Sorry to bring this thread back on topic, but after almost two months working again as a tour guide, I NEED to tell this to somebody:
I SAW A K-S1 IN THE WILD!! With a 18-135mm attached. Please, if any of you were in Calama Airport (Chile) today at 12:55 PM (local time) with a K-S1 hanging from your neck (with a girly scarf wrapped around the green-ringed lens, no less) tell me that I wasn't hallucinating
Seriously though, I've seen more Pentax cameras this summer than in all of my life combined (I'm only 28). I've seen three K-3's, a K-5/K-5ii/K-5iis (couldn't ogle that much, it hung over a lady's chest
), a black K-30 (from one of my guests, no less) and the mythical K-S1. Quite honestly, I believe Pentax to be on the rise. Of course, my sample population isn't that large or representative, but then again, I'm seeing an average of twenty cameras a day in tourist attractions (not counting phones and *gasp* iPads).
Other interesting things from my non-scientific observations:
- Full frame cameras are scarce. Like, really scarce. I've barely seen six or seven Nikons (by far the preferred FF brand), and mostly D600/D610 at that. I saw a Canon 6D, I believe. And two Sony A7, but I've actually seen more of those in other circumstances. They're hits, and if they aren't, they will be (at discount prices). I AM excluding a group of Japanese tourists who were mightily equipped, though - a couple of 5D Mk III's, a 6D, a D800 and a D610. They stuck out like a sore thumb among the other tourists, though, and two of them carried crop cams, while another two were dual wielding FF's.
- Sony is the regional leader in superzooms. Two of every three superzooms I see are Sony HX-whatevers, mostly in the hands of my fellow nationals or other South Americans. I'm quite impressed, as it wasn't like this before. Sony's really pushing hard to grow in the photo market, count on it. Panasonic follows close in terms of presence.
- Some people are still shooting film. ON THEIR HOLIDAYS. Call me a brat, but I think it's insane. Especially when it's nothing special (no medium format, much less 4x5
). I even saw a Fuji disposable camera
- Speaking of medium format... I've seen 3 (THREE) 645D's around San Pedro de Atacama. Two in the hands of Brazilian pros, and one in the hands of a very zealous astrophotography enthusiast. That's got to count for something.
- No Fuji Instax cameras around here. I find that curious.
- Lots of young people with DSLRs. Believe it or not, and against all that is being spouted on tah intarwebs, young people DO use DSLR cameras. Far more than mirrorless ones, for certain (those are reserved to young couples with children, hah!). Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be a regional preference among youngsters who carry a reflex cam, except for Asians (who carry either gigantic DSLRs or tiny MILCs, without an inbetween). Koreans, however, use only mirrorless.
- Speaking of those, Olympus and Fuji dominate the MILCs that I've seen. The only Sony cams that I've seen are the ones without EVF, typically with an oversized 55-210mm hanging from them
Olympus has certainly sold some E-M5's and E-M10's. However, the single most popular MILC around here is the Fuji X-T1, which I must say looks incredible.
So there you have it, my camera sighting report. I hope this helps show that Pentax is actually on the hands of many people, pros or not, in some crappy corner of the world