Originally posted by Madaboutpix
Hm. I really wanted to like this relaunch. But, honestly, I came to realize that my chief motivation for renewing my login was a mixture of curiosity and nostalgia. Curious I sure was, wanting to know what Ricoh Imaging Americas had kept of the old concept and where they had evolved it. Nostalgic I was since, after all, PPG had been a fairly constant presence and motivation when I had taken the leap to digital, into the Pentax system, and into sharing my work online.
Yet, what they have concocted is somehow less than compelling. And that's not so much about the photography on display there. Admittedly, I am not a great fan of the "eye candy" approach to post processing that speaks out of some of the images, nor do I otherwise like everything that I see there, but that's not much different from other sites like, say, Insta or 500px. People's tastes differ, I get it, and it's a boon for photography. At any rate, there would be enough engaging photography in the Gallery to pull me in again.
I guess what gives me pause, then, is that the result of their effort - commendable as it is in and unto itself - feels more like a rehash, the polishing of a tomb, of something that remains hopelessly stuck in the year 2012 or so. The display quality of the images is lightyears apart from places like SmugMug or Flickr and - even at the risk of repeating something I've written above - not exactly conducive to giving visitors a sense of what Pentax gear can really deliver. They have stuck with that outdated, clunky web design where you literally move through virtually endless bands of images, distracted by the images before and after particular images that you may want to see and appreciate in isolation. Also, today I noticed that they no longer make available detailed EXIF information with the images, beyond stating the camera and lens used. Of course, that has never made or broken a good image, but I happen to be interested in this kind of information anyway.
Whether they have fixed the poor administration of the site remains to be seen, I guess, but I, for one, am somewhat underwhelmed, as I can't shake the sense that it's a missed opportunity.
Name one other manufacturer that has a site set up for their brand.
That said, I do hope that they change how they parse out the listed gear, provide better EXIF information and the show the producers comments. As for image quality, they don't seem to have changed it from what it was on the old site. At least they are not forcing you to go to Instagram with its low res square and very poor MS Windows support.
I did run through about 20 images for voting - to bad they don't post a upload date. Overall the site was pretty snappy. I will get around to uploading a few images over the next few days (Europe - 2017, England - 2018, Alaska/Yellowstone 2019 and my images from the now defunct NG Your Shot Gallery)
---------- Post added 10-01-19 at 12:54 PM ----------
Originally posted by Photos-by-Chas
I may get myself in forum time-out for this but I just looked into joining the Pentax Photo Gallery and am in disagreement with the first sentence of the Terms and Conditions, "Ricoh Imaging has the option, at its sole discretion to decide whether to crop, edit or otherwise alter the images accepted into the Gallery as well as remove any images from its website." To me that takes away the artistic intent of the photographer? If an image can be altered or edited in any way it removes the individuality of that image and removes the original intent and vision of the photographer. Personally, I cannot agree to that type of "censorship" of my images. Therefore, I will not be a subscriber to or a participant with the Pentax Photo Gallery. Just my personal opinion and feeling. Others may agree to those conditions. That is an individual choice. I choose not to agree with the terms.
Have you ever read the T&C for Google, Facebook, Twitter, Flicker? Really, they are pretty much in line with those guys. Me thinks you protest just a little to much, even NG on its Your Shot T&C said basically the same thing.