[christinelandon]

My first 35mm SLR was a used Miranda, bought in 1968 with a couple of lenses. I took it with me to college, and shot for the University of Washington yearbook and the school newspaper. In my junior year, I went to work at the Kirsten Windtunnel facility at the UW Aeronautics Laboratory in the Operations section, testing aircraft, trucks, buildings, and spacecraft designs. Part of my duties included technical photography to document the testing. Over 100+ tests during the three years I worked there, I shot with 4X5 Graphics, 6X6cm Rolleis, and a brace of Pentax Spotmatics. I adored the Pentaxes, and sold my Miranda to buy into a Spotmatic SP system, which I've shot for the past 35+ years.

My first digital camera (purchased in 2004 after shooting several manufacturers' early digital P&S and DSLRs at work) was a N***n, which I shot for three years. Did some good work, but wasn't pleased with some of the limitations of that system. Last December, I gave the N***n to a friend and moved on (and UP!) to a K10D. Happy, happy; joy joy! I now trade between the K10D and my Spottie as a satisfied and exclusive Pentaxian.

[Rick]

My first digital camera was an Olympus 1.2mp P&S. It was decent at the time, but it wasn't very durable. I'd attended a machine gun shoot and just being in the proximity of an M2 .50 caliber maching cause the camera to go all out of whack. The camera never took an in focus picture again.

Ha hahahahaaaaaa... and that story allows me to segue into why I (not being particularly brand loyal) still own Pentaxes. As a further hint, if you think the Fifty beats up the surroundings:



Then you really ought to see an 81mm mortar being fired on Charge 6 - and this is the good ol' days, before the blast attenuators were added to the muzzle. And if THAT still doesn't impress, there is the backblast from the 106mm recoilless rifle:



(haven't properly scanned my pics of the 106mm actually being fired, unfortunately - that's just a training round - but it will make your eyes bleed).

Those photos typify why, although I'm not a Pentaxian and take no particular pride in ownership, I still end up with Pentaxes. The photos like that were taken with a self timer or at night on bulb, and the blast repeatedly knocked over my Asahi Pentax Spotmatic and the tripod it was on. And I repeatedly stood it back up again and tried to catch the next shot. That camera survived all that beating, jumping out of airplanes with me, being abused by ill-mannered nags on sheep hunting trips, thumped and bumped around in backpacks and the bottom of whitewter kayaks, and so on. It still rides around in my truck as a "if I unexpectedly need a camera" resource in my jump bag with my medical stuff. And it works pretty much as good as the day I got it.

My list of cameras starts out with a Baby Brownie, probably in my pre-teens. I enjoy some of the pictures I took of my brothers and I growing up together with that camera probably better than anything else I have done, just because of the memories it captured. From there it was on to a really cheap twin lens reflex camera, and from there some sort of Kodak fold-out bellows type camera that I think I still have buried somewhere.

My parents gave me the indestructable Spotmatic sometime in the very early 70's as a gift, and I promptly went and bought a 135mm lens for it. I was set. I used, abused, and brutalized that camera for the next twenty some odd years. After a while I came to the conclusion that the camera didn't owe me anything, and even more than before anywhere I went that camera went too. More than once it came out at the end in better shape than I was in.

In 1993 we were being deployed to Bosnia. The day before we were leaving the Spotmatic and I took a bit of a dive and tumble out of the rappelling tower while I was, yet again, doing something stupid while trying to take a picture. This time I did leave a mark on the camera. I didn't have a chance to get the camera checked out, and in the days of film and being over there, it would be months before anything I shot would be available for examination to make sure there were no light leaks, everything was working properly, etc. Nor could you exactly go checking out camera shops in the middle of a war, hunkered in your bunker miles from nowhere. So I ran down to the London Drugs on the corner, looked at all the new battery operated, auto focus, etc cameras in bewilderment. The guy behind the counter mentioned I could use my old Pentax lenses with the PZ-1 if I used an adaptor. So, I bought the PZ-1 with two of the power zoom lenses, on that basis alone.

That camera went to Yugo with me, rattled around in a bag hanging from the commander's cupola in the carrier, covered in dust, endured the .50 caliber being fired directly overhead, empty .50 casings bouncing off of it, etc. It seemed just as tough as the old Spotmatic, although lacking the Spotmatic's metal body and totally cool real leather case with the front that hinged down.

When I got home, I found that the Spotmatic had survived the dive off the rapelling tower better than I had. I was not surprised.

Life got a little more sedate after that and the PZ-1 stood me in good stead. I did go briefly to The Dark Side around this time, going to some kind of a P&S 35mm camera, Canon I think. The camera never did work properly, and after getting back roll after roll of badly underexposed pictures from a trip we made to Hawaii to do an exercise with the Marine Force Recon guys, that was it for the camera. I sold it to some other soldier and went back to my larger, bulkier, Pentax SLR's.

The digital age came; my wife hated using the SLR's, so we traded in some grocery store points or something like that for one of the early PowerShot digitals. Which except for the disgusting shutter lag actually took/takes some pretty nice pictures. But what was important about that was I began to see the possibilities of digital.

So I started watching digital SLR's, waiting for the time that was right for me. Didn't like Pentax's original efforts - or anyone else's for that matter - for reasons that escape me now.

About a year and a half ago, a friend bought one of the first D80's. I used it, liked it, and liked that beautiful VR zoom telephoto as well. I was about to pull the trigger on that camera when it came to my attention that Pentax had the new K10d out. I looked at it, and the fact that, once again, I could use my old lenses was attractive to me. But even more attractive was the idea that the body was built as tough as it was for the price point, complete with weather sealing. And then there was INTERNAL image stabilization - something that made far more sense to me than paying for IS being built into every single lens.

I trooped down to the camera store with my old lenses, stuck them on a K10d body, took a bunch of pictures with the K10d, then did the same thing with the D80. The store copied the images onto a drive for me and I took them home to do a little pixel peeping.

The comparison left me convinced that for me and my lifestyle, once again Pentax had come out on top. And so, as before, it was a Pentax that went home with me. Which perhaps is somewhat more impressive, because I bought Pentax yet again on the merit of the product for my needs, not out of simple brand loyalty.

As long as Pentax keeps building really tough cameras that are also affordable, or until I get old and feeble enough to slow down so I don't need a tough camera, it looks like I'll continue using Pentax on their merits.

[dws1117]

Ouch! I wonder if those guys have any eyebrows left. I'd love to see some of those going off, but I'll stick with the Ma Deuce.

[MJB DIGITAL]

I was a commercial fisherman in alaska with a cheap film point and shooter. alaska is beautiful. i shot about 40 rolls of film that summer. when i got off of the boat with that fishermans paycheck, i went to the camera shop in the harbor and said, 'gimme da best you got!'

he handed me a pentax.

[GandUlf]

My story is not that long and intresting starting way back in the 60's, hey I'm only 21 so....

Owned a few P&S during the years but my real intrest began about a year ago when one of my friends bought a DSLR. Must have been a Olympus 420 but he soon changed to a 400D and then a 40D. Was a bit tempted but was still a bit too much money for me.
But then I meet my girlfriend who also is very into photography, she recently bought a Nikon D80. Now I really felt the urge for a DSLR to replace my compactcamera and with an upcoming trip to Asia that would end in Hong Kong I felt that this was the time.
Wanted to check out the whole market so started reading reviews on the internet and found that SR in the body was a must, will save a lot of money in the end I think. So the question was Sony or Pentax ??(Olympus bodies was too small for my hand) Read some more reviews, news etc. Saw what you could do to the weather-sealing on the k10d, looked perfect for me that is out in the woods with the scouts quite a lot and spend a couple of weeks in a tent every summer.
Went to a camerastore and felt the k10d and the just arrived k200d, the 200 suited my hand better so when I got to Hong Kong I bought it and has now been an happy pentaxian for one month.
Next step is to buy a DA*-lens so that the camera would be truly weather-sealed. But that will probably wait until end of summer when one of my friends is going to New York, the lenses are so expensive here in Sweden.

[NicholasN]

I became a Pentaxian thanks to my local camera store. I asked for a cheap but quality DSLR and he handed me the K100D.

Never looked back since.

[8540tomg]

Hi all,

What made me a Pentaxian? Good question. The answer is relatively simple in my case. I was living in a small town in Manitoba in 1981. There was only one store in town that sold 35mm SLRs and the only brand they sold was Pentax. I bought a Pentax MX and I've never regretted it.

Maybe a better question might be what made me stay with the Pentax brand? There are many fine makers out there and Canon and Nikon won the marketing battle years ago. I have many friends who use many different brands and like all camera enthusiasts we compare gear. Whenever I do compare I may find a Canon or Nikon that has a few features I like but I usually find I prefer my Pentax gear on an overall basis. Dollar for dollar, feature for feature I feel Pentax does it as well as any maker.

The firm’s dedication to backward compatibility is probably the main reason I stayed with Pentax when I went digital. I waited a long time for Pentax to develop a digital camera I was willing to invest in. The K10 moved me into the digital world and kept me with Pentax. The fact I can still use all my legacy K, M, and A series lenses was THE deciding factor. Shake reduction didn’t hurt either. In any case that’s why I’m in the Pentax camp and I will probably stay there.

Cheers,

Tom G

[noblepa]

When I was in high school, way back in the dark ages (1967), I saved up my money to buy a "real" camera.

I looked at all the brands available then; Pentax, Mamiya, Miranda, Nikon, Yashica and the rest. I soon realized that the Nikon F was a great camera. I used to watch Huntley & Brinkley and see journalists jumping out of Huey's into rice paddies in Vietnam with two or three Nikons around their necks.

But then, I realized that, while the Nikon was a great camera, I didn't need all the features it had; interchangeable backs, interchangeable viewfinders, motor drives, mirror lockup, etc. I wasn't planning on jumping out of Huey's into rice paddies, if I could avoid it. Furthermore, everything I read about Pentax lenses said that they were second to none in terms of image quality. So, I bought a Spotmatic, which I still have. The Spotmatic probably wouldn't have survived the kind of rough treatment that a professional photojournalist would subject a camera to, but, then I'm not a photojournalist. The Spotmatic has survived a fair amount of abuse, anyway.

To my mind, the Pentax line has always offered the best balance of features-that-I-will-actually-use to price. IOW, the best value. Sure, the Nikon D200 has a higher frame rate, it has a titanium body and other features that I would seldom, if ever, use, but, even now, after the D300 has been in the market for a while, the D200 costs twice as much as my K10D.

I've always liked the ergonomics of Pentax cameras, as well. The Spotmatic remains one of the most comfortable cameras I've ever held. My K10D fits my hand like a glove. Some have complained that the K10D is too big, but I don't think so. A friend bought an Olympus E-510. It felt like a toy in my hands. Even my brother's D200 doesn't feel as right as my K10D.

I could buy a higher-spec'ed camera (I hesitate to use the term "better") or I could buy a cheaper camera. I find that the Pentax, for me, hits the sweet spot, in terms of build quality, image quality and affordability.

[kmccanta]

sort of...

A friend of mine was the photographer for the high school newspaper and year book. He had a Pentax Super Program. A couple of years after high school, he and my brother moved across country, so they sold off anything they could to raise $$ for the trip. That was probably 1990.

I bought the whole camera kit. It included an Auto flash, a Vivitar 28/2 and an SMC-A50/1.4 in a huge camera bag.

When my son was born in 1998 I got it out to improve the pictures we were getting of our little smoochy. When he got to about 18months, I couldn't focus fast enough anymore so I bought a ZX-5n with the "good" zoom, FA28-70/4. The lens now has lens element separation

I started getting film processed and scanned so I could play with the shots on the computer instead of just getting 4x6's to throw in a drawer somewhere. I eagerly followed the digital camera explosion, got a canon point and shoot 5mp for my wife.

A couple of months before my daughter was born 2007 my wife told me to stop analyzing and just buy a new camera. So I had to pick... used DS or K100Dkit?

I bought the K100D February 2007 mostly for SR. That was the feature that would actually improve my pictures. Loved the ability to use my old lenses.. of course none of the three lenses I previously owned has been on this new camera much!

I prefer the M28/3.5 over the Vivitar28/2, the FA28-70/4 is broken, and I loaned the A50/1.4 to a friend because I have the FA50/1.4.

I have added a bunch of cheap M glass (M28/3.5, M35/2.8, M100/4Macro(1:2), M135/3.5, M200/4) only the macro and a new Zenitar 16/2.8 were over $100. So the lenses cost around $600 total. So I do appreciate the compatibility, but not to use my old lenses.. to use other peoples old lenses!!

[Lowell Goudge]

I started with a Ricoh XR-2s in 1981, esentually a poor man's K2DMD. It was a very capable camera, and I then went and added a KX, and later a PZ-1 before going digital.

By the time I got the PZ-1 I already had a good collection of lenses so staying with pentax made sense, and the PZ-1 was back compatible (sound familiar) with everything. I have added some new lenses as I have moved forward to *istD and K10D, and at this point, it just makes good sense to stay with pentax.

The Pentax cameras have never let me down, and as all my lenses except the sigma 10-20 are full frame, every one except my FA-J 18-35 (limited to PZ-1 only) is useable on all my film bodies.

Even flashes are compatible. The AF540FGZ will work in auto mode so it is useable on the film bodies, and the AF500 FTZ works in TTL mode on the PZ-1 and *istD with every lens I own!

It is a system, not a camera!

[krs]

A simple story for me....

I entered the 35mm world with a Cannon Sure-shot in the mid 80's (I think). I used that for a number of years... In 1997, we moved to South Africa, and wanted a camera to capture all these interesting places we were visiting, so we bought a Pentax MZ-50 with a couple of lenses. Because of an overwhelming number of challenges in my life, I mostly used it in an "auto" mode, and did not explore the settings.

I entered the digital age with a 4MP Kodak P&S, which used more batteries than pictures it produced, but it did "OK" for lanscape shots, or objects that moved VERY slowly...

I bought a Pentax ISTD for a friend in South Africa (brought it back when visiting the states), and promptly tried it with my Pentax SLR lenses. I thought it was "OK", but again, I was using it in auto settings, and probably did not use it properly to appreciate it's capabilities.

In 2003, I looked at the Pentax ISTD again, and again, was not sold on it, so I bought a 5MP Canon P&S, which did great for still shots, but not so good for action.

In 2007, my wife wanted to by me a DSLR, so we looked at the K100D, and I loved it. I then (with help from people on this forum) started understanding the basics of photography and using the capabilities of the camera. I liked it so well that I turned around and bought the K10D in January of 2008, and love it as well.

So I cannot say that I became a Pentaxian via vast experiences or research, I just kind of "fell into it" and stayed!

Now if I can just do something about this LBA problem!

[ll_coffee_lP]

Bought a Minolta X700 (used) about 6-7 years ago...after thinking I may like an SLR.
Loved it
Wanted to go digitial about 5 years ago...bought an Olympus PS.
Loved it
Wanted to go digital SLR. Bought *Ist DS (size and cost were factors) and sold X700.
Loved it
Wanted to upgrade to something a bit more sturdy and robust. Sold *Ist DS and bought a K10D, then bought a second body.

I like being different then everyone else (whenever I can). I choose Pentax because of the feel, the community, the great lenses that are fairly inexpensive, and because everyone under the sun knows Canon and Nikon - I like to educate them about the great alternative.

Not looking at upgrading any further at this time.

c[_]

[KA5TXL]

1960's started off with the Kodak box brownies
late 60's early 70's had the kodak 126 instamatic but
at Jr High I used a Yashica Mat 124 TLR and must have blown the schools budget on tri-x film shooting sports
In High School I used a Pentax SL and spent a lot of time in the b&w lab
somewhere in the early 80's I picked up the ME Super and Vivitar 283, Vivitar 270mm zoom and a Spiratone (wonder what ever happened to them) 135mm. Shot any awful lot of slide film, one of these days I'll get them scanned
But after awhile the camera spent more time in the closet coming out for holidays and such.
2005 youngest neice gets married and everybody remembers hey your a photographer guess what you get to do Uncle Larry
So I pull out the ME Super and blow off the dust, change the batteries loaded film and tried to remember everything I had forgotten over the years. Gawd did I forget a lot. But it turned out well, the pics lasted longer than the marriage did So I will get to do it again someday I have taken a couple of courses at the local community college (unfortunatly the instructor shoots n*k*n, works for a local camera store and keeps telling me "pentax is dead")
Late in 2005 my family got together and gave me an istDL. And ever since I have been adding to my collection, got the 360 flash, the DA 16-50 2.8, DA 50-135 2.8, the K20D and battery grip, even got me the hat so
I AM A PENTAXIAN AND I HAVE GAS AND LBA!!

[KrisK10D]

Great stories folks

First camera I tried was my Dads old Halina 500 about 30 years ago My Uncle was also big on photography, so it was only a matter of time (and interests beyond boys ) till I got my own.

My memory is vague but I'm pretty sure my first camera was the P3. I was stupid enough to leave that one in my car while it was checked for Rego. I never saw it again

My replacement camera was a P&S Advanced Photo System Kodak, which I loved. Not only did it take great photos, the negatives were exceptionally easy to store, I got a proof sheet for each roll and a fabbo storage system. It got stolen, on a trip through the US, along with my video camera and all the film I'd taken over half the holiday

The next replacement was Pentax again, MZ50 and this one hasn't been stolen so far It's still in my camera bag, just in case. Only thing I didn't like about that camera was the rediculously expensive CR batteries This fine body not only paid for itself and 2 good lenses but all the stolen equipment that came before it

I came to digital in a rather obtuse way. While doing an advanced photoshop course, I met a fella who had his own photography website. He invited me to join, which I did tho it was digital SLR based. There was a 'New Year Trip' organised to Janolen Caves around that time and I was interested in going, but I knew film just wouldn't cut it, so I decided to go digital. After a couple weeks researching various digital SLR features/functions there were 3 things that lead me to another Pentax... weather seals, anti shake in the body (rather than in super expensive lenses) and the fact that all the lenses I'd already bought could be used on the new digital body. The K10D hit the spot and I've never been disappointed with that decission

I also got Mums Kodak Easy Share P&S after she passed away but I only use it to take video and shots of the K10D

[Tiit]

i bought myself K100D super a week ago and why Pentax? because it has image stabilizer that nikon D40 was missing. what a simple story to tell :-)