) and you end up working for someone else, like a newspaper or someone's studio, they probably have gear for you to use. I think the two or three major points for C or N in the pro world are that they have a pretty extensive pro support networks(from what I've read), most organizations that have equipment have invested in one or the other so you can use lenses and bodies from their pool or rent gear, and also the most exotic lenses and flash gear are usually C or N.
As a hobbyist(not professionally), I've used film gear from C, N, M and Pentax, and digital gear from C, S and Pentax, and in my opinion(yes it's my opinion) the comparable Pentax gear is as good as anything else you can buy as far as IQ, reliability, etcetera, it's just more cost effective.

[mcleoud151]

<GASP!> I shoot...sports! I know, hard to fathom. My K10 does just fine. Well, it did until I broke my two favorite lenses recently, but that's an entirely different topic. It can be done.

Frankly, I just love lining up and having all the other photohounds give me a bad time about my Pentax. Then they look at it closer. Finally, they ask (with some trepidation) if they might take a few shots with it. Hook. "Oh! That' feels really nice!!!!". Now none of them have given up there famous brands, but they do have a somewhat different thought process about Pentax after that.

I guess I should qualify that I am a nationally published pro, but I have another job? I just love it too much to give up, and besides there's just not enough cash in the sport I shoot to support the amount of PJs that are around, unless you're one of the top 3 or 4 guys. I also do other shoots, including some product stuff, senior pics, etc.

Any sports (especially motorsports/motocross) shooting questions, give me a yell at mcleoud151@aol.com....or my myspace.... myspace.com/mcleoud151

[WMBP]

Do any Pros use Pentax DSLR as there main Camera? Or do they stick with Nikon and Canon?

Canon and Nikon sell between them something like 80% of the cameras being sold today - perhaps it's more than that. Pentax has, at most, a couple percent of this total pie. Pick 100 photographers at random and the odds are that 80% or more of them are going to be using a Canon or Nikon camera, even before you start trying to define "pro".

Within professional organizations that I'm familiar with - say, organizations of wedding photographers - Canon and Nikon have, in the past, nearly had everything locked up tight. But things change. Used to be that the Canon 5D was widely regarded as the wedding photographer's best friend, because it's full frame, takes beautiful photos and does especially nice in low light at higher ISO settings. But that was a year ago. Now wedding photographers with money to burn are buying the Nikon D3 - or the cheaper D700, or even the new Nikon D90.

I shoot weddings with Pentax gear: a K20D, K10D and as a third spare an *ist DS. I usually carry an old Nikon film camera with me, too, but I don't always pull it out and use it. There are a number of other wedding photographers here, some of whom have been doing this longer than I have. Weddings and other events are still not the main part of my income but they contribute, the amount is growing, and I'm hoping in the next year or two for photography to occupy the majority of my time. I'm not sure if I'll stick with a Pentax kit or not in the long term but it's working okay for me now.

I think KungPow was being sarcastic but I think there is something to what he said. If you think you MIGHT go pro, you might be better off buying a Nikon D90 or something. There are many threads here comparing Pentax to the competition, and in this forum, those threads tend to be surprisingly fair-minded to the competition. This is not because Pentax is bad. It's because the minority group usually knows more about the majority than vice versa, that is, serious Pentax photographers usually know a fair bit about Nikon or Canon, while Nikon users know only about their own gear and what Canon offers, and Canon users don't know much about anything at all.

I mean, besides Canon. :-)

Will

[CRPhoto]

I wouldn't call myself a "pro" but I do sell pictures as a side job. I sell aerial pictures and do some motorsports as a hobby with my K20D. While shooting motorsports, I see a lot of Nikons and Canons, but when comparing the picture, there really no big difference. There are photographers with Mark II's that can only get good shots just because they shot at like a million fps, and of course, a good picture comes up at one point!

I learned about photography with a Pentax film camera. Just recently, my first DSLR was a Canon 350D but as soon as the K20D came out I went back to Pentax. I'm happy to use my old lenses again. I really don't miss not having 6fps, since I learned on film I'm pretty careful with the shutter....developing rolls was expensive back then!!

I guess the view of been "professional" doesn't really depends on what brand do you use, but just how you use it. Starting with your attitude towards what you do, the way you behave and present to people it's a stargin point to become "professional". Then of course are the results, your pictures, and a true professional understands it's equipment and know how to get what he wants from it.

[mcleoud151]

and Canon users don't know much about anything at all.

I mean, besides Canon. :-)

Will

Heh, oh man i about spilled my coffee when I read that. Too true... :-)