[Photos-by-Chas]

I work with numerous Canon "divas" and even use one for work. My coworkers make a few comments about me being a "Pentaxian" and some comments are derisive, but I just keep on with my K-x and tell them I like my Pentax. Living in a small town and not traveling a lot, I do not see many cameras out and about, but last year while attending a play in a neighboring town, I noted a young lady across the auditorium with a bright red colored camera. Not sure what it was but guessing a Pentax. Didn't get a chance to speak with her but was impressed that (presumably) another Pentaxian was in the area.

[Aardvark]

You think you are rare?

try shooting with a Samsung GX20 and you will know what it is like to be Billy No Mates

[drugal]

Billy No Mates

Funny

[dtmateojr]

We have a small group (about 20 active) in Brisbane and two of us are Pentaxians

[manacho2005]

Good news for Dallas pentaxians. I just saw a Q, wg2, and even a k30 at wolf camera on Greenville ave. The salesman said they should be getting lenses soon.

[BirdDude007]

I just recently found a Brick and Mortar shop in Aiken SC called Chris' Camera that I practically drove right by everytime I went to Aiken (about twice a month) I went in there smiling from ear to ear, the guy asked me why I was so happy I told him I was just happy to actually find a camera shop, they even had lots of Pentax accessories, however they only had a K-7 in the glass case with a high price tag. I asked them if they were going to ever carry other Pentax cameras and he told me that they are actually considering it and that they have been contacted by Pentax reps.
They had several Tamron lenses in there (PK mount) that he let me try out on my K-5. Him and I went outside with a Tamron 70-200 2.8 macro zoom (which I was very pleased with, and they had a decent price on) I took a couple of shots and turned to go inside, he says"are you gonna take some test shots?" I told him that I did, the camera is just very quiet, I told him to listen really close when I took another shot, he was very impressed at how quiet the K-5 was. He told me he shoots a Canon 5D FF camera and compared to the K-5 it is so loud it practically rattles his brains every time he takes a shot.
I let him handle the K-5 and he really like how it felt and handled, I let him take a few test shots and once again he was impressed. He was like "Wow! I'm thinking of getting an APSC camera for carrying around easier everyday portability, I am definitely going to consider one of these Pentaxes!" He told me he really likes his Canon but it is rather large and heavy, he liked the size and weight of my K-5 with the battery grip, and THAT was with that Tamron zoom still attached to it.
So, what really happened there probably is he sold me on a lens and I sold him on a future camera, just thought I would share. Did I mention I was stoked about actually finding a camera store?

[DaveHolmes]

try shooting with a Samsung GX20 and you will know what it is like to be Billy No Mates

I know 2 people with GX10's... Just down the road from you...

[creampuff]

Our last Pentax monthly photo outing for 2012... (photo courtesy of Frank with the K-5IIs and Sigma 10-20mm... mind the distortion)
See if you can spot the 300mm f/2.8...

[aurele]

See if you can spot the 300mm f/2.8...

i'd play and say the 2nd from bottom left.
The other grey lens seem to be a 200/2.8 on the left and 85/1.4 on the bottom right.

Nice team btw, they all seem to share a lot of fun

[creampuff]

i'd play and say the 2nd from bottom left.
The other grey lens seem to be a 200/2.8 on the left and 85/1.4 on the bottom right.

Nice team btw, they all seem to share a lot of fun

The owner of the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 is at the back row, fourth from the right. Second from bottom left is the FA* 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom. Yeah, Singapore Pentax users are a close knit and fun group.

[frank]

Our last Pentax monthly photo outing for 2012... (photo courtesy of Frank with the K-5IIs and Sigma 10-20mm... mind the distortion)
See if you can spot the 300mm f/2.8...

Thanks Denis for posting the photo here. We sure had a lot fun there

I have to say the distortion from the Sigma is a bit too much than I expected. I purposely zoomed out quite a bit so to avoid extreme edges. The photo is actually cropped to almost 2/3 from the full size, but still too much distortion.

Next time when we take group photos, better just stick to a kit lens.

[LeRolls]

Have never personally met another Pentaxion under the age of 50 and I sell cameras at a major electronics retailer. The few I have met have all been Europeans on holiday with one exception being an elderly gentlemen who shoots Daytona races with a K-5 (showed me some pics on his iPhone and they were good). Boy, did his eye's light up when he realized I knew about Pentax! I keep my Pentax Q in a little Lowepro Dashpoint 20 on my hip at all times and I get a lot of questions about it from customers/co-workers. They are all blown away when I show them some of my shots and they love the build quality. When I tell them I shoot Pentax they always look at me funny. "Pentax? Isn't Pentax that new medication for herpes?" When I mention "Pentaxions" they say stuff like "Oh, I don't watch Star Trek." Sometimes I have the privilege of talking to older photographers (quirky but fun bunch) and they speak fondly of Pentax but always in reference to the "film days" never anything current.

Pentax is doing an absolutely horrible job at marketing here in the US. The awareness is next to nil. Either way I am not deterred from being a Pentax shooter and I will do my part to spread the word best I can.

[BigDave]

Pentax is doing an absolutely horrible job at marketing here in the US. The awareness is next to nil.

I really wonder if Pentax Marketing in the US reads these posts at all. I have a fair amount of experience in marketing and I would LOVE the job of Marketing Manager for Pentax. It has to be SO easy seeing that except for a few trade shows you don't have much to do! I could retire doing it!

Regards,

[DAZ]

When I was at the 9/11 center at Thanksgiving I did see 2 Pentax on the streets of New York. But last weekend that I had in Hawaii was a surprise. I was walking around the Waikiki beach. The beach is loaded with tourist and not surprisingly a lot of Japanese tourist. Most were having fun documenting just about everything in sight. Mostly using camera phones or P&S's. This Japanese tourist spots me with my K5 and is happy to see another Pentax shooter. He wanted to see what model of camera I had and show me he had a K-r. I don't speak any Japanese and he did not speak any English but I did get it that he thought that Pentax were very good cameras.

DAZ

[frank]

Pentax is doing an absolutely horrible job at marketing here in the US. The awareness is next to nil. Either way I am not deterred from being a Pentax shooter and I will do my part to spread the word best I can.

Pentax didn't do any better here in Singapore. We don't even have a Pentax branch office here, but a distributor only. And we've had like 4 different Pentax distributors in the past 9 digital years (since *istD came to market).

The first two distributors dumped Pentax due to losing money selling Pentax, the third one did a great job in expending the market, but lost distributorship due to the merge of Ricoh and Pentax, the current Pentax distributor has been dealing with Ricoh for many years, they took over Pentax distributorship two months back. Hopefully they'd do a better job w/ Pentax than they've been doing w/ Ricoh (which has almost ZERO marketing here).

BUT even with the poor help from Pentax or the distributors, we local Pentax user base has grown quite a bit in the past a few years. I'd say our monthly Pentax outing (started in mi 2008) has helped a lot in promoting Pentax stuff here in Singapore. We are the most friendly bunch, even some CNS users love to join us too.

I think we all should do something promoting Pentax (if you really love it) one way or the other. If you can live w/ Pentax, there is no reason why your friends/colleagues/relatives can't