[C_Jones]

The first Pentax camera I purchased was a Pentax K-1000. I also had a 50 mm Pentax lens and a 70-210 mm lens to use with it, both being manual. My first Pentax digital camera was a Pentax K-20D, and the K-5, K5IIs, K-3II, K-1, and K-1 II followed. I basically just shoot digital now, though I do still have my K-1000, manual lenses, and some film.

I also have the Pentax 16-85, Pentax 70-200, and Sigma 150-500 for Pentax. The digital Pentax cameras that I have retained are my K-3 II, K-5IIs, and K-1 II.

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Last edited by C_Jones; 09-23-2021 at 02:16 PM.

[Serkevan]

Three years ago, when I wanted to get into photography, I was researching brands (and models). I was serious about learning so I figured an older, higher-end camera would be a better option.
I'm from a rainy region, love hiking, and I'm, ahem, clumsy, so a weatherproof and well-built camera was important to me.

For some reason I was thinking about Pentax (after remembering my parents' old Espio 115G), and lo and behold... Used K-7s fit the bill and were within budget. The rest is history

[Michael Piziak]

Your stories are very fascinating to read. I've read them all. Keep them coming!

[DonV]

I started out with a screw mount Practica in the 1960's, always wanted that slick Pentax that I could not afford.
First one I bought was a K mount MX film camera about 1970, when I had a job, still in college, but not married!
I had to wait a while to buy the MX winder though- maybe 10 years!

[FozzFoster]

K-S2...

Got interested in photography in 2015. Entry-level camera choices for me were a Pentax K-S2 vs. Canon T6i.

I studied in Environmental Science including post-grad concentrating on river management. I was in the field often, and my stuff got wet.
Therefore, a new camera must be weather resistant. This statement alone strongly disfavored most (all?) other major camera brands.
For both Canon and Nikon, you would have had to afford their mid-tier, enthusiast-grade gear to get the weather sealing.

The healthy and affordable second-hand market for film era lenses that still worked perfect on digital was also very attractive.

In addition to weather-sealing, Pentax offered in their entry-level camera, what other companies withhold until you upgrade into much more expensive models such as pentaprisms instead of pentamirrors, dual-control wheels, faster max shutter speed, wider viewfinder coverage, and more AE bracketing stops. On top of that, Pentax offered in-body stabilization, no anti-aliasing (simulated if you wanted it), and astrotracer capabilities - all in a smaller, tougher-built, more affordable package.

It was an obvious choice.

[pres589]

Wanted a "real camera" after I got my "first real job" and researched what was available in 2006. Went with the Pentax K100D due to the history and glass availability with the k-mount and Pentax offered IBIS. Pricing seemed pretty competitive at the time, the camera reviewed will, and honestly I had no idea what was going on with the brand at the time (Hoya taking over, production of a lot of older products ended at that point in time, etc). I was gifted a Sigma 17-70, the one with its own shake reduction in-lens, and never really shot with that kit that much. Never really learned what I was doing, basically using it as a point & shoot when I did get it off the shelf.

Fast forward seven years and my home was broken into and the K100D & 17-70 were stolen. I still had the 18-55 kit lens and nothing else. I moved in with a friend while looking for a new place to live (was a renter, didn't want to stay where I was, yadda yadda) and decided I needed a hobby that would get me out of the house and mind onto better things. In short order I purchased a used K-5 II. And then an M 50 f1.4. And my Kalt 28mm f2.8. And I was off to the races actually getting out with my camera. And I've never added gear that didn't have a k-mount on it though I've considered it from time to time. When I branched out into film photography in 2018 I stayed with k-mount.

I still have that K-5 II and have developed a not entirely rational attachment to it.

[smrk]

I expect a large number of responses will be from people who started back in the film days.

My first Pentax was a Honeywell/Pentax Spotmatic F with a 50mm 1.4 I picked up for my photography class back in High School (probably 1989)
Prior to that I had been using a couple of point and shoot 110's and a Disk Camera (anyone else remember that wonder of photographic clarity? )

That Spotmatic was so much better than the point and shoots I had been using that I never went back, I pulled that heavy tank of a camera out whenever I needed to take a picture even when it didn't make much sense to lug it around.
(I'll admit I had been a little critical of my dad who kept pulling out his ancient Rollelicord when he wanted to take a real photograph, but I understood afterwards)

When 1996 rolled around and I had a bit more spending $$ I picked up a ZX-10.
I had finally gotten tired of the manual focus and I'll admit there was a bit of brand loyalty going on there with that decision.
With that camera I picked up a couple of entry level zooms (I had some spending $$ but not that much) and a decent for the time flash gun.

That camera held me over for quite a while, when the first 6mp DSLR's started showing up I held off picking one up because the picture quality didn't seem to hold up to film in my eyes, and the $$ didn't add up.

When 2011 rolled around the more budget frently DSLR's were finally at a quality that I found acceptable and started looking around.

Up until that point Pentax felt like a solid 3rd place in the camera world (after Cannon, and Nikon) but I could tell that they were starting to slip.
Once again I'll admit there was a bit of brand loyalty when I picked up my Kr but I can still say that the glass I had in hand was cheaper than trying to start over with a different brand.

The Kr served me very well for the next 8+ years and I picked up a couple more lens's, but time marches on and once my son graduated out of youth sports the warts were really starting to show.
My entry level Sigma 70-210 was too slow for my wife to sit in the stands and take pics for indoor sports (or outdoor sports for that matter).
The Pentax 18-135 is great as a general walk around lens, and is marginally faster than the sigma, but doesn't have the reach for outdoor sports and while it's weather proof the Kr isn't.

So it's 2019 and time to pick up a new camera.
Pentax is more of a nich brand now, and mirrorless camera's are the new rage.
I spent a lot more time looking at what was available than I had the previous times.
But with the feature set I wanted (weather proof, and a fast 70-200) and the budget I had allocated, I ended up with a KP with the 70-200 F2.8


The mirrorless camera options didn't excite me, the EVF's still lag compared to an OVF.
To get a weather proof body and lens I saved a significant amount vs. the other options


Plus I have to say that the retro styling of the KP didn't hurt (reminds me a lot of my Spotmatic)

Will I stay with Pentax next time? (will they even still be around next time?)
Time can only tell

[Sandy Hancock]

As a teenager (in the late 70's) I discovered my science teacher at high school had a dark room in the basement beneath his classroom. I got interested in the process, and when I decided to move from my father's ancient fixed lens rangefinder to a SLR, K-mount was still a rich ecosystem. My pocket money at the time wouldn't stretch to a Pentax camera, but the Ricoh KR-10 was well regarded and proved to be feature rich, well built and reliable. I stretched the system out with a handful of extra third-party lenses (24mm and 28mm primes and 35-70 and 70-210 zooms) and a fancy swivelling thyristor flash.

In my final year at school our cricket team travelled to England for a tour and I took the kit on the road as the unofficial shutterbug. At university I shot for the campus newspaper and did the bulk of the processing. Meeting real rock stars like Mick Fleetwood, Martha Davis (The Motels), Neil Finn (Split Enz and Crowded House) and Laurie Anderson was a real buzz.

At some point the KR-10 just went missing. I have no recollection of when or how. A few years later I replaced it with a Pentax P30T, which served me well on bushwalking and climbing trips, and family events when my kids were little.

It took my a while to move to digital, but I eventually weakened and bought one of those ridiculous 2MP Sonys with a tiny body which swivelled on the back of an enormous zoom lens the size of a beer can. It did the job, but certain frustrations impelled me to seek a DSLR. I went to one of the most reputable bricks and mortar camera stores in Adelaide, fully expecting to walk out with a Nikon or Canon, but when I mentioned I had a few old K-mount lenses, the salesman talked me into the Pentax K10D.

From that moment there was no looking back.

[StiffLegged]

I had an SV, complete with the metering head that sat over the pentaprism, then an SP500 and finally an SP1000 with SMC Takumars 50, 105, 200mm and third-party 35 and 24mm lenses. Add a Weston Euromaster and a tripod to that and I thought I was the bee’s knees. I shot, and printed, a lot of FP4 and had a lot of fun with it. Those were the late 70s/early 80s. Eventually the SP and lenses were traded in for my dream camera, an MX (still got it) with 50, 28 and 80-320 FA. Fast forward to 8 years ago when I bought a K-7 and went digital.

I first bought Pentax because there was a lot of them about secondhand and the glass is good. The MX struck me as the ideal manual SLR and built like a fine tool. I stuck with Pentax for the handling and the glass and recent lens purchases from the A series only confirmed that - the A 35-105 is my most used lens.

However, despite sticking with Pentax, it’s the results that really matter. I don’t care what you shoot with, I’m only really interested in the images. Call me a non-tribal Pentaxian if you will.

[lesmore49]

So, how did you become a Pentaxian, and please share with us your experience(s) and thoughts about that first Pentax camera.

It all started for me, back in February, 1969. I worked at a publishing company as an editorial assistant. One day the publisher called me into his office and told me that I would have to make myself more useful at the firm. I replied that I was up to any challenge and he responded, 'good, in addition to working as an editorial assistant, I needed to learn how to take publishable photographs for the four business magazines, and therefore I needed to buy myself a good camera. '

I asked him what kind, as I absolutely knew nothing about photography. I still had my box brownie, which had been a gift to me, when I was about 10 years old...but that was it.

He said ' get a 35mm single lens reflex. Either a Nikon or Pentax would do...and talk to the photography department of the company. '

I spoke to the head of the photography department at the company, he said a Pentax should do, and I went to a number of camera stores checking out different models...of Pentax and Nikon. I bought a new Pentax S1a...which was the basic SLR....1/500th (yeah I know you could get 1/1000th of a sec out of it), no internal light meter, no hot shoe, no cold shoe for flash. I also bought a hand held, Sekonic light meter, for an additional 10 bucks...totaled out at $ 159 CAD, camera, 55mm f2 Takumar lens and light meter.

The pro photographers at the company taught me how to load film, push film ASA, focus, basic composition, use of f stop and shutter speed, how to meter, how to use a gray card for metering, etc.

I wasn't wonderful, but I got better and fairly quickly was able to take usable photographs for the company. It was practice, practice and more practice. They gave me free film...Tri-X black and white...and encouraged me to keep on practicing. They gave me critiques not artsy-fartsy critiques but basic stuff on how to improve. Best way to learn. I cranked a lot of film through my S1a .

The other company photographers were pros, and although I earned part of my living taking pix for the company, I never saw myself in their league. They were great, I was OK fine.

So, what did I like about my first camera ?

The camera was great, practical, basic, reliable, durable. One time the shutter froze up, after I was out and about...for about an hour in -30 weather, doing a story in Regina, Saskatchewan. After an hour in the hotel room, it unfroze and was ready to work again.

I'm a prairie boy from Western Canada. We have very cold winters. Then and now.

I still have it, along with the Sekonic meter, and the Takumar F2, 55 mm lens. They all work well and on occasion, I still use it. Lessee...I've had it for over 52 years now....over half a century.

I also have continued to buy hand held light meters over the years. About 5 years ago, got a classic meter, a Sekonic L398. They have been around for years, believe they were originally Norwood meters, although I could be wrong. Anyways, I still like to every so often put the K1, K5, K10D on manual settings and meter with the Sekonic(s).

I stuck with Pentax ever since and have a lot of them , both digital and film. I've also got other camera makes...Canon (F-1), Mamiya medium format , Olympus, Minolta, Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta, Leica rangefinder (vintage), Yashicamat TLR, etc.

But Pentax has always been the main brand. Most current cameras...a K1 and a Ricoh GR ll...which I consider a Pentax. In fact I have a 49mm, GH 3 Adaptor for the GR and it's always on...and it has one of my 50 plus year old Asahi Pentax, metal lens caps covering it. Gives it that vintage look.

Pentax for me, have been reliable, durable, well built, capable.

Why would I switch .

[ismaelg]

Hello,

Both my parents were teachers. In the early 80's, my father was in charge of audiovisual and technology for the school district. So I learned how to use film projectors, audio recorders, and many other cool gadgets. To the point I was demonstrating other teachers how to use them at age 11 or so. One of those cool gadgets was a Pentax K1000. I was probably 11-12 years old or so. I don't recall using it much but it left an impression. Fast forward to my college years, I was again interested in photography. Subscribed to Popular Photography magazine and was frequently checking other photography publications at the local bookstore (remember those?). So in 1989 (age 19) I mail ordered my very own K1000 (which I still own and use) from the pages of Popular Photography to a New York dealer called MIBRO.
The rest as they say, is history.

Thanks,
Ismael

[jlstrawman]

I honestly can't recall what happened, but it was 1966. I think I just woke up one day and I was a Pentaxian with an H1a. I let my brother take it on a road trip to the west coast. Somewhere along the line, there was a rear end car accident at highway speed. My brother survived, but the H1a did not.

[microlight]

Same kind of beginning as Sandy but ten years earlier. My biology teacher in the late 60s taught us how to process and print monochrome, and he had a Spotmatic, which hooked me - it was very good-looking. It was around that time that I vowed that one day, I would have a Rolex, a Mercedes SL - and a Pentax! Fast-forward to 1975 and my first Pentax, a KM with a 55mm f1.8 lens; a beauty. It was stolen from my car a year later so I replaced it with a MX plus 50mm f1.7 which I then used for 30 years until the *istDS came along, in around 2006; then a K-5 and now a K-3II. I flirted with a Nikon once (F501) but didn’t like it, and sold it. I’ve never sold a Pentax - indeed now I have a collection of more than 30 Pentax film cameras. I’m here to stay!

[boriscleto]

Got a K1000 when I was 14. It wasn’t my first 35mm but it was my first SLR. After owning a couple digital p&s and bridge cameras I was looking for a DSLR. I was looking at the D3000 & D5000 but one was too limited and the other a little too expensive for its limitations. I looked at the K1000 on my shelf and looked up Pentax on the site that shal not be named. They hadn’t reviews the K-x yet but other sites had…I missed the Black Friday deals, but Abe’s of Maine had the Stormtrooper K-x on sale a week or two later.

[UMC]

Given all the stories of the 60ies I feel young...

I got a Praktica EE2 as Christmas present in 1979 and learned to hate it over the next 30 months for its bulky design and the inferior reliability.


Then, in June 1982 I went into a store and asked for advice on a new entry-level camera. The clerk put a Canon AE-1, a Minolta XG-1, an Olympus OM-10, a Yashica, a Nikon and the Pentax ME-Super on the desk. I told him "take away the Canon and the Yashica, I'm not interested in shutter priority. You can also take away the Minolta and the Nikon - too bulky. And sorry, Olympus - too expensive. However, this little ME-Super looks really cute!".

One year later came the Super A (Super Program), more than a decade later the Z1-P and the MZ-3 - and a bunch of digital bodies since 2010....