[lesmore49]

It seems to me that the dearth of physical outlets to see and hold and experience Pentax is a major impediment to the brand - perhaps more than I realized. I knew it on some level but seeing these stories suggests that even with alternate brand experience and loyalty Pentax won many of us over. Very interesting.

Yep, I think some truth to that. However I have noticed that in my city of about 3/4 of a million, we had about 8 camera stores around 2007. Now we have 5 or so, three have been closed up in the ensuing years. I'm expecting that of these five, I wouldn't be surprised to see another three close shop in the next couple of years.

I bought my last two cameras...without seeing them in the flesh...or feel (testing for compatible ergonomics ) . I did go to one of the remaining camera shops ...only to get the store's extended warranty....to purchase my K1 and Ricoh GR ll , and they brought them in, for my special order. I did the same with probably my last eight lenses, Sekonic light meter, etc...because the stores don't carry them.

It's been fine. Granted I'm an experienced photographer and I've been sticking with the brand (Pentax) that I know. But I never had any experience with a Ricoh GR series before I special ordered it. Would a newbie do the same thing ?

Probably not. They want to look, touch, ask questions of the staff and see the actual camera. But I think there are less and less newbies coming into the expensive camera hobby. The cell phones are much more convenient to haul around and the pix -both still and video- taken by my wife's Apple phone are really quite good.

Good enough for the vast majority .

In fact on the rare occasion I go into a camera store now, I rarely see too many of the cheap, entry level cameras. I see the higher end models, catering to the enthusiast niche market.

Most of the stuff, I've learned about cameras...in the past fifteen years or so.... have been through forums like this, the owner's manuals,or model specific how to books.

Every so often I read online, about in store brands like Nikon or Olympus are having a devil of a time keeping afloat...Pentax however seems to be the little engine that could...so far. I don't know how true these stories about camera brands failing, I just read them, I don't do exhaustive researches into the veracity of the sources.

But as in anything a brand can be dropped. I'm still surprised that you can't buy a Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Plymouth or mercury car anymore.

And when I think of it...what happened to the DeSoto car ? That was a dang fine automobile.

[mlag]

Somewhere mid 80's. Pentax film camera SFX + kit lens. I guess pentax was a good and cost efficient offering in those days and there was less domination from other brands... can't remember why exactly.
Evolved to K10 and K3II. Lenses came along over the years: first improved f2.8 standard zoom lens and extra tele zoom, than HSM standard lens for faster focus. And a fisheye . A teleconvertor. And MF vintage lenses for fun (prime tele's from 200 to 400 and mirror lenses 400 to 600mm )...
Pentax served me well, never tempted to change...
Considering a macro now ....
...story goes on.

[AfterPentax Mark II]

Before Pentax I took pictures with the Zenith B and later on with the Zenith EM. These were my first SLR's. Being rebellious by nature I did not take the advice of friends, colleagues and sellers to buy a Canon, a Minolta or a Nikon. Instead I took the next one in the alphabet and bought a Pentax ME, followed by the Super version. Then a Super A, two SFX's amongst them the "n" (nowadays replaced by "Mark II") a *ist. Followed by the Samsung camera GX-10. I always felt that I had the best camera my money could buy with a Pentax model. With each new one it felt like I was in photgraphic heaven. Now I have landed I am the owner of a KP. What I like a lot that all these years the settings on the camera remained the same and with the digitals you also got settings inside the camera. I still can take a picture like I did with the ME's or I can do it fully automated digitally. I can even dream it is my old EM! And go fully manual. Pentax's were elegant opposed to the heavy Canon of my colleague, which camera I took a lot of times in my hands but I did not like the feel. To heavy, to pompous (). And with each new Pentax and the new possibilities of the new model, that made it easier to arrive at a good outcome. My colleague, who was more or less a professional, had much more difficulties than I to reach that good outcome. We sometimes made pictures at the same site or festivities at the office and mine were mostly favoured by the other colleagues and that had to do with colours that the Pentax's rendered (same film rolls, but different camera's and glass). So Pentax made me feel proud at what I could achieve due to their assistance! The digitals give me that same feeling especially the K-01 and the KP.

[Grokh]

Before Pentax I took pictures with the Zenith B and later on with the Zenith EM.

In my school graduation class I had Zenith-E, and before it - FED-5v.

[c.a.m]

2010: shopping for a new camera. I wanted a DSLR to "graduate" up from my Canon Powershot G7.

At the local camera store near my home: The nice sales person suggested a Nikon D90 or D300s. Both seemed good to me and in my budget.


The next day...

Looking at the D90 and D300s again.

Me: "Oh, what about that Pentax camera over there in the corner?"

I was sold on the K-7. Got a DA 35mm Limited and DA 50-200 at the same time.


A few weeks later, I came across a Pentax-M 50/1.7 at a thrift store, $30. The cashier said it's 50% off today. Pretty good lens for $15. Welcome to Pentax!


- Craig

[Michael Piziak]

It seems to me that the dearth of physical outlets to see and hold and experience Pentax is a major impediment to the brand - perhaps more than I realized. I knew it on some level but seeing these stories suggests that even with alternate brand experience and loyalty Pentax won many of us over. Very interesting.

I've read every post and I have to agree with you. Quite a few people made a Pentax decision at the store - quite a few of them going in to get a Canon or Nikon and then holding a Pentax.

[Gerbermiester]

I was 20 years old and teaching English in China. I had a Fuji finepix point-and-shoot that I had received as a high-school graduation present from my parents. Given that I didn't speak the local language all that well, I spent most my time wandering the streets and taking photos when I wasn't at work. I soon wanted "a camera that would take better pictures" 😁

Doing research on the slow as molasses censored Chinese internet (circa 2010), I found favorable reviews for the image quality and price point of the Pentax Kx. I had one shipped over from Japan. Shortly afterwards, I recieved an old M 135mm f/3.5 as a Christmas gift which forced my hand in learning how aperture, shutter speed, and iso all effected the resulting picture. From there on, I was hooked.

[davidreilly3207]

Bought a k-1000 kit from Spigel in 1973(?).

[Digitalis]

The Pentax glass was noticeably better by a wide margin than the Nikon or Canon glass that the other photographers were using.To be fair, they were all using zooms, I was using primes.

Many of my colleagues use zooms, I have spoken to a number of them over this and the line of thought many of them hold with is that being in the studio, they have more than enough light that the main advantage of a prime: fast apertures is completely redundant. While this is certainly true, I have pointed out to many of them that even in this day and age there are many zooms that take a back seat to the quality of primes. Many of my colleagues don't really get my obsession with primes, a fair percentage of them only have a 50 f/1.4 floating around in a bag of f/2.8 and slow f/4 zooms, and every time they are forced to use it and discover that working with that one fast 50mm lens makes them work harder, but also better...

[StiffLegged]

Quite a few people made a Pentax decision at the store - quite a few of them going in to get a Canon or Nikon and then holding a Pentax.

On the other hand, I bought my K-7 online, blind, but when it arrived it fitted my hand so nicely and handled so well that that was that. I have recently hefted another brand’s premium model which handles as nicely, but would cost a small fortune to change to for no real gain, so Pentax is where I’ll stay: the lenses are better than I am.

[Serkevan]

On the other hand, I bought my K-7 online, blind, but when it arrived it fitted my hand so nicely and handled so well that that was that. I have recently hefted another brand’s premium model which handles as nicely, but would cost a small fortune to change to for no real gain, so Pentax is where I’ll stay: the lenses are better than I am.

Likewise for me. I had *read* about the excellent ergonomics and layout of the K-7 platform, but I didn't confirm it until I'd already bought it.

[Basie]

When I was at high school wayyy back I drooled over the Nikon F4 SLR's of the day. A family member had to take a accompany a patient from Namibia to the Old Eastern Germany and on my insistence bought a camera there. It was a Practika, which used 42 mm Pentax mount and was my first SLR. My next SLR was a Ricoh K5 that also used the screw mount lenses and I for B&W I got a K1000 and was hooked. Then graduated to a MZ50 with bayonet mount and since I had some lenses when I started with DSLR it was the K20 and then the K5 and now the KP. I cannot see myself moving away from Pentax/Ricoh soon

[texandrews]

Pentax K1000 (used) and then quickly an MX(used). This would have been in the early '80's. Forget some of the lenses, but I recall having a Vivitar series one wide zoom glued to it for a while. Relegated to slides of my artwork mostly and some art related documentary work when I transitioned into LF and then to MF. The MX got stolen from my studio in the mid-late '90's.


Fast forward to the digital age, and after my first camera in 2001, a Kodak DC4800---which took surprisingly good images---went into Oly for the rest of the aughts. Then Sony A850 in 2010-ish, followed on by 2 other Sony's (I liked them very much). Picked up a Pentax 645N for peanuts with several lenses to add some flexibility to my MF film capability(Fuji GSW690II) Then back to Pentax with a vengeance with the 645Z in spring of 2014, followed on with the K1 and a board replacement for that. And add in the 24 lenses between the 2 cameras. All in with Pentax.

[Sakura]

When i was 12 or so, i got a Beirette from my parents



Totally manual with a separate light meter. Used it a lot and made a lot of great pictures with it.

Around 1977 i bought myself a Pentax MX with a 50mm F1:1.7 (still own that camera and lens) and additional bought a Vivitar 70-210 and a Vivitar 17mm and a motorized winder (that i had upgraded with a 2.5mm jack for a remote switch). And a Metz 45 CT1.

The MX was in that time the smallest and quietest 35mm LSR on the market. And another feature was that u even could use it up to -25 C.
My father at that time had a Praktica camera. When shooting pictures in wintertime, he could literately make 2.5 pictures, then the shutter got frozen solid .

Me and my loyal MX traveled a lot, from winter holidays in Austria to summer holidays and sandstorms in Egypt and round trips in Russia.

When the digital area started, Pentax was a bit late to go that way. I think it was 2004 i decided i really wanted to go digital so i bought a Fuji finepix 602z for 999.00 euro including a 500MB CF card (what actually was a mini hard-disk)



I liked that camera, but it wasn't a good replacement for my good and solid MX.

Around 2005 I had it with the Fuji and bought a Pentax again, a K100D.

What a relief, finally again a Pentax in my hands.
One big downside tough, i wasn't enable anymore to use manual focus because of the much smaller viewfinder, spoiled as i was with the best viewfinder ever of the MX.

I even bought extra lenses to add to the viewfinder, tried taking pictures without my glasses, but whatever I did, it failed for me.
I finally rested at the idea of well, we all get older and eyes don't get better with age.

Then in 2010 I bought K7 and sold my K100D to my brother who was also a MX owner.

I used the K7 very intensely, up to in pouring rain and in entertainment parks where you could stand on the receiving end of a boat-water slide and got a huge amount of water over you and you're camera. (a couple of days later i had to rens my K7 under a tap because some algae got in between the switches).
I got the counter of the K7 at 65000 clicks.

Then in 2019, after i got a small heritage i had the money to finally buy a so much wanted FF camera, so i bought the K1-II.
And WOW, what a beast of a camera.

And above all, the viewfinder WOW WOW WOW. Finally i could use manual focus again (while in all that time since the MX i was still thinking my eyes got worse and that was the reason i couldn't use manual focus anymore.)
You can imagine how extremely happy i was (and still am) that again i could use a camera as i was used to so many years ago. (getting chicken-bumps again writing this)

Oh, and my K7, well, it got a second life as camera for my wife.

[E-man]

All of my 35mm gear was Minolta, beginning with an X-570 body and 50mm f1.7 lens that I got for my 21st birthday. I used it extensively, and even professionally for a few years when I worked for a newspaper from 1987-1991. They hired me as a reporter and then found out I had a camera and knew my way around a darkroom so I started pulling double duty almost from day one. The paper had a couple of Pentax K1000s with 50mm lenses and 70-210mm kit zooms that I'd use occasionally but I mostly just stuck with my Minoltas. When I left the paper to go to graduate school and my camera gear mostly sat idle. I'd occasionally pick one up and take a few snaps but I was far more interested in computers at that point.


My (now ex-) wife gave me a little Fujifilm point-n-shoot digital camera the first Christmas we were together in about 2001 It was fun but I always felt constrained by its lack of features. After we split up about three years later, I went to work for a university and one of my job functions was to oversee student media, including the school newspaper. They had a Canon DSLR (don't remember the model) that I'd occasionally borrow for various projects. I knew right away that was the type of camera I wanted but the cost was beyond my means at the time.


In the summer of 2012, after a few years of financial struggle, I landed the full time job I have now and I decided to celebrate by getting a DSLR. After looking at Canikons I decided the value proposition just wasn't there and eventually pulled the trigger on a barely used second hand Pentax *istDL with a DA 18-55mm kit lens. I loved the camera but sadly, I killed it in a botched firmware update. I'm not sure what happened but the camera got bricked. Thankfully, I had purchased a SquareTrade extended warranty an was able to get a refund for the entire kit and kept the lens and accessories. By that time, I had a couple of K-mount lenses and had gotten the appropriate hot shoe module to use my Quantaray flash with a Pentax so I decided the most logical thing to do was to get another Pentax DSLR body, which I did and the rest is history.