[sjwaldron]

One time I went to a raptor conservatory for a shooting and was bombarded with questions by the canikon folks about why I chose Pentax.

I've learned that showing someone who asks about why I use Pentax a FA Limited is a quickest and easiest way.

[Alizarine]

he was an architect and only shot Canon for BIF, otherwise, as he popped his trunk open to show me a VERY complete set of Pentax equipment (K20, and a very extensive set of Limiteds, Ks, Ms, As, DA*s, and some old Taks lenses). Actually, I made the remark if he had knocked over the Pentax Imaging on line store. So not all Canon shooters are not all bad............

It's like... the ol' Visa ad tagline~

Birds in flight - Canon. For **everything else** there's Pentax.

[EsBee]

The good news is: His widow-to-be says that after he drinks himself to death, *I* get to dispose of them! [/me rubs hands together, grins evilly, gift-wraps another bottle of vodka]

I've heard some nutcases have wills written up to be buried with their glass so I'd hold off on that Grey Goose until that's verified

[RioRico]

I've heard some nutcases have wills written up to be buried with their glass so I'd hold off on that Grey Goose until that's verified

This is a community-property state, so he gets to be buried with his bottle collection. Heh heh.
_________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, one Pentaxian is without his camera -- a prominent Liberian politician.

allAfrica.com: Liberia: 'Armed Men Break Into TQ Harris' Bedroom'

Several armed men have reportedly broken into the bedroom of 2011 prospective presidential candidate, TQ Harris, making away with US $40,000, L $100,000 in cash, and several valuable household and personal possessions. Mr. Harris he intended to use the cash for his 2011 presidential campaign.

The stolen items included a US $25,000 gold Rolex watch, a US $500 gold watch, a Sony Laptop, a Memorex Flatbed color scanner, a Pentax 35mm X 200mm lens camera, and a Samsung Digital Camera.

[Digitalis]

Met Another pentax photographer, she was using a K20 with a FA50mm f/1.4, she was taking portraits of her kids - I commented on her camera and she told me she intended to switch to Nikon, I asked her why and she said " it has to be better than what i'm using now"

well there you have it, Pentax is so mediocre that just having a Nikon will automatically improve the quality of your work.

[david94903]

I ran into a docent on a tour with a Nikon D90. He saw my Pentax K20d and came over and immediately started asking questions - he was really more about photography and less about brands. He borrowed my K20d to take a picture of my family, and was really surprised at the quality of the camera. Said he was used to peoples Canons, Nikon's and Sony's and that the Pentax felt like it had a much better build quality - plus I had my 16-50mm lens on the camera, and he really liked that glass too. He liked his Nikon but there were things he didn't like - like it was not a good camera to have out in the fog or other wet conditions. He really liked that the Pentax was weather sealed and that he could use older lenses. Who knows, maybe a convert in the making.

[RP-K20D]

And have only seen a few Pentaxs in the wild. One was a guy with a K10d on a cross-channel ferry who struck up conversation about how I found my K20d to use.

Jessops (a high-street camera store) used to sell Pentax gear, but from what I understand, they didn't pay their bill and Pentax withdrew any support. Jessops stopped stocking Pentax and it disappeared from the main shopping places.

There are a few 'proper' camera shops who do stock a few Pentax items (for instance one K-7 and a few lenses) dotted around, but not many.

I have noticed that Jessops and a few other chains (London Camera Exchange) are starting to restock Pentax kit, some even having dedicated sections to the brand (rather than most having walls of Sony kit)

*edit: Just remembered that the resident photographer in The Mirage in Las Vegas stopped me to ask about my camera (albeit he thought it was a K-5, not the K20d) and he was shooting with Nikon.

[eddie1960]

I have noticed that Jessops and a few other chains (London Camera Exchange) are starting to restock Pentax kit, some even having dedicated sections to the brand (rather than most having walls of Sony kit)

I've never seen a wall of Sony here,(at Henry's cameras flagship they are right next to Pentax and only slightly less ignored) that would explain how they took away Nikon's spot in the UK recently
Who says paying for retail space doesn't pay off

[kadajawi]

Yeah, retail space makes a difference. Once people fumble around with a Pentax they are sold. Well, not all, but people generally seem to like the haptic of a Pentax. (They still may not buy it though cause they don't know the brand, the salesman talks them out of it etc.).

[Old Man]

When I first started in photography, the salesman tried to steer me to another brand. But I fell in love with Pentax after handling them all.
But, in my area I sometimes feel like I am alone on a deserted island. Hardly ever see another Pentax user.

[RP-K20D]

I've never seen a wall of Sony here,(at Henry's cameras flagship they are right next to Pentax and only slightly less ignored) that would explain how they took away Nikon's spot in the UK recently
Who says paying for retail space doesn't pay off

It was quite disheartening when I was looking for my K20d, I pretty much made my mind up after 3(!) years of research (into the brands, not the models) that it was 'The One', but couldn't actually hold one.

Walking into a local (now in serious financial trouble) 'Dixons' store a couple of years back, you were greated by a Sony dSLR on a plinth straight in front of you, with several aisles of Sony kits and lenses to both sides, only to find there wasn't much else in there.

I *shock horror to the purists* had a Centon K100 for my photography course (I wanted a no-frills totally manual film body) which used K mounts. It did sort of steer me toward Pentax, but the bang-for-buck did it.

[Blue]

I agree
Same holds true for many collectibles (cars are a good exsmple)

A lot of those things that guys like Jay Leno have in there collections wouldn't exist then. They aren't practical to be driven every day. Some couldn't even be driven for a sunday drive by many folks anyway such as a steam car.

[Blue]

the very concept of collecting a cameras the way people collect bugs is abhorrent to me...cameras are made to be used!

What's wrong with collecting bugs? It pays the bills for some of us. I sort of understand where you are coming from. I have a working collection and just the few film bodies I have, it is hard to make my rounds through them. I really need to divest a few things, Even the 3 fixed lens rangefinders will be tough though, Ricoh 5-1-9 and Argus C-4.

Met Another pentax photographer, she was using a K20 with a FA50mm f/1.4, she was taking portraits of her kids - I commented on her camera and she told me she intended to switch to Nikon, I asked her why and she said " it has to be better than what i'm using now"

well there you have it, Pentax is so mediocre that just having a Nikon will automatically improve the quality of your work.

She will be shocked if she gets a D90. If she gets the D7000, she may not know what she missed with the K-5. If she doesn't get equivalent glass to the FA 50, she may be disappointed anyway.

[Ryan Trevisol]

I just came back from two weeks in Europe, and I have to say, what I saw surprised me! I was thinking of this thread the whole time I was there.

Over here in the states, it's rare to see another Pentax shooter, but on the first leg of my trip, I was amazed at how many Pentaxes I saw. In Chamonix, France, I was out and it was drizzling. My K-x was safely back in the hotel room. I saw a camera with a nice lens on a table, and I thought, "that guy's ballsy, I wonder if he has weather sealing?" It was a K20d. For the first few days of my trip, I saw approximately 30% Pentaxes as opposed to Canikon's, which is pretty good! In all that, I saw no K-x's, and one white K-r.

Of course, those were the days that we were not around any tourists. In fact, the few tourists we did see were toting Canon or Nikon cameras.

Once we started going more touristy places (Nice, Florence), the Pentaxes disappeared, only to be replaced by Canikon.

What I found satisfying, but also sad about what I saw, was that only one Pentax person had their kit lens on. Every other Pentax person either had a prime or an upgraded zoom of some sort.

Nearly every Canikon shooter I saw had a kit lens. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think it bespeaks the fact that Pentax shooters are a more discerning breed. What's more, those Canikon shooters were primarily non-serious shooters. I think most of these people go to the store for a camera, and if they have enough money, they get upsold to a DSLR without really wanting one or caring. They just "know" they will get better pictures out of that camera so they buy it.

This sounds like I'm casting pretty heavy aspersions on these people, and I apologize if I plow over anyone, but you have to understand that I was beleaguered by mobs of tour groups from cruise ships in Monaco, Nice, and Florence. You couldn't move there were so many tourists. And I have never been so ashamed to be from the United States. These people were completely ignorant of the culture and almost proud to thumb their nose at it. So as I'm waiting in a crowd of nearly a thousand people to go inside the Duomo in Florence, dutifully wearing long pants and a respectful shirt, my wife with her shoulders covered (even though it was nearly 90ºF, it's the rules), I couldn't help but notice that the Americans men were there in their board shorts and Guy Harvey shirts, and the women were either wearing a tank top, daisy dukes, or both . . . all loudly complaining about the heat/food/cruise ship . . . and with a kit-lensed Canikon swinging from their neck.

I'm serious when I say that cruise-ship tourists, who were rushed to get back to the ship, too loud, and extremely rude to restaurant, nearly ruined some of those places for me.

Americans weren't the only ones, though. There were several groups of Asian people shooting DSLRs with kit lenses, and though they didn't exactly behave like inspired shooters, but they at least were quiet, dignified, and dressed appropriately.

Even the handful of 5D shooters I saw had their "kit" lens on, the admittedly beautiful 24-105 f4 USM, but still, nobody was thinking outside the box. And you could see it in the way they were shooting, too. Taking shots dead on, kind of halfheartedly standing with their tour group, not caring about how the picture looked as much as the fact that they got a shot of whatever it was.

It was actually soul-crushingly sad.

But to answer the essential question: No, I don't think we're that rare when you compare Pentax shooters like-for-like. When you compare the number of Pentax shooters with the total number of DSLR shooters, yes, we're rare. But not when you compare us with the number of skilled enthusiasts who actually take pictures because they LIKE to take pictures.

[eddie1960]

This sounds like I'm casting pretty heavy aspersions on these people, and I apologize if I plow over anyone, but you have to understand that I was beleaguered by mobs of tour groups from cruise ships in Monaco, Nice, and Florence. You couldn't move there were so many tourists. And I have never been so ashamed to be from the United States. These people were completely ignorant of the culture and almost proud to thumb their nose at it. So as I'm waiting in a crowd of nearly a thousand people to go inside the Duomo in Florence, dutifully wearing long pants and a respectful shirt, my wife with her shoulders covered (even though it was nearly 90ºF, it's the rules), I couldn't help but notice that the Americans men were there in their board shorts and Guy Harvey shirts, and the women were either wearing a tank top, daisy dukes, or both . . . all loudly complaining about the heat/food/cruise ship . . . and with a kit-lensed Canikon swinging from their neck.

I'm serious when I say that cruise-ship tourists, who were rushed to get back to the ship, too loud, and extremely rude to restaurant, nearly ruined some of those places for me.

Americans weren't the only ones, though. There were several groups of Asian people shooting DSLRs with kit lenses, and though they didn't exactly behave like inspired shooters, but they at least were quiet, dignified, and dressed appropriately.

Even the handful of 5D shooters I saw had their "kit" lens on, the admittedly beautiful 24-105 f4 USM, but still, nobody was thinking outside the box. And you could see it in the way they were shooting, too. Taking shots dead on, kind of halfheartedly standing with their tour group, not caring about how the picture looked as much as the fact that they got a shot of whatever it was.

It was actually soul-crushingly sad.

Sadly when traveling in Europe this is not an uncommon experience. I think it's tour package tourist mentality. I've seen some ridiculously insulting things doen and said by such tourists (i hate to say it largely American, but some of the nicest people i've met have also been American so it's offset somewhat - German tourists can also be particularly brash, but they would show respect at the duomo - beautiful building BTW I Loved Florence)
As for the way the canikon shooters were taking their pictures I think the difference is a Pentax shooter in most cases seems to have arrived here because they have thought about photography and researched how o achieve things and what will be needed to do so, whereas a lot of the canikon shooters have blindly bought the camera left it in green mode and use it like they used their P/S as they take snapshots and don't really think about their photography
(these are the same canikon shooters who tend to look down on our choice of gear BTW - The Canikon shooters I've met who actually care about their photography tend to want to talk about how to achieve the shot not the gear aside from maybe wanting to try out my camera to see what its like)
off topic but related to this the rudest thing i ever saw a tourist do was at Notre Dame in Paris. there is a small museum of history in an alcove that at the time cost 15 francs to go in to. on my way out this Brash loud American woman came up and said "Whats in there" to the Attendant who replied L'histoire du Notre Dame Madame" she the turned to her freind and said EH It's Just History" and stomped off, just blew me away. Like I said I've met many nice (and well informed) Americans while traveling but boy People like this really ruin the reputation of the rest (I've seen some pretty rude Canadians to just not any where near as frequently)