[fgaudet]

First off, names and locations were kept secret in order to protect the innocents...

I often hear of this kind of story (camera requirement) when people sign up for photography classes but never did I expect this to turn out this way.

Being freshly retired, my sister in law was bored and decided to take some photography lessons in the little town where my brother and her live (small 1500 inhabitant town in eastern QC). Not having much spare money and knowing I had way too much gear, she asked if she could borrow (and perhaps later on buy) a camera and lens from me. I was planning on lending her my Kr but since I ended up selling it, I shipped out my K5, with and a Sigma 18-200 (I figured a superzoom would be best at the moment).

Early last week, I got a phone call from her asking if I had a better camera since the K5 wasn't adequate for her course (which is introduction to photography btw). I was puzzled. A few days before her course began, she e-mail the teacher to see if the camera would be acceptable. But apparently, the Pentax K5 is too limited and lack features found on DSLR cameras and she wouldn't be able to use it for the course because of this. (again, intro to photography). Clearly the guy thought it was a Pentax X5. So I told her that the K5 is more than good enough being Pentax's flagship only a few years ago and if anything, it will be too much of a camera.

Yesterday, she messaged me saying that her teacher checked the K5 on her first lesson and maintained his opinion regarding it. He recommended she'd get a Rebel T3. She replied that at the moment she couldn't afford a new camera. He then recommended to check their local(ish) store and get a used Rebel XT with a kit lens that he saw on sale for about $175. Advice which she sadly followed.

What is really sad here is that not only she now believes that Pentax are lesser cameras and so does the rest of her class since the whole thing was a bit of a classroom debate. She was arguing that I use Pentax and I have taken some beautiful pictures with it over the years and proceeded to show the class my FB page... To which the teacher replied that you can take beautiful pictures for FB even with an iphone but that still doesn't make it (the iphone, and the K5 to some extent) a camera suitable for a photographer.

There is so much wrong with this story that I had to share... It's not only sad that Pentax (and Olympus apparently too) are considered inadequate (due to brand snobbism or incredible lack of knowledge) but also that in a sense, the teacher will indoctrinate a whole classroom in believing that photography is more about the camera than it is about the talent.

It's INTRO to photography for crying out loud, even a decent P&S with some manual controls should be good enough...

Anyway, I gave up and I am waiting the return of my K5, hoping that its ego wasn't bruised too much and that it'll let me take some more "good for FB" pictures in the future.

[i83N]

(facepalm)

[AldaCZ]

Sorry for my being like a teen (I'm a twenty-something actually) but LOL. Today...no I have to stop ranting. I wonder who can be a "tutor" today..well stop! ( Canon G12 is an intimidating camera - (It has too many dials , Tamron 17-50 is "binoculars" and K30 with DA40 is a compact camera )LOL)

the last one: In the shop: Do you have filter of Xy diameter? We have filters for JUST Nikon dlsrs

I'm teaching some beginning photography courses beginning this fall for local town Parks & Rec. Camera brands will be a non-issue.

[monochrome]

Don't you just daydream about saying Nikon and Canon don't make a top-of-the-line APSc camera and tell the class to all go get a K-3?

[paulh]

I can't believe the teacher actually handled a K5, and decided it wasn't adequate (while a plastic Rebel XT is??)! Highly annoying story, and probably all too common.

[normhead]

I feel the same way when Canon of Nikon people ask me to help with their kit. Hand it to me set and ready to go. No I don't care what menu what you want is in, take the camera set it. A friend came up to visit with her Nikon D3200 and saw me bracketing a sunset, I asked where her manual was. She said, "it's really handy, it's built into the camera. You can look up anything." Ya, sure anything, unless it;s not there. 15 minutes later we deduce, no bracketing on a D3200. I agree the guy should have had a little patience, but if she wants to learn something from this guy, she needs to have equipment he can teach with. He's not the sharpest pencil in the photography teaching box.

That being said, if it were my class, every person in the class would have their camera manual, I'd tell them what we were doing and i'd expect them to sit there with the manual until they'd figured it out. ( OK, I'm not quite that mean, I do walk around, help with language, and if they're getting too frustrated give really pointed hints.) A course where a student can come out with it with a few shots where someone else made all the decisions and told you what to do, in my opinion isn't worth much.

I can see two sides of this. The guy was too lazy to actually teach photography. he's just interested in sharing a few brand specific techniques, the way he knows how to do them. But hey. small town, you take what you get.

In a way I actually appreciate those guys being up front. A lot of what folks who take those courses pay for is that the guy brings his 50 lens camera bag and people try out stuff. If I'm going to be sitting there twiddling my thumbs while everyone else tries out his gear, I'm not taking that course.

When I look at courses, I look for "Bring your camera manual." I'll put up with the rest of the basic stuff as long as the guy knows something I want to know.

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Last edited by normhead; 08-04-2014 at 05:06 PM.

[jatrax]

The sad part is that your sister in law was defenseless in this situation. I've experienced similar situations and found that calmly noting the features and looking like you know what you are doing goes a long way. In this case being new she could not even stand up for herself or the camera since she had no idea what she had.

Unfortunately the problem was that it was an introductory course. Guess who gets to teach those? People who just finished that course last semester. A real teacher would not have embarrassed anyone in class like that and would have done the research on the camera.

I took a class this spring and got an email from the teacher ahead of time with a list of gear needed and a request to know what camera I would be using so he "could research and be somewhat familiar with my gear" before the class. And he did, he knew what I was shooting and asked questions about it during the class to make sure I knew how to do on the K-3 what he was doing on his Nikon.

[ruggiex]

Ouch, that is some biased teacher. Personally, I'd suggest to her to find a different teacher.

[alamo5000]

Double face palm.

[i83N]

I guess he teaches like this:”And remember, P - means PROFESSIONAL MODE”

[normhead]

Double face palm.

Dude, you're going to hurt yourself....

[brofkand]

Teacher is obviously employed by or in the pocket of the local camera shop.

[normhead]

Teacher is obviously employed by or in the pocket of the local camera shop.

Henry's has their employees run courses all the time.... teaching a night course is a great way to supplement a paltry camera store clerk income. I know so many guys selling cameras who are very competent photographers, or in other words..."you say that like there's something wrong with that."

[Steve.Ledger]

An elderly customer of mine brought her laptop in to me for an upgrade to Windows 8.1 because a course she was doing required it.
What was the course? "An introduction to the Internet"..

Humans..