[dafiryde]

I'm still up watching the red sox game 4-3 sox bottom of the 4th. The best taste and bang for the buck is the mcd's double cheeseburger for $1.39--zap

my brother inlaw in Miami always tries to convert me to that one

Dave

[res3567]

Yes I did.

Did you like them?

[Jewelltrail]

Charliezap: It's ironic - I'm watching the red sox game right now and the back stop advertisement at the moment was Nikon--By the way Red Sox 2 Seattle 0 bottom of the first--chaeliezap

Go Red Sox, from a life-long fan!

You have hit the nail on the head when you mention Nikon's presence in the field of advertisement. Simply put, Nikon & Canon spend a lot of money on advertisement, whereas Pentax relies heavily on word of mouth. Pentax is a niche market of sorts.

The up side of this is the cost of your Pentax DSLR is not stuffed with advertising costs, though production is certainly more costly since they handle much smaller numbers.

Again, we all must bear in mind it is not about the best camera system; it is about the best camera system for the user. Pentax has a lot going for it--no doubt about it!

[res3567]

Go Red Sox, from a life-long fan!

You have hit the nail on the head when you mention Nikon's presence in the field of advertisement. Simply put, Nikon & Canon spend a lot of money on advertisement, whereas Pentax relies heavily on word of mouth. Pentax is a niche market of sorts.

The up side of this is the cost of your Pentax DSLR is not stuffed with advertising costs, though production is certainly more costly since they handle much smaller numbers.

Again, we all must bear in mind it is not about the best camera system; it is about the best camera system for the user. Pentax has a lot going for it--no doubt about it!

Hi Jewell!

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!

---

Last edited by res3567; 05-17-2009 at 07:38 PM.

[charliezap]

Go Red Sox, from a life-long fan!

You have hit the nail on the head when you mention Nikon's presence in the field of advertisement. Simply put, Nikon & Canon spend a lot of money on advertisement, whereas Pentax relies heavily on word of mouth. Pentax is a niche market of sorts.

The up side of this is the cost of your Pentax DSLR is not stuffed with advertising costs, though production is certainly more costly since they handle much smaller numbers.

Again, we all must bear in mind it is not about the best camera system; it is about the best camera system for the user. Pentax has a lot going for it--no doubt about it!

Getting off the topic for a moment i'm glad that you are a red sox fan.Here's a free tip from charlie zap.Everyone plays the 100 square pool for football. I came up with the "square pool" that you can apply to baseball.I have a every other sat. red sox pool for $5 a square that pays off---$300 final score---$100 hits for each team--$100 how many times each team strikes out.As far as i know no one has thought of this concept.I have regular players for every game until the final sat game.People at G.E. Lynn love to play.GO RED SOX--CHARLIE ZAP

[OregonJim]

It's marketing, pure and simple. Good marketing gets good market share. It has nothing to do with the actual merits of the product.

Compare to operating systems - Microsoft has spent billions on marketing, therefore you can see Windows everywhere. There are several technically superior operating systems, but they don't do as good a job at marketing, so are lesser known and used.

Compare to cars - same thing. The cars you see in TV and magazine ads are the ones you see most often on the road. Who really *needs* a Hummer?

Unfortunately, the masses go after what's popular, or a status symbol, not what's best suited to them.

[mickey]

Who cares??

Why the snide comment?

kguru asked a simple question.
At least someone gave him an answer.

Need to grow up a little bit.

Did you like them?

Considering the shooting conditions, they're pretty good.

Unfortunately I don't get to post in as many threads as I would like to. I'm too busy moving threads that people have posted in the wrong forum.

[lesmore49]

Do we really need a top notch Pro camera body,


Dave

No I don't think we do. I find my K10D to all I want and more, to be of robust build and the weather sealing appeals to me. It's great.

I also don't think there's room for three in the pro market...I don't consider Sony as a 'pro' model that will find much of a market.

I know Canon and Nikon make plenty of money...but I sometimes wonder how much profit they make from their Pro line...or is having a pro line, more of a an an expensive advertising program to promote the quality of the brand(s) , with the hope that this elevated 'pro' image promotes the consumer end of things for these two brands.

[raz]

Every time I watch t.v. or peruse photographs in magazines or other media I notice that the photographers are mostly using Canons or Nikons.From the sports guys taking pics or the reporters at press conferences I see mostly Canons or Nikons.Where are the Pentaxes?

It's aplied to the amateurs too unfortunately.

I've been in a trip through 8 countries and 15 cities in Europe mostly in tourist areas. Believe me, all the people were using Canons and Nikons. Even Japanese and Chinese tourists. From time to time there were also some guys with Sonys. In the 20 days of travelling I only seen 2 pentaxes, one was in Strasbourg and another one in Vienna if I'm not mistaken. Possible I've missed some Olympuses but I'm not so familiar with their shape/neck strap.

But the funny thing is that in the last days of the trip, where we got bad weather and lots of rain, all the canons and nikons were under the umbrellas or in their bags. My K100D, although no weather proof, was soaking with water in full rain without problems

[res3567]

Considering the shooting conditions, they're pretty good.

Unfortunately I don't get to post in as many threads as I would like to. I'm too busy moving threads that people have posted in the wrong forum.

I am sorry Gary.

I know them mouse clicks can wear your fingers out!

Anyway, I got carried away with the day and the theme of the moment.

I will try to stay wwithin the bounderies.

Thank you sir for the positive review!

[Wombat]

No offence at all, Charliezap, but it seems to me this is a "serious amateur" question. From what I've read over the years, professional photographers care much less about the brand of their gear than we "serious amateurs." Getting the job done with the best results is what appears to concern pros, I think. (Any pros out there correct me if I'm wrong). For eg, I've got some of John Hedgecoe's books and on the first page of one of them there he is holding a Pentax. On other pages he's using Nikon, Canon, Olympus, whatever and he talks about them all as simply tools to get the job done. We amateurs seem to be the ones who worry about whether our gear has enough of the market. I'm not sure why this is or what it says about us as a breed, but I put the point up, for what it's worth.

[pingflood]

I read Popular Photography because of their in depth testing of camera bodies and lenses.

When the K100D and K110D were reviewed, the quote that struck me was" a slowly evolving line of DSLR's".

That is it.

Campare camera specs and you will see, IMO Pentax lagging behind in three areas:

1.Shooting speed ( ie.avg. 3fps vs. Canon's best 10fps) Sports shooting.
2.Low light focussing.
3. No FF model.

We have great lenses.
We have rugged bodies in our "Pro models"
We have great backward compatability with our legacy lenses.( Just stick one on and go back in time a bit with manual focussing and cenerweighted metering).

I would love to show up at an event with a bunch of Pros packing Canons and Nikons.

I would PROUDLY represent Pentax even if my equipment is below thier standards.

Depending on the situation, my pics may be just as good or better.

That is how I just see it!

And it is a great bargain to if you don't have a lot of money to spend on a good system.

Even POP Photagrapy said that as well.

Very very well said! I would add a couple of pros/cons: the SR is a big feature and one present in the entire current and recent lineup. Also, AF _tracking_ would be one area where I consider Pentax to be lagging some, and that one is more important to me than low light AF.

Overall though, Pentax brings the most image quality for the money to most shooters, there's not much to argue over there.

[Joe]

Well it is what it is. I think that Pentax made the largest selling 35mm film camera, not Nikon or Canon. Read a post on some site don’t know if it was even a Pentax site that
Neither Nikon nor Canon ever made a pro film camera, since they never made a medium format. I don’t know if either of them make any camera that can match Pentax for $ value. Living just north of Boston I have only met one person with a dslr Pentax in
My travels and he was from France. I though until coming to this forum that I could be
The only one in New England with one. And one last thought I think that as a % of dslr users Nikon & Canon have the greatest # of people who bought for brand name only.
I known that is of little consolation to know that a greater % of your customers bought for more reasons than just brand name. Hope that makes since. Joe

[lesmore49]

Well it is what it is. I think that Pentax made the largest selling 35mm film camera, not Nikon or Canon. Read a post on some site don’t know if it was even a Pentax site thatI think back in the days of the Spotmatic and the K1000...that possibility existed.
Neither Nikon nor Canon ever made a pro film camera, since they never made a medium format. There are professionals and professionals....sports and media pro photographers use Canon and Nikon Pro equipment...advertising and fashion photographers used cameras like the Pentax 6 X 7, Mamiya 6 X 7, Hasselblad ...they were all pros.


I don’t know if either of them make any camera that can match Pentax for $ value. Living just north of Boston I have only met one person with a dslr Pentax in
My travels and he was from France. I though until coming to this forum that I could be
The only one in New England with one. And one last thought I think that as a % of dslr users Nikon & Canon have the greatest # of people who bought for brand name only.
I known that is of little consolation to know that a greater % of your customers bought for more reasons than just brand name. Hope that makes since. Joe

In the digital era Pentax has been slipping market wise...not due to me as I've bought a boatload of Pentax accessories, lenses and bodies...all digital since 2007.