[Alex645]

The K1000 are bullet proof and the ideal camera to learn the basics.

With some of these cameras approaching 50 years, I am always concerned for the teenagers bringing in their SLR's from the last century. But with the K1000, at worst it's only worn light seals or a battery cover oxidized closed. The crop of cameras in my current class are amazingly mint condition, with the exception of a Canon EOS 10s that has plastic just begging to age badly.

I do wish anyone would make a durable, affordable, manual focus, manual exposure, simple SLR (or TLR) again.

[richard0170]

I do wish anyone would make a durable, affordable, manual focus, manual exposure, simple SLR (or TLR) again.

I reckon if Pentax did this it would outsell their DSLRs! :-)

[Mooncatt]

I uploaded this to my Facebook page yesterday, doing a little Pentax promoting with the following description:

Ever wonder what dynamic is when talking about cameras? It's what saves your photo when you make a mistake! Not to be confused with high dynamic range (HDR) photography, which is a technique, dynamic range of the sensor describes how bright or dark an exposure can be while still retaining detail information. With low dynamic range, the top photo would never be anything more than shadows. With a good dynamic range, the color info is still captured, and able to be salvaged in some cases.

This was a test shot from the steel wool session I posted just before this, so nothing of importance was at risk. The top photo is straight out of the camera. The bottom was after some extensive editing in Raw Therapee (a free raw editor), followed up with Topaz Denoise (a paid dedicated noise reduction program). It's not something I would frame, but it would make a completely unusable photo at least somewhat presentable if it was a once in a lifetime event you want to save.

I must admit, even I was surprised at how well this turned out, but also shows just how well Pentax performs in this regard. This was shot on the K3 II, which isn't even their best for dynamic range.

I don't have a lot of followers, but maybe it'll accidentally influence someone some day.

[Alex645]

38 high school students in two sections of a digital photo course currently. Here's the current tally:

Canon 23
Nikon 14
Sony 1

37 DSLR, 1 mirrorless

Currently, Pentax are really that rare

[richard0170]

38 high school students in two sections of a digital photo course currently. Here's the current tally:

Canon 23
Nikon 14
Sony 1

37 DSLR, 1 mirrorless

Currently, Pentax are really that rare

Although this is certainly confirmation of our rarity, I would suggest it is also confirmation of the impecuniousness of students, these I am guessing are budget cameras bought used or borrowed. I think we Pentaxians tend to hold onto our gear more, so the availability to the used market for it is even smaller.

[Cerebum]

38 high school students in two sections of a digital photo course currently. Here's the current tally:

Canon 23
Nikon 14
Sony 1

37 DSLR, 1 mirrorless

Currently, Pentax are really that rare

You have to wonder if people perceive DSLR as old school, much like digital users view film. There was a video on YouTube in which the presenter said that mirrorless was fast, easy and accessible and possibly more capable, but if you wanted to do photography as an art form, shoot DSLR. In Lancaster Photographic society the vast majority shoot DSLR, but I suspect much of that comes down to price, availability and what you currently have (5D mk1v, D750 etc.). Replacing a high end full frame is an expensive business but we are seeing our first R5s.

When we did a survey of the society there were
23 Canon,
21 Nikon,
6 Sony,
4 Pentax,
2 Olympus
1 Fuji

[Alex645]

Although this is certainly confirmation of our rarity, I would suggest it is also confirmation of the impecuniousness of students, these I am guessing are budget cameras bought used or borrowed. I think we Pentaxians tend to hold onto our gear more, so the availability to the used market for it is even smaller.

I teach at a private school where the only students that may be impecunious are ones on financial aid, and they opt for less expensive visual art classes like drawing or ceramics.

Although over half of students in my film SLR class are buying used, in my digital class the vast majority of older cameras are hand-me downs from an older sibling or a parent/uncle/aunt/grand parent; purchased used DSLRs are actually rare in my classes. Ironically one of the trustees of my school is Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay.

What I can say is that 90% are entry level Canon Rebels or Nikon D3000 or series. When a Pentax shows up, it's usually a K30, K50, K70, KS2, Kr, Kx, K2000. Only once did I see a non-entry level Pentax, a K-5. And 90% of the optics are kit lenses.

IF Pentax had an entry level DSLR priced at or below the Canon T7 or Nikon D3500 and if it was sold at a big box or warehouse store, Pentax would not be rare at all. However, I suppose Ricoh has their reasons for highly limiting retail options for getting a Pentax.

[Trey45]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm probably wrong. But do you think the reason Pentax doesn't advertise much and limits their retail presence is due to ability to produce? Maybe they're producing at capacity and simply couldn't handle the workload if the public demand for their cameras was greater.

[richard0170]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm probably wrong. But do you think the reason Pentax doesn't advertise much and limits their retail presence is due to ability to produce? Maybe they're producing at capacity and simply couldn't handle the workload if the public demand for their cameras was greater.

That's a bit of a chicken and egg question. You may be right but how would you know? Maybe its just conservative business planning. Is it worth the risk of spending much money on R&D, marketing and production, when the market for digital cameras is shrinking anyway. Better to stay in profit with a shrinking market share than go bust trying to maintain market share. So, cut back on production capacity. I don't know but I hope that's Ricoh's strategy. I would rather they survive in the longer term than go bust in the shorter, trying to chase rainbows.

[Photos-by-Chas]

That's a bit of a chicken and egg question. You may be right but how would you know? Maybe its just conservative business planning. Is it worth the risk of spending much money on R&D, marketing and production, when the market for digital cameras is shrinking anyway. Better to stay in profit with a shrinking market share than go bust trying to maintain market share. So, cut back on production capacity. I don't know but I hope that's Ricoh's strategy. I would rather they survive in the longer term than go bust in the shorter, trying to chase rainbows.

I'm sure many of us hope Pentax continues in the long term.

[OrchidJulie]

I'm sure many of us hope Pentax continues in the long term.

I certainly do!

[Fotus Tuus]

After all: why not? Long live Pentax!

[formercanuck]

I teach at a private school where the only students that may be impecunious are ones on financial aid, and they opt for less expensive visual art classes like drawing or ceramics.

Although over half of students in my film SLR class are buying used, in my digital class the vast majority of older cameras are hand-me downs from an older sibling or a parent/uncle/aunt/grand parent; purchased used DSLRs are actually rare in my classes. Ironically one of the trustees of my school is Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay.

What I can say is that 90% are entry level Canon Rebels or Nikon D3000 or series. When a Pentax shows up, it's usually a K30, K50, K70, KS2, Kr, Kx, K2000. Only once did I see a non-entry level Pentax, a K-5. And 90% of the optics are kit lenses.

IF Pentax had an entry level DSLR priced at or below the Canon T7 or Nikon D3500 and if it was sold at a big box or warehouse store, Pentax would not be rare at all. However, I suppose Ricoh has their reasons for highly limiting retail options for getting a Pentax.

If my daughter takes photography (arts major) in Highschool next year, my K30 or K70 will be finding its way into class, which should bring some interesting comments.
18-135mm, DA-50, will be sacrificed for the cause. I do have a Rokinon 85mm F/1.4, but I doubt that it will be of much use in class unless for a lecture. If they need a long manual lens, I have an old manual 200mm F/4.

[Photos-by-Chas]

After all: why not? Long live Pentax!

I'll second that suggestion.

[cometguy]

IF Pentax had an entry level DSLR priced at or below the Canon T7 or Nikon D3500 and if it was sold at a big box or warehouse store, Pentax would not be rare at all. However, I suppose Ricoh has their reasons for highly limiting retail options for getting a Pentax.

I don't understand this, either. I got into Pentax in the early 1980s when I bought a K1000 new with a kit lens at a big general retail store with a photo department, and I got the K1000 over other cameras because it was inexpensive. That hooked me into a lifetime with Pentax cameras and lenses, and I don't recall having done any special research beforehand; I do remember thinking that I don't want to pay the higher prices for a Nikon. So why doesn't Pentax keep some entry-level camera like that which is very inexpensive? The K70 is way, way over-priced for most people, and I'm not even sure why it exists, honestly. Pentax needs something around $200-$300 max that can be put in retail stores everywhere, where people can actually touch the thing ... something, anything, to get people to see the Pentax name and get more purchases.

A comparison that comes to mind is Porsche, in which they decided to bring out an SUV (Cayenne) twenty years ago -- to the chagrin and ridicule of many sports-car enthusiasts at the time -- followed up by a 4-door sedan (Panamera) in 2010, a smaller SUV (Macan) in 2014, and an all-electric 4-door sedan in 2019 (Taycan); the four-door Porsche sales have far surpassed the 2-door Porsche sales, with the cheapest new Porsches now being on a par with the most expensive new Toyotas today ... but the 4-door Porsches saved the company and saved the 2-door Porsches from going extinct when the company was struggling. The company desperately needed to sell a lot of units at lower prices, as selling limited numbers of 2-door sports cars at high prices was not enough to keep the company afloat; they needed some radical thinking to get more of the masses buying their cars rather than just an elite few. And I note that Porsche is a subsidiary of much-larger VW, just as Pentax is a subsidiary of much-larger Ricoh. I wish that Ricoh would push to get a GR-type camera more in the USD $200-$300 range (the current GR is prohibitively expensive to get many people to buy it) as well as to get a Pentax K-mount camera as a good entry camera like the K1000 was. The K70 is over-kill -- at least in terms of price -- for most people. And Pentax doesn't need mirrorless when it can let Ricoh do their mirrorless thing with the GR and their wide-angle gimmick cameras, though I think that Ricoh might be wise to put a Pentax label on a cheap mirrorless camera in the $200-$300 range, which would surely have good quality anyway (and much better quality than a smartphone camera).