[GibbyTheMole]

I don't really much care what kind of camera someone else is using or what kind of car they drive, or shoes they wear, etc. As long as I'm happy with the stuff I use, I'm good.

[RioRico]

Honestly, I don't pay any attention to what other people shoot with, and I don't expect others to pay any attention to what I shoot with, and generally my expectation is met.

I only look because threads like this have sensitized me. So I noticed another K20D last week, but the shooter couldn't speed away in his wheelchair, so that was easily spotted. The other night I saw a guy shooting a Nikon but I only paid attention when he changed film. Most of what I see in Santa Fe are P&S's; most of the rest are probably Canons; but I really don't care, and neither do the other shooters. Except that one kid who was hiding his FF whatever...

I'm pretty much brand-agnostic. The K20D is my first Pentax in many many decades of shooting. Most of my previous cams were Canon, Kodak, Minolta, Olympus, Sony, Yashica. The cams I'd like next are a Sony A850 and NEX, unless Pentax comes out with something comparable at a better price. I judge gear by price/performance, not by logo.

[Blue]

How many Leica's did you see?

If I see an interchangeable lens Leica digital, I am going to mug them!

[jlaubza]

Its all about marketing budgets! Pentax just is not serious enough about boosting their sales - most higher end cameras satisfy their owners' technical requirements but marketing budgets help to satisfy owners' egos and, guess what, ego sells.

[RonHendriks1966]

Some guy came up to me yesterday while I was shooting my daughter's soccer game and asked me what I was using. I told him it was a Pentax K-r. He kinda grunted and then mumbled something about anyone who used Canon was his sworn enemy. So even though he seemed thoroughly unimpressed.

When I was shooting a field hockey game with on a tripod K-5 and DA*60-250 no-one asks what camera you have, you just make that big impression

I was at national holiday in Amsterdam and came across one Pentax K-r. Went up to him and shook his hand and make some small talk. He was a tourist from tsjech republik and also surprized to see me.

[LFLee]

No need to depress.
Pentax shooter is more friendly if you see one, cos we know we are unique.

And I do enjoy using my friend's Canon and Nikon if they let me play with it. LOL

[hillerby]

How many Leica's did you see?

VERY GOOD QUESTION! I'd have a Leica if I were a billionaire, but since I'm a workin' stiff, I'll put my work up against anyone with a Nikon/Canon.

[benhai]

Pentax never been very popular. In a period I used to shoot with Nikon D70. I was very happy and have a good inventory of lenses flashes etc. The differences for me between Nikon and pentax is the .jpg quality. Pentax .jpg files are normally less sharp than Nikon. For ordinary people they just use DSLR as P&S, so it is very obvious for them to choose Canon or Nikon.

Pentax needs to advance their technology because if you are below then your profit margin will be thin. If you are in low margin position then you'll need to struggle a lot to survive. As a new pentax user, I do hope pentax can do good in top tier sensors and lens line up to succeed.

[InlawBiker]

I live in suburbia where most DSLR's are held by parents who bought the cheapest Nikon or Canon at Costco. A lot of them want to compare cameras and have never heard of my Pentax, which is fine by me I'm happy to show them. I have never seen another Pentax in the wild, but I've only been at this a few years.

I do know 4 local talented pro or semi-pro photographers, they have all heard of Pentax and none of them really care about what gear you're holding. 2 of them are using beat up 4 year old Canon bodies but equipped with very nice lenses. They both get much better results than I do.

[Blue]

Pentax never been very popular. In a period I used to shoot with Nikon D70. I was very happy and have a good inventory of lenses flashes etc. The differences for me between Nikon and pentax is the .jpg quality. Pentax .jpg files are normally less sharp than Nikon. For ordinary people they just use DSLR as P&S, so it is very obvious for them to choose Canon or Nikon.

Pentax needs to advance their technology because if you are below then your profit margin will be thin. If you are in low margin position then you'll need to struggle a lot to survive. As a new pentax user, I do hope pentax can do good in top tier sensors and lens line up to succeed.

Actually, they used to be very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Nikon and Canon didn't know what an slr was until Pentax showed them one. The Germans were in denial about rangefinders losing supremacy from the late 19050s until ~ 1968.

[jstevewhite]

Actually, they used to be very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Nikon and Canon didn't know what an slr was until Pentax showed them one. The Germans were in denial about rangefinders losing supremacy from the late 19050s until ~ 1968.

+1 for explaining that which many people seem to have forgotten. Plus I've no idea what he's on about with the "sharper jpgs from Nikon". I've seen nothing like that.

[Macario]

Here in Holland, in the 60's and 70's the Spotmatic was the standard issue camera for photojournalist, so very popular here.

[Rondec]

I seldom see Pentax cameras when I am out and about. Part of that is that Pentax' market share in the United States is pretty dismal. In Japan and parts of Europe, it is better (although it isn't over 8 or 9 percent, even in France).

Still, as others have said, I don't really care what others are shooting. I shoot Pentax because it works for me and if a Canon T2i or Nikon D5100 works for someone else, that is fine. In general, the camera isn't the reason that photos turn out or don't turn out.

[jstevewhite]

We're social animals, and it's hardwired into us that, at some point, when everyone around us is making a certain decision, our own decisions become framed in that context: "Am I going to go *with* the crowd, or *against* them?".

There was an experiment done where a whole roomful of people with one unsuspecting mark would insist, as a group, on picking the wrong answer on an obvious visual test, like "Which line is longer?". With an obvious difference that 100% of individuals polled individually answered correctly. What they found was that about two thirds of their tested people in the crowd condition went along. One half of those people insisted the crowd had been right even after they were told it was an experiment, and the other half said they went along because everyone else was.

I always wanted to "go pentax" in 35mm because I loved the compact cameras and the beautiful primes, but when I was a pro I needed the availability of CaNikon gear and the service. Now I can wait and wait for a lens to become available...

[Wheatfield]

+1 for explaining that which many people seem to have forgotten. Plus I've no idea what he's on about with the "sharper jpgs from Nikon". I've seen nothing like that.

There was at one time a fairly common bit of lore that Pentax in camera jpegs were softer than those from Nikon or Canon. The reason for it was because Pentax used somewhat less aggressive in camera sharpening than Nikon or Canon, who were oversharpening in camera because tyro's were more wowed by crisp than they were by detail, which sharpening robs the image of.
We ran a comparison between my IstD and a D70 one day (with similar lenses, though nothing is absolute in these things), and to get what the Nikon was outputting as stock, Pentax would output at +1 or +2 sharpening and a bit of a contrast boost as well.
The thing with sharpening is that you can always move forward with it (towards more) but once the oversharpening damage is done, you can't go backwards, so Pentax had the right idea in the first place, though most users weren't educated enough to realize it.