[Kortgat]

Hi Pentaxians (or should it be Ricohnians these days?),

I live sunny South Africa, and even before the days of digital photography I've been a Pentax fan. So when I had to choose a body to use for a year in Antarctica (before the digital days) the K1000 was my obvious choice. Later on I changed to a K10D and recently managed to get a K3 at a reasonable price. I've stubbornly refused to change to the big C&N and still love my Pentax. But over the years I felt more and more left out here in South Africa. Dealers simply don't want to deal in Pentax. Other than a few compacts (if you are lucky) you just don't see the brand on the shelves any more. There is a local Ricoh web-site, but I never see any attempt at marketing Pentax here. South Africans are big aviation fans, so at public airshows you will see many thousands of people, and obviously many of them with impressive photographic equipment.... mostly white lenses! If you bump into someone with a Pentax it feels like bumping into a long lost friend and you feel obliged to stop and have a chat. Even the global Ricoh website that greets you with an option to choose your location, does not cater for Africa any more. I thought it might be rolled into Europe or Middle East, but it seems not.

Whether by luck or design, I never had to send equipment in for repair. So for all I know the support is brilliant, but I still fear that day. If technical support is like the brand visibility, then it would be pretty disappointing. I suppose that compared to C&N, Pentax is comparatively small in other countries too, but have we gone below the critical mass down here in this photography heaven at the tip of Africa? Yes I know it's a global village, and we can easily be part a great forum like this, but am I just being stubborn to stick to my Pentax principles?

Cheers,

Kortgat

[Adam]

Hi Pentaxians (or should it be Ricohnians these days?),

I live sunny South Africa, and even before the days of digital photography I've been a Pentax fan. So when I had to choose a body to use for a year in Antarctica (before the digital days) the K1000 was my obvious choice. Later on I changed to a K10D and recently managed to get a K3 at a reasonable price. I've stubbornly refused to change to the big C&N and still love my Pentax. But over the years I felt more and more left out here in South Africa. Dealers simply don't want to deal in Pentax. Other than a few compacts (if you are lucky) you just don't see the brand on the shelves any more. There is a local Ricoh web-site, but I never see any attempt at marketing Pentax here. South Africans are big aviation fans, so at public airshows you will see many thousands of people, and obviously many of them with impressive photographic equipment.... mostly white lenses! If you bump into someone with a Pentax it feels like bumping into a long lost friend and you feel obliged to stop and have a chat. Even the global Ricoh website that greets you with an option to choose your location, does not cater for Africa any more. I thought it might be rolled into Europe or Middle East, but it seems not.

Whether by luck or design, I never had to send equipment in for repair. So for all I know the support is brilliant, but I still fear that day. If technical support is like the brand visibility, then it would be pretty disappointing. I suppose that compared to C&N, Pentax is comparatively small in other countries too, but have we gone below the critical mass down here in this photography heaven at the tip of Africa? Yes I know it's a global village, and we can easily be part a great forum like this, but am I just being stubborn to stick to my Pentax principles?

Cheers,

Kortgat

That's surprising to hear, to be honest. Ricoh Imaging doesn't have a big presence overall, but I've been under the impression that they've made better global service a priority. For example, Pentax cameras have recently become much more readily available in India. Perhaps there are similar plans for SA?

This might be worth asking at our next interview.

[biz-engineer]

Oh , that's a business opportunity then: contact Ricoh and open a Pentax shop to cover the whole country.
What happened here is that shops dropped Pentax one after the other. But one of them saw the opportunity to be the only one selling Pentax, so he did the opposite, I shelved some 645D/Z and lenses, APSC body and lenses, and now K-1 and DFA. So even if Pentax has 5% market, he get 100% of the 5% while the other shop 20 shops are fighting with each others to get some share of Canon and Nikon cake.

[zmohie]

That's surprising to hear, to be honest. Ricoh Imaging doesn't have a big presence overall, but I've been under the impression that they've made better global service a priority. For example, Pentax cameras have recently become much more readily available in India. Perhaps there are similar plans for SA?

This might be worth asking at our next interview.

..and please ask them about the presence in Egypt.
Asahi pentax was No1 in egypt at 70s and my newspaper the pyramids had a lot of these old pentax cameres!!!
pentax was no 1 photojournalists choice!!

[Happyman]

I bought my first Pentax here in Slovakia some time around year 2000. Back then there was one distributor for the whole country. They even kept the website up. Not anymore - the site has been down for about two years or so, and I don't really know what I'd do if any of my digital cameras (k-x and k-5) broke, 'cause I bought them both from an online retailer which doesn't exist anymore. So I just keep my fingers crossed and yes, I share the same feeling with you - lost and alone. And sad, in a way, seeing the price the K1 is selling at in the US, not even €1,600, but here in Slovakia you won't get one for less than €2,000.