[geotux]

Hi,

I sometimes I wonder what it is that makes the proud owners of a Pentax tick. I suppose, apart from the K-mount, which is certainly one of the biggest reason to be a Pentax fan, the fact that its not Canon or Nikon means that you are not following the masses and you feel unique?

I've owned Pentax family cameras (starting with a Chinon) since I was a little boy and never moved away but I suspect that many of you own/have owned Canon/Nikon, etc. So why do you think Pentax makes the difference? I find it difficult to compare with friends that have the Canons/Nikons and that most of the time think they are a step ahead ...

Clearly, if I were on a Nikon forum I would have to weight comments accordingly so I will do the same here given this is a heavily biased forum ;-)

Regards

[boriscleto]

Buying a Canikon is like buying a Harley-Davidson...

[jkomp316]

I bought a Pentax for the same reason I bought a Hyundai 8yrs ago.

[clawhammer]

Honest answer? The same reason I drive a Subaru, live close to the old main street, and walk to work even when it snows. It's just my way of being different. Are all the Pentax marketing claims spot on and infallible? No, not really. But there's something about wandering around a crowded national park, finding that one other person with the big red Pentax strap around their neck, and feeling like even though I don't know them, we're both part of some secret club that everyone else is too busy playing keep-up-with-the-Joneses to know that it exists.

(Yes, I probably just self-selected myself into just about every focus group they've run, proving my attempt at being unique is laughable at best and 100% corporate brainwashing at worst..)

[jkomp316]

hivemind

[Lev]

Recently, friend of mine asked my why I chose Pentax, is it better than Canon or Nikon? I immediatelly answered YES, but this answer wasn't correct. Every brand has its own charm. He told me that I just want to be special Reality is that Pentax just offered me everything I want. Great lenses, nice body, cool features, WR etc. and all of this for really good price. Some of other people were surprised how anybody prefer a brand other than Canon or Nikon. I just like it.

[The Squirrel Mafia]

Bang for the buck. That's pretty much it. I don't really care what brand I shoot with as long as it offers a lot of bang for the buck. I'd be shooting Nikon, Canon, or Sony if they offered more bang for the buck. Pentax seems to be the only DSLR camera maker that offers a lot of bang for the buck.

But I'm like that with that for everything else, though. Everything that I buy has to have a good bang for the buck value. Cars, food, clothing, electronics, & everything else. I don't care what people think of a certain brand. I don't care if a certain brand is overrated or underrated. I don't give a damn what brand it is as long as it has some good bang for the buck value.

[sergysergy]

Price. Then I found out there were other extras (in body stabilization, old lens compatibility)

[Lev]

Bang for the buck. That's pretty much it. I don't really care what brand I shoot with as long as it offers a lot of bang for the buck. I'd be shooting Nikon, Canon, or Sony if they offered more bang for the buck. Pentax seems to be the only DSLR camera maker that offers a lot of bang for the buck.

But I'm like that with that for everything else, though. Everything that I buy has to have a good bang for the buck value. Cars, food, clothing, electronics, & everything else. I don't care what people think of a certain brand. I don't care if a certain brand is overrated or underrated. I don't give a damn what brand it is as long as it has some good bang for the buck value.

I bet you had this "Bang for the buck" words in clipboard during composition

[Kerrowdown]

for the same reason I bought a Hyundai 8yrs ago

Would that be for it's WR too?

[pathdoc]

IBIS, WR and lens mount cross compatibility (both backward and forward) do it for me. One minute I can be putting an M42 Super Takumar on my K-5; the next, I'm slapping an FA autofocus prime on an MX or a Ricoh-Pentax-era DA50 onto my P3 (not with any expectation of AF, naturally!!). If I want macro I've got DA and D-FA options, and if they're not suitable or I want something for the older film cameras I've got M42 extension tubes and bellows which thanks to the M42-K adapter can go on every camera in my collection, and the old glass is just great on digital. And I can do hand-held (or at least loosely braced, non-tripod) Super Takumar macro at stupidly low speeds and still have it come out sharp (did I mention IBIS?, LOL).

Try doing that with any randomly chosen Canon or Nikon body (yes, some of the Nikons do back-compatibility well, but not all of them). The only other thing I'd dare try this with is Olympus M4/3, and only because they have the IBIS philosophy too.

[wibbly]

the best part about shooting pentax is when people say "hey, that's an amazing picture, what equipment do you have?" and you reply with pentax and they promptly drop to the ground and seize up solid.


and also this forum.

[carlb]

A degree of exclusivity and I've used Pentax since the Super A came out. Great cameras at a great price.

[ramseybuckeye]

"Bang for the Buck" was what brought me into the fold too. The cameras just had so much more for the same price, including the shake reduction and old lens compatibility. I remember that I actually made a spreadsheet to compare different models. I've stayed with Pentax because I like it and I've seen no reason to change.

[harrisonww]

Everytime I hate on the camera brand, I look at some of the photos that I get from my k3 and im blown away at the color accuracy and sharpness. Raw images from the k3 are so good that I have nothing negative to say... which is strange because its so easy to nitpick the things other companies do alot better.. end of the day its a camera, and the camera does everything i want a camera to do.