[plooksta]

Well, after all the Ken Rockwell fun, I just e-mailed the lad:

Hi Ken

I'm writing about your news article on the Pentax K-1, in which you make the following comments:

"I can do without Pentax' primitive DSLRs unless I was some Aspergers case hoping to use my ancient manual-focus Pentax lenses"

...and...

"but I fail to see who would buy it other than some feeble Aspergian hope to recycle old lenses"

I disagree with your views on Pentax and the K-1, but absolutely support your right to hold and express your opinions. The reason I'm contacting you, however, is your Asperger's-related comments. I'm not easily offended or especially sensitive, but I think these comments are inappropriate and potentially hurtful to those affected directly or indirectly by autism. I hope I can appeal to you to reconsider just those two items of your news article.

Kind regds

Mike

The slight irony of the situation is that looking at Ken's minute testing of gear (mainly Nikon, Canon, Leica) and writing up of long lists, he may be somewhere "on the spectrum" himself. He is of course in denial about it, as he is a "real artist" with far better things to do than sit at home testing gear. That said, hats off to the guy. He's made a great little online business for himself. Just don't trust his Pentax opinions.

[boriscleto]

Maybe he's afraid that using a real camera would make him a professional photographer, then he would have to pay a higher insurance rate...

[surfar]

Ken rocks....in his head...WELL......seems like he can evaluate things from web images and spec sheets...CanNik fanboy...I wonder if hed test drive a car before he bought it?

[bertwert]

He added more again but this point here "I'd be much happier if Pentax actually did something original instead that would change photography for the better." just makes me wonder if he actually knows what is inside the FF...

[apete]

Ken who? He is journalist?

[surfar]

He doesnt

---------- Post added 02-20-16 at 06:35 AM ----------

Ken Well and good the canik

[ChristianRock]

Once again though, it may profit us to ask: why does he dismiss it out-of-hand?

Because people who talk about what they know nothing about are idiots?

If so, there is a learning opportunity here. What would the K-1 (or Ricoh) need to do to break through that layer of automatic scorn people like Ken (and many others) seem to have for Pentax as a brand?

No, there's no learning opportunity here. Other than, in the world there's always going to be douchebags and the best way to deal with them is to ignore them.

You just can't argue with prejudice.

---

Last edited by ChristianRock; 02-19-2016 at 01:04 PM.

[BigMackCam]

Well, fair play to The Rock... I got a reply to my e-mail, and sent him a further reply:

Hi Ken

Thanks for the reply. I just re-read the article... In all honesty, it would be worlds better without any reference to Asperger's, but the piece you added at the end of the paragraph does offset the earlier comments to some extent. Thanks for making the edit.

Kind regds

Mike

Sent: Friday, February 19, 2016 at 8:08 PM
From: "Ken Rockwell" <kenrockwell@kenrockwell.com>
To: Mike <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.com>
Subject: Re: K-1 / Aspergers

Read again

I edited

Thanks!

Ken

Sent from iPhone 6s Plus ��

On Feb 19, 2016, at 8:54 AM, Mike <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com> wrote:

Hi Ken

I'm writing about your news article on the Pentax K-1, in which you make the following comments:

"I can do without Pentax' primitive DSLRs unless I was some Aspergers case hoping to use my ancient manual-focus Pentax lenses"

...and...

"but I fail to see who would buy it other than some feeble Aspergian hope to recycle old lenses"

I disagree with your views on Pentax and the K-1, but absolutely support your right to hold and express your opinions.
The reason I'm contacting you, however, is your Asperger's-related comments. I'm not easily offended or especially
sensitive, but I think these comments are inappropriate and potentially hurtful to those affected directly or indirectly
by autism. I hope I can appeal to you to reconsider just those two items of your news article.

Kind regds

Mike


The change he made was to add a couple of sentences at the end of the paragraph, as follows:

(For those of you who don't have to care for as many on-the-spectrum people as I do on a daily basis, those with Asperger's have great difficulty handling change. Many outsiders may miss my point: those with this disorder find it an insurmountable obstacle to dump their old lenses and get new ones instead.)

Personally, I think he should just have removed the Asperger's comments altogether. But this is an improvement of sorts. Hey ho.

[dsmithhfx]

I just re-read the article

Another page hit! Doh!

[christiandre]

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00 for hiring a hitman.
He will kill Ken and expose his head on a stake for us to take great pictures of his bloody head with a Pentax K1

[WillWeaverRVA]

Apparently according to Ken you have to be an Asperger's case to want to buy a Pentax camera and gives it very short shrift..

Now I have another reason to dislike Ken Rockwell...

[bertwert]

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00 for hiring a hitman.
He will kill Ken and expose his head on a stake for us to take great pictures of his bloody head with a Pentax K1

I know he is bad but does he deserve that, he's just doing his job...

[BigMackCam]

Just to close off the issue from my side... I got another pleasant reply from Ken - I replied again, and he replied one last time. I won't post the e-mails here, but we learned that our lives have both been affected in one way or another by Asperger's. I still think his original comments were ill-advised, but I'm prepared to accept he meant no offence to Asperger's sufferers.

Now, if he'd just stop being such a LeiCaNikon fan-boy, I might get to like him

[bertwert]

Now, if he'd just stop being such a LeiCaNikon fan-boy

That praises Apple and iPhones 24/7...

[rrstuff]

He is just trying to get more traffic to his website by generating controversial statements. And successfully. All of you here discuss his nonsense.. Note that the website is his main source of income.