[jatrax]

Pentax was at one time one of the brands stocked in cruise ship onboard camera shops. At least on Royal Caribbean. I was there and watched as they took out the Pentax displays and replaced them with Fuji one morning. I had noticed the PEntax gear the day before and wanted to stop by to chat and look. But when I got there it mostly packed away and they were setting up the Fuji stuff. Never saw a Pentax on board a cruise ship again.

[bm75]

Hi.
It happened to me to accidentally make a little scratch in the viewfinder of my k5 ; I went to a local pro store to replace it and the answer was.... better buy it on the internet, outside my country.the seller told me that it was due to Pentax official importer, who doesn't really take spare parts. At the end the seller told me that me doesn't keep Pentax products because there's no way to sell them.... . last week I went to the same pro store and the same seller told the hugest amount of camera sell is now Olympus m43, Sony and other mirrorless cameras magnificating the new Oly em5 II and Sony a7 II for the 5 axis stabilization (and admitted he would not trade used nikon/canon gear for a long because those systems are gone old). I don't trust him...dslrs are good and I'm happy with my pentax gear. But it's noticeable that 1- a seller considers Canon and Nikon systems quite "old" towards m43 world or Sony full-frame mirrorless; 2 - market is demanding for sensor image stabilization and nor Nikon or Canon put that in their camera bodies. Perhaps in the future we'll see a lot of Olympus and Sony. We'll see. Best regards.

[chmance]

One spot to visit and view flowers here in Vancouver is the 42-hectare Van Dusen Botanical Garden. It is home to at least 250,000 species of plants, including beautiful rhododendrons indigenous to the Pacific Northwest. It would be an understatement to say that the place is in bloom 24/7, except for the few weeks in the dead of winter. Hence, the place attracts hordes of photographers (and bees too).

Having gotten serious about digital photography, I bought membership there last April. I have been going there at least once a week since then. My observations? First, the vast majority of photographers are cellphone shutterbugs. Second, the remnants use Canons and Nikons ... with slight edge to the former ... shooting mostly with what I would say kit lenses. Third, occasionally I would see mirrorless shooters using Sony or Fuji.

Pentax users I have seen since April 2015 other than myself? One. A Japanese man, a pro photographer, and a blogger. He was the one who approached me and said in perfect English that he was glad to see someone shoot Pentax. (Talk about kindred spirit.) He said that Pentax lenses have gotten much more expensive that lately he has been using Sigma glasses for his longer telephotos. Then he said, "Pentax needs to advertise."

[tuco]

I see mostly two cameras. Cameras with Canon sensors and cameras with Sony sensors.

[chmance]

I see mostly two cameras. Cameras with Canon sensors and cameras with Sony sensors.

LOL! Very accurate assessment of the reality of camera companies sourcing parts from a few other companies with the necessary R & D prowess and manufacturing technolgy. Who knows? We may end up with just one kind: cameras with Sony sensor. Canon was rumored last year to looking into using Sony-made sensor (see Rumor: Canon to Use Sony-Made Multi-Layer Sensors in Two Upcoming Pro-Grade Cameras).

What is the possibility of this scenario happening to lenses?

[kyricom]

Yes, I've been at quite a few photographer heavy locations and noticed that, with my K-7 (and now my K-3), that I'm the only one with a decent camera. :-p

[Murfy]

someone posted on a local facebook group asking if anyone had "a very nice pentax" stolen. She believed it was stolen and I am not sure of the details of the whole story and why she believed it, but I really wanted to help find the owner of the pentax because I felt this camaraderie with this person since it was the only other person I have heard locally that had one. Everyone else was saying 'oh maybe they misplaced it and they will come back for it, don't worry about it, they will get a new one, I am sure it wasn't stolen, you can get another one anywhere"

And I was saying 'it's a pentax, people who own pentax don't just 'misplace' their cameras!" (my thinking was it was stolen and the person was like wtf is a pentax? and just dumped it somewhere)

[dstar]

someone posted on a local facebook group asking if anyone had "a very nice pentax" stolen. She believed it was stolen and I am not sure of the details of the whole story and why she believed it, but I really wanted to help find the owner of the pentax because I felt this camaraderie with this person since it was the only other person I have heard locally that had one. Everyone else was saying 'oh maybe they misplaced it and they will come back for it, don't worry about it, they will get a new one, I am sure it wasn't stolen, you can get another one anywhere"

And I was saying 'it's a pentax, people who own pentax don't just 'misplace' their cameras!" (my thinking was it was stolen and the person was like wtf is a pentax? and just dumped it somewhere)

This is interesting conversation
I am not sure why you worry people not use Pentax
Who use this camera understand all benefits Pentax
product
Basically if you can see advertised or just look
in store who you find out it's very good camera
Open any big travel or another magazine even photo
magazine only 3 big sister Canon Nikon Sony
So company doest want spend money for advertiser result follow

This it
Same when you shopping for new car
You want to look or test drive
For Pentax no place to look may be
BH photo or adorama
Or Costco online
Pure psychology
Correct me if I not right

[ronniemac]

We are still on our summer road trip, but I am in a KOA campground with good wi-fi, so I thought I would post this.

Throughout this year's trip (Colorado Springs, Cody, WY, Rocky Mountain NP, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton NP) I have been doing an informal poll by looking at the brand name on everyone's DSLR camera. In these highly photographed places there have been a lot of DSLRs!

During this time, I have seen exactly ONE Pentax - mine!

Now I know Pentax has a small market share, but I did expect, out of the many, many cameras I have seen to see at least one that wasn't mine. After all, somehow they have to stay in business.

Just a casual observation.

As mentioned in my post above, the only Pentaxes I saw throughout 3 weeks in Whistler - Squamish area were those of my family.
Imagine then my delight when back in Oxford, I see this beauty, the first Z I have seen, and less than mile from our home!

Pentax 645Z

[CDW]

Well, of course if the dealer does not promote Pentax, sales don't happen. I thought in the 4Ps of marketing, one of the Ps is about the distribution channels. How to explain the Fuji got so much presence on the shelves?
I asked the dealer here, he told me that Fuji sales is calling him on a regular basis to update him on product road maps, but Pentax nope, and when they were still selling Pentax cameras, the after sales service of Pentax was incredibly bad, so they decided to stop Pentax.

Service after the sale, particularly in the professional area, is critical. Although Canon can be faulted for lagging in sensor technology and designs that some see as a bit tired, Canon service, especially at the professional level, is stunningly good. Canon's support of their professional products, in my opinion, is easily the equal of Apple support, and perhaps unsurpassed by any other camera or electronics company. That said, I no longer shoot Canon and haven't for about five years.

[alexcox]

The people I see with DSLRs are almost invariably carrying Canons or Nikons. Once upon a time I met a man on the headland at Bandon, OR, with a red Pentax DSLR and a red kit lens to match. He was very happy with it! And another time, in a hardware store in Boulder, CO, another Pentax user asked me about my K-01.

But so what? I'm happy with my stuff and have no desire to switch!

[jatrax]

You know I almost forgot but at the tulip festival this spring as I was packing up my gear another photographer was unloading his. I happened to notice Pentax and sure enough he had a 6x7 film outfit and was getting setup to take tulip field pictures. First 6x7 I have ever seen in the wild. He had a DSLR as well but I think it was a Canon.

[AggieDad]

This is interesting conversation
I am not sure why you worry people not use Pentax
Who use this camera understand all benefits Pentax
product
Basically if you can see advertised or just look
in store who you find out it's very good camera
Open any big travel or another magazine even photo
magazine only 3 big sister Canon Nikon Sony
So company doest want spend money for advertiser result follow

This it
Same when you shopping for new car
You want to look or test drive
For Pentax no place to look may be
BH photo or adorama
Or Costco online
Pure psychology
Correct me if I not right

I really don't care if other people make the same choices I do or not - many times my choices are a bit different, no matter what the product.

However, we should all have a degree of concern about the viability of the brand. No one really wants to end up with an orphan. And when I see a use rate (albeit a casual, not scientific, survey) that is well below 1%, it does raise a question or two.

[rawr]

Seems like Pentax users are the new Bigfoot in North America.

[dstar]

Absolutely not right
Bigfoot has huge commercial on tv
Pentax not