NewMikey. You are right on the money.
When I first got into photography, I used a Kodak Retinette 1A. A beautiful and totally manual fixed lens rangefinder.
My fist SLR was a used Olympus OM10 that I bought because it was dirt cheap. I was a student at the time just starting High School and I had to save for ages to get it. During this time, my father loved Pentax. He knew how innovative they were in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Pentax is well known as being an innovator in the camera industry. Consequently, he bought a P3 when they first came out.
Because we both appreciated how innovative Pentax was, I bought my SF10 in 89. I was taking a photography course, and another student had the first generation auto focus Minolta camera. When I saw how beautiful and feature rich the Pentax model was, I just had to have one. I paid 900 Canadian back then. I had wanted an SF1, but it was out of my reach. It had a built in flash which was fantastic. It also placed the hotshot in a place that balanced the camera like nothing I have seen to this day.
When digital was in its infancy, I came across an Olympus D320L in 98/99. This was my first foray into digital. I was hooked. Shortly afterwards in 2000, I bought a Nikon 990 which I paid a then staggering sum of 1600 Canadian for. This worked for me for several years. However I had always wanted a DSLR. They were just too expensive at that time.
I waited for a Pentax DSLR to come out, but Pentax came late to the digital market by about 2 or 3 years (I even had the lenses but I couldn't wait any longer). Consequently, when the Digital Rebel was announced for around the 1000 mark, I took the hook, line and sinker. I now have a 20D. I have so much now invested into the Canon system, that I cannot see myself jumping to Pentax. And I am fine with that. There is nothing wrong with Canon gear.
However, when it came time to buy my father a birthday/father's day present, I did not hesitate in getting him a K10D. The original thought was to get him the body, and he could use my old SF10 glass (an off brand made for a Canadian photo store called Blacks - Both lenses are marked Magnicon). However, I quickly found out that the lenses suffer from very very bad CA. So he quickly bought himself the Pentax 16-45 and 50-200 lenses. He then got himself a Tamron 70-300 because he liked to have more reach. He has poor eyesight, so auto focus is very important to him. He also allows me to use it whenever I wish to. So I guess I get the best of both worlds.
So forgive me if I am amused with the whole Pentaxian, Canonite, Nikonian, (add other brand here) segregation stuff. I have used a lot of gear from so many different manufactures. They all took good photos.
Please forgive me also. I have participated in a few Canon/Nikon forums, and you guys do not hold a candle to the frothing megalomaniac brand one mindedness that those guys ritualistically praise and dance to. I have always found that sort of behaviour odd. Probably why I didn't quite fit in lol...not that I would want to.
With that said, It is nice to see Pentax finally do some advertising. I am not too keen on their whole Pentaxian slant however. I would rather see them focus more on what makes their gear unique and worthwhile to have, rather then the people who use it.
EDIT: Lol. I wrote 20-200 and meant to say 50-200...got to love them typos. Corrected now