[kace]

My wife and I just got back from a cruise. I took along my K-x, and she her E620 Oly.
I made a point of identifying every DSLR I saw on the trip and was mind blown!
I'd guess out of , maybe approx 80- 100 DSLRs I saw on the whole trip:
~70% Nikon
~30% Canon

My K-x and her Oly made up the numbers!

Really, not one non-Canon or Nikon camera other than ours.

[Ed n Georgia]

My wife and I just got back from a cruise. I took along my K-x, and she her E620 Oly.
I made a point of identifying every DSLR I saw on the trip and was mind blown!
I'd guess out of , maybe approx 80- 100 DSLRs I saw on the whole trip:
~70% Nikon
~30% Canon

My K-x and her Oly made up the numbers!

Really, not one non-Canon or Nikon camera other than ours.

This is pretty much Par. Wasn't that way 35 years ago.

[SpecialK]

I saw my first "other Pentax guy" a couple weeks back - first time in about 3 years.

There is a reason companies promote and market their products, and have them in stores...like Canon and Nikon do.

[icywarm]

I have seen only one or two other pentax guys in the wild... most are old 'photog' teachers... I kid you not, both were my wife old high school teachers who we saw at the airport... one had on a pentax camera bag/fanny pack (a bag on a waist belt for you none Canucks, before any kiwi's get any dirty ideas)

At a baptism I handed my camera to the pro they had asked to take some shots... i had a 28mm M series on my kx and she couldn't figure out how to use it, I had to give her a crash course on manual focus... didn't work out too well...

sigh...

but I will say this I have used both and if I just needed something that worked with one or two lens and I didn't have my fathers old glass, I might be shooting one of them right now, particularly if I just bought what the sales guy was selling... I had a heck of a time getting my kx at boxing day... even explaining I had old glass I was being told to get a ff nikon (I know huge difference... never shop in a suit!)

[Urkeldaedalus]

I have seen only one or two other pentax guys in the wild... most are old 'photog' teachers... I kid you not, both were my wife old high school teachers who we saw at the airport... one had on a pentax camera bag/fanny pack (a bag on a waist belt for you none Canucks, before any kiwi's get any dirty ideas)

At a baptism I handed my camera to the pro they had asked to take some shots... i had a 28mm M series on my kx and she couldn't figure out how to use it, I had to give her a crash course on manual focus... didn't work out too well...

sigh...

but I will say this I have used both and if I just needed something that worked with one or two lens and I didn't have my fathers old glass, I might be shooting one of them right now, particularly if I just bought what the sales guy was selling... I had a heck of a time getting my kx at boxing day... even explaining I had old glass I was being told to get a ff nikon (I know huge difference... never shop in a suit!)

She couldn't manual focus? Wowza.

[icywarm]

She couldn't manual focus? Wowza.

She was young... I would guess 22-25 ish... her photos with her Canon are great... but given a shallow DOF with a manual faster lens she 'missed it by that much'... heck for all I know she sabotaged my camera pics so we would be forced to buy hers... would someone be that devious

[RioRico]

Most recently I saw a Pentax P&S at Grand Canyon and some Pentax dSLR near Taos NM. I see a few Sony dSLRs around, not to mention a few folks with Minolta film SLRs and the occasional Nikkormat. About 1.5 years ago I took my K20D kit on a cruise. Passengers carried the usual assortment of Canikons and colorful P&S's. Most of the photo pros aboard shot Olympus! Maybe Oly had a deal with Carnival Lines. (BTW, the cruise sucked.)

To build market share in USA, Pentoya needs to market a bit more aggressively, eh? Canikon are in every big-box, every WallyWorld, every outlet possible -- can't Pentax at least cut a deal with CostCo, put ANYTHING with the Pentax name out in front of potential customers? It's hard to buy the invisible...

[Nesster]

actually I'm surprised it was 70-30 for Nikon, I would have expected Canon to be the more popular one

[VaughnA]

When I got my 1st DSLR (*istDL) last year I went out for my first shoot beyond playing around the house to Crabtree Falls Va. The first DSLR I saw after going pentax? A K100D carried by another hiker. Since then I've maybe seen 4-5 total going to zoos, Washington DC, Florida etc.

[MRRiley]

There is a solution to this problem (shortage of wild Pentaxians)... As the Member Map fills up, contact your local Pentaxians and set up a gathering. This weekend in Harper's Ferry, WV there will be upwards of a dozen Pentaxians all in one place at one time.

[panoguy]

You folks need to visit Toronto! I see more than a Pentax a week just walking around the lakefront tourist area, and even more than that when we have our Pentaxian get-togethers!

But really, maybe it's just this area of Canada or this city in particular. Even for used gear, if I compare the craigslist activity of my hometown of Chicago (about twice the size of Toronto): chicago photo/video classifieds "pentax" - craigslist (and 25% is just people padding their listing with every camera brand)

...to Toronto: toronto photo/video classifieds "pentax" - craigslist there must be twice as many people with Pentax up here! Plus, this stuff doesn't stick around forever, unless the joker has no clue about real prices (like the used K100D two-lens kit for $700!).

Truly, while I do see a ton of Canons and a few Nikons (weird that its inverted to your cruise), Pentax is a solid, if distant, third place. And I rarely see Sony DSLRs, but almost never seen an Oly in the wild here. Heck, I've seen more Leica M9s than Olympus digitals!

[Arpe]

... one had on a pentax camera bag/fanny pack (a bag on a waist belt for you none Canucks, before any kiwi's get any dirty ideas)

I know not of what you speak

[tendim]

You folks need to visit Toronto! I see more than a Pentax a week just walking around the lakefront tourist area, and even more than that when we have our Pentaxian get-togethers!

+1 here! I see a lot of Pentax stuff when I walk around downtown Toronto.

For other places, I was very surprised when I went to Las Vegas last year to see someone not only shooting with a Pentax, but a film Pentax. It looked to be a black MX or Super Program (Program-A).

My next trip is in a few days; I'll be lugging around a pair of LXs and 30 rolls of film.

[aleonx3]

It is not the equipment you are looking at, it is the people who is handling it. Sometimes, not being the majority is a good thing.

[Clicker]

I'm usually the lone Pentax user outside NA when i'm travelling with The Pack, when Canikoners learn that i have Canon and Nikon gear the first question usually is, "why didn't you bring that?" LOL