[Michael Piziak]

How did you become a Pentax user (Pentaxian) ? And share with us your thoughts on that first Pentax model you owned please.


My first 2 digital cameras were a 2 megapixel HP camera and then a prosumer Olympus c5050z digital camera.

My ex-wife bought me a Pentax k2000 at Sam's Club. It was my very first SLR (film or digital). I was amazed at how good the operation and pictures were, compared to my previous cameras. It came with the 18-55mm DA L kit lens.


I have been a Pentaxian ever since then. Shortly after she bought it for me, I purchased a Pentax 55-300mm - it was the DA version that had the metal mount - unlike the DA L version that had a plastic mount. It was the first and *only* new lens that I've ever purchased for any camera - it cost over $300 and I think it cost like 4 or 5 hundred US dollars. I didn't purchase another lens for many years after that. I knew nothing about SLR lens and the 55-300mm lens was selected for me by my wifes friend, who was a Nikon professional photographer - all we told him was that we wanted a zoom lens for it to photograph our daughter playing sport.

My thoughts on the Pentax k2000 are as follows. It took excellent photos compared to the Olympus prosumer c5050z camera. I really really really enjoyed the SLR experience where looking through the optical viewfinder gave nearly a 100% view of what the resulting photo would cover (width and height that is). The k2000 did not have a proprietary rechargeable battery. It took four AA batteries, of which I opted to buy four rechargeable AA batteries - I may have already had 4 as the Olympus c5050z also only took 4 AA batteries. I didn't think much of the battery situation; however, when I acquired my next Pentax DSLR, it came with a proprietary battery which I enjoyed very much more as it took many more pictures. One last thought is that the k2000 was a 10 megapixel DSLR - having twice the megapixels of the Olympus camera (5 megapixels) and having 5 times those of the HP camera (a 2MP camera).


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


Regards,

Michael

[pschlute]

Pentax MX + SMC-M 50mm 1.7 lens. 1979

[normhead]

When I was in Photo Arts at Ryerson Politech in 1967, the lens cupboard with the lenses you could sign out was full of Pentax glass, the Spotmatic was the only camera with through the lens metering, but all our assignments were either 4x5 or 8x10 film and for 35mm I bought an SV, thinking I had to buy a light meter anyway for large format studio work, so why buy two?... so I never actually took advantage of the lens cupboard... but I could have.

Anyway I've never seen reason to switch that actually made more sense than using my old lenses on a new body. I have none of my old M lenses left nor do I have any of my screw mount lenses. So that was a bit spurious as well, but, my purchasing decisions never had to make sense. While my decisions were never actually great decisions, they weren't bad ones either. Sometimes you do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

I'm sure my old Canon and Nikon shooting buddies from Ryerson are still shooting Canon and Nikon as well. As much as people will say it really makes a difference, for 99.5% of the population, it really doesn't.

[Michael Piziak]

When I was in Photo Arts at Ryerson Politech in 1967, the lens cupboard with the lenses you could sign out was full of Pentax glass, the Spotmatic was the only camera with through the lens metering, but all our assignments were either 4x5 or 8x10 film and for 35mm I bought an SV, thinking I had to buy a light meter anyway for large format studio work, so why buy two?... so I never actually took advantage of the lens cupboard... but I could have.

Anyway I've never seen reason to switch that actually made more sense than using my old lenses on a new body. I have none of my old M lenses left nor do I have any of my screw mount lenses. So that was a bit spurious as well, but, my purchasing decisions never had to make sense. While my decisions were never actually great decisions, they weren't bad ones either. Sometimes you do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

I'm sure my old Canon and Nikon shooting buddies from Ryerson are still shooting Canon and Nikon as well. As much as people will say it really makes a difference, for 99.5% of the population, it really doesn't.

Thanks for the reply. All the lens I've bought since the 55-300mm have been manual lens. I bought 2 macro lens, since I love macro photography - the M-100mm macro f4 and recently the M-50mm macro f4. I like the 50mm one because the extension tubes actually bring more magnification than the 100mm lens. But the 100mm lens has its advantage too, as you can photograph subjects from a farther away distance as not to disturb the subject if its an animal....

---------- Post added 09-23-21 at 12:39 PM ----------

Pentax MX + SMC-M 50mm 1.7 lens. 1979

Cool. I just looked up that film camera. At the time it was Pentax flagship SLR camera....

[UncleVanya]

My first Pentax I owned was a PZ-1. But before that my dad worked for Pentax. At that time I was shooting Nikon. During his time with Pentax I shot his sample gear some including K1000, MX, ME super, and LX using a variety of lenses but not often as he was on the road and I could only travel with him during summer. I liked the LX the most, the MX was nice too.

Later when I wanted an autofocus camera and he was out of the industry a good friend of his who worked for Pentax gave us a deal on the PZ-1. Eventually I ended up with the body, an F 35-135 which was the workhorse lens, an A* 85 I adored, an F 100 f2.8 macro, an FA 80-320, an A or M 50 f1.7, an M or A 28 f2.8, and an M or A 100 f2.8.

I shot a ton of film.

When compact digitals came out I jumped onto the Pentax line up. I had a few including a two part early unit I can’t be bothered to look up right now. Later an Optio 330 was my weapon of choice, but that lost some of the fun. Finally I got back into SLR’s… DSLR’s via a Craigslist purchase. I got a K100d super, the 18-55 and 50-200 lenses from that transaction. I tried using the old gear and most worked well enough - but the 80-320 had died in storage. The 100 and 50 and 28 had been gifted to a friend’s daughter for a photography class (she became interested for life btw).

My journey reignited with a k-50 and 18-135 and then a k-3 and lately a KP. Along the way I collected a lot of lenses.

[house]

I got a MZ-50 as a birthday present in the mid nineties. Not a great camera (controls) but it held up and is still alive.

[Michail_P]

After many many times looking at Pentax slrs, I bought a canon ...... :P
My first flirt was the K-50... only from a distance. It looked different, charming, well built, full of character. When the time was right, I got the K-70. Love the camera. Probably won’t change brands. I hope I get myself a K-3||| ASAP.

[aaacb]

I wanted an interchangeable lens camera, having used before a (borrowed) film slr a with 50mm lens only, a bridge camera and a zoom p&s.
So I compared the k3ii with an olympus m43 camera and a nikon apsc dslr, and decided on the pentax because of how it felt in the hand, some specs (ibis), and some of the lenses (da limited). I was set on getting the m43 camera, but a trip to nyc allowed me to visit bh and see the k3ii in real life; eventually i got m43 and now use both systems

[paulh]

Started out with a used *ist D that came with a Sigma 28-90 and Pentax F80-200. That seller turned me on to Pentax Forums. Later, added the K10D and K-5. Still have the *ist D, used it yesterday in fact.

[MossyRocks]

First real camera I got was a Spotmatic F with the SMC 55/1.8, Vivitar S1 135/2.3, and Vivitar 200/3.5. Before that I had a Concord 110CEF as a camera (Still own it, it is baby blue) that I used. I found the Spotmatic and lenses behind the bench seat when cleaning out a U-Haul truck back in 1999 when I worked there during college and put it in the lost bin but left notice that if it wasn't claimed that I wanted it. The camera came in on an out of town truck and I did contact the individual who brought it that truck but it wasn't theirs. I called the store it came from to let them know that if someone called there looking for it that my store had it. So 6 months later no one had claimed it so I did as it was abandoned property. That camera has been around the world with me and taken quite the large amount of abuse but just keeps going. I still use it now and then as just the use of that camera brings joy to me.

I love that camera, I don't' have the Vivitar 200/3.5 anymore but the 55/1.8 and Vivitar S1 135/2.3 I still do and will still use those lenses even on digital and when I finally decided to make the jump to mostly digital I stuck with Pentax as the use of old glass was a lot easier. As I have used other digital cameras because others ask me to take a picture of them I am actually really glad I did as I really don't like the Canon or Sony interfaces and only get mildly annoyed at the Nikon one. The jump to digital was mostly done for monetary reasons as I decided I wanted to get better at photography and the cost of film and development was getting expensive if one wanted to put in the time and effort to get good while an old digital + kit lens and M42 adapter cost me about $110. The other big reason I went digital is I ended up wasting an entire roll of film attempting to do some astrophotography and got nothing so that was an expensive lesson in failure. So now I own 4 pentax digital K mount bodies, 2x SP F, 2x Auto 110, and an MX plus piles of good to extremely good lenses from 12mm up to 400mm with lots of extra bits for them, so so much for the cheap part.

[aldo taddia]

I started with a Pentax MX and 50mm f.1.7 -28mm f.2.8 -135mm f.3.5. Then I added the ME super, the LX, the Super A and the Z1, (and also the 645) with numerous other lenses. Then I had Leica R4, M4P with some lenses. Nikon, but I completely disappointed and Olympus, really good. With the advent of digital I switched to Canon up to the R series. But with the Pentax K1 I returned to love photography and I accompanied it with some lenses. Pentax for me is number 1

[35mmfilmfan]

Late sixties - got second hand Pentax (no idea of model - 1/500 top speed, no meter), 50mm lens (probably f2 or f2.8 - not even sure if it was Pentax), and CDS light meter. Had a few films processed professionally, then when I got married used to black out kitchen to dev mono films (Tri-X or FP4), and print them at a local camera shop's darkroom. Went through various Pentax-fit bodies (Cosina, Ricoh), then as eyesight deteriorating got MZ5n autofocus bodies, and second hand A/F lenses of various kinds.

[Wheatfield]

How did you become a Pentax user (Pentaxian) ? And share with us your thoughts on that first Pentax model you owned please.




Michael

It was the mid 1980s. I was shooting with, and not liking very much, a Nikon F3hp and a Bronica ETRs. The Bronica suffered an irreparable mishap:



and I ended up replacing it with a Pentax 6x7.

Then the Nikon F4 came along, and I realized my time with Nikon was over. It was too big for a small format camera.
Anyway, I hated the F3, and really wasn't getting what I wanted out of the FE2 and FM either, so I decided to swap systems.
The Pentax LX looked like just the ticket, and I ended up, over a few years, buying 3 of them plus a slew of other Pentax film bodies. I seemed to luck out on getting decent lenses for reasonable coin at swap meets and the used counter at the camera store, and so ended up with a full lens and accessory kit within a very few years.
When digital came along, I stayed with the brand.

[ffking]

A uni friend of mine bought a Pentax in 1979 which I really liked the images from - I'd always wanted to take photographs but I could never afford a camera - but when I started working I saved up and bought an ME Super in 83 - I loved that camera - and I've never really wanted to change, despite the frustrations down the years, now it feels like a secret image taking weapon not many people know the value of

[MikeMcE]

H1a, Spotmatic.
Then I was factory schooled on the newfangled SMC lens line, by Gene Wentworth at Honeywell headquarters in Englewood CO.

Within a year I was servicing cameras and lenses from Asahi to Zeiss


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