[fwcetus]

Go...

[pathdoc]

I think for those of us who have our backs up, it's the whole "Hi, everyone, just came to Pentax forums to tell everyone I'm thinking of leaving Pentax" thing that's done it. Most of the people who leave seem to make no such fuss - they put their systems up for sale in the marketplace on the declared basis that they are switching and quietly walk away, leaving a grateful community their much-loved glass.

[Digitalis]

I have seen photographers practically drive themselves into bankruptcy over that next lens, or that next camera body, that is going to somehow elevate their work to the next level. If anything I have learned in my life so far is that beyond a certain point, the law of diminishing returns will deliver a harsh dose of stark reality that the biggest limitation in photography is yourself.

And this is true for many art forms: I have seen Music students spend obscene amounts of money on musical instruments, only to realize that they are the only thing that is holding them back. Musicality cannot be taught*, it is something that can be cultivated..and there are no magical shortcuts to developing it.

I think for those of us who have our backs up, it's the whole "Hi, everyone, just came to Pentax forums to tell everyone I'm thinking of leaving Pentax" thing that's done it.

For me, it was Adam, the webmaster of this site throwing the D-FA100mm f/2.8 WR under the proverbial bus.


*there are some teachers who try, they are the worst kind of teacher: they only produce copies of themselves, and the fools that follow them only inherit their limitations.

[Nicolas06]

Well, I asked for advice and I've certainly gotten it! Thanks for the input everyone...yes, even the "tough" comments!

The 100 and the 50 are both relatively new additions to my bag so most of my experience has been with the older lenses. And, I must say that the 100, and even the 50, have given me some better results. I suppose I should have said that in my original post, but....

Referring to the comments about the K5, I agree that it is getting a little long in the tooth and that I will need to upgrade. That's partially why I'm looking for the input here. I'm trying to decide whether to stay with the Pentax line or switch to another brand when I take the step to lay down the cash for the new body.

Overestimating my ability? If I hadn't made the choice to return to school at 56, then I'd say that might be true. Self critical? Yes. Anxious to create great images? Yes. Looking at all aspects to get there? Yes! I recognize that I have things to learn and I am learning lots! But, among the great feedback I've gotten here at school is that my current gear is somewhat limiting. Another reason that I came here for input.

Anyway....you don't need to hear my life story. Just a brief response to your replies. Thank you again. Especially thanks for the resource links. Very useful!

All the best!

---------- Post added 02-06-16 at 09:30 AM ----------



Don't think I said that at any point....

If I understand it, you are trying to be a pro photographer, so making a living out of your photographic skills. This mean I suppose you hope a make a few dozen thousand dollard a year out of it.

Being loyal to an old brand, switching or not should be a detail to you. You should define really what kind of job/niche you are after and what would be a good investment. It might even be the gear would be provided by the company anyway.

Define what you need toward what you are after... You have been back to school so you should have idea already at what you should have for different practices, I hope so.

One you know what you need then look at what is available on the market... if Pentax best serve your need, let's so be it. if that's Canon or Nikon, let's so be it.

Honestly you should not put your future and the choice of your gear in a hand of few forumers. You should do your homework, spend a bit of time of it and see what is best for the job.

If you do it seriously you'll find Pentax will be the best for some use case, great for other and not so great for a few specific uses. The same goes for Canon or Nikon or whatever else brand/system you'll analyse.

As if you can't get stunningly sharp image with Pentax hahaha. This is trolling. There no DSLR sold new theses days that can't provide extremely sharp image if you put the proper lens in front of it. If you want to find difference between the different system, this isn't going to be the sharpness.

I got a friend buying a Nikon D7200 and a sigma 18-35 f/1.8 (and a 70-300) all the best and heavy and he was a bit trolling against my gear (K3 and DA21, DA35, FA77 and F135)... We both shooted the same subject at the same time a wedding. Our mutual friend were getting married and asked everybody to take photos and say the winner (with the best photos from their subjective point of view) would got prizes. 3 prices for the 3 best photos. I got the 3 best photos even we took care to make submission anonymous. I said that I found it better that one guy could not get more than one price and so other got something too. I don't say that to say I am good, but just that the friend that brought the best Nikon APSC with the most shiny Sigma lenses with impressives specs and the best test results over the internet didn't compensate for experience and skills. And actually he didn't even understood that my body was quite a match to his own, and that my lens setup, while less convenient (primes) was a better fit for the job.

Once you have "good enough" it doesn't count anymore and all the rest is going to have much more influence...

You should think more for the requirement you have from the kind of practice you are after, the type of gear you need and just buy it... or plan to after you earned some money.

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Last edited by Nicolas06; 02-06-2016 at 10:25 AM.

[micromacro]

I want to remain loyal to Pentax, but I'm finding it more and more difficult to do so.

I think you need just to drop that brand loyalty in your mind, and think from pro perspective what you really need. Loyalty brand makes sense for hobbyist, but efficiency is for pro.
if money is not an issue, leave Pentax for your soul, and get different system for your career.
But keep in mind that FF is coming...

[normhead]

I think for those of us who have our backs up, it's the whole "Hi, everyone, just came to Pentax forums to tell everyone I'm thinking of leaving Pentax" thing that's done it. Most of the people who leave seem to make no such fuss - they put their systems up for sale in the marketplace on the declared basis that they are switching and quietly walk away, leaving a grateful community their much-loved glass.

And usually they are matched by an equal number of users who come in the door joyously announcing their new found love for all things Pentax. It's hard to believe people think they can learn something form these posts. What you can learn about is the person who posts. It's absolutely no reflection on the gear.

Pentax has been what it is for a very long time. If you wanted something different, you should have gone that route right off the bat and saved a pile of money. All you're doing when you come on and say "I'm leaving," is admitting you didn't do your research before your bought.

That makes you the one lacking diligence, not Pentax doing something they haven't always done. Their" toughness and pro-quality durability and IQ in consumer priced product" philosophy suits me to a "T". I totally understand the folks who want more "bells and whistles", but, Pentax was never that company.

I seriously wonder if a lot of these posts come from people who bought a k-30 at Costco, and thought they were getting Canikon Pro quality bells and whistles at a fraction the price. Well folks it's tough, but Canikon and Nikon, dollar for dollar don't give you any more. They give you the opportunity to spend more on your upgrades, and Pentax is quickly catching up in that department too.

[cpk]

But, among the great feedback I've gotten here at school is that my current gear is somewhat limiting.

Can you specify in what respect your current gear is "somewhat" limiting? I have used some of the best photographic equipment available; and, unless we are talking specialized applications, Pentax equipment is second to none (unless you want to spend the megabucks).

Also, make sure you have fine tuned the focus for each of your lenses.

[lithedreamer]

Phew, you're getting a spectrum of replies. I just wanted to add that you should check out the sample photo search engine the forum provides. Maybe your gear is limiting you, maybe you don't like Pentax colour-rendering, maybe you just need more practice and guidance (I've found Lynda courses super-helpful for improving my Lightroom technique).

[Rupert]

Otis wants to put this in a little perspective...since he thinks most of you have missed it.

A brand new member arrives and right away he is posting doubts about the working value of Pentax equipment. He gives very little information of who he is, his background in photography, or where he is coming from.....and we don't have a crystal ball.

It might be an excellent post to plant doubt in the minds of other "new to Pentax" shooters here, or to just take a few free shots at Pentax in general by questioning its durability as a brand.

Is this the case? Well, we don't have a crystal ball, but even a squirrel like Otis can see some cracks in the sincerity of a post like this. There are hundreds of ways to ask for information, yet the OP chose an inflammatory title....you think that was by accident?


This was the best reply here, and if they were all like it we would stop seeing these ridiculous posts and the long replies of saviors intent on saving Pentax. Pentax is doing fine, better all the time, a damn Jumper will have no bearing on the future. Let them jump.....give them a shove.....for Otis!

Go...

Regards!

[Alex645]

For me, it was Adam, the webmaster of this site throwing the D-FA100mm f/2.8 WR under the proverbial bus.
*there are some teachers who try, they are the worst kind of teacher: they only produce copies of themselves, and the fools that follow them only inherit their limitations.

Unless this was a typo, I think you meant there are some teachers who don't try; they are the worst kind of teacher.

Although I've been fortunate to teach for 24 years, in one of the best private high schools to a top art & design university, I will be the first to admit that I am still learning and improving, and the day I think I have all the answers would be the day to stop teaching. In all the institutions where I've taught, the teachers were also commercial or fine artists or designers.

Yes, there is a whole master-journeyman-apprentice approach at many art schools, but not all. Personally, I had a mixed bag of art education, but I appreciate that somewhere in the ether was the notion to always question authority, to find your own path, that the style and success of one master is only one story and that every true artist must rebel against the status quo and create something new, innovative, special.

I didn't always think this way and life experiences such as making mistakes, serendipity, good and bad relationships, raising your own children, and the gauntlet of hundreds of students that range from brilliant to mediocre to disengaged have taught me that judgment is like a snapshot. Just a moment in time. But if you played the whole thing through, you might find that brilliant student flat-lining or on the decline and that disengaged soul awakened. Why? How? I don't know other than, the biggest difference I've seen between success and significance is that the former requires effort whereas the latter requires reflection, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation.

Kudos to the OP for being uncertain and seeking out advice. We're all a bit jaded if we just slam it into the troll slot of parting words to Pentax. I think many of the posts have sage advice and will not only give the OP but the rest of us a collective forum of perspective.

And if anyone is still reading this far, my worst students (and teachers too) are the bullies. They are so full of themselves, that they put down anything that threatens their ego or power. They fail to "grow up" and become adult bullies. Ugh. All this to say for the OP, don't be bullied by ignorance. The quality of the photography is a result of mostly the photographer, then the lens, and last the camera make.

[normhead]

One of my friend's sons was enrolled in photography at Carlton University, I think I had a hand in talking some sense into him, but he basically ended up with a Canon 6D under pressure form his teachers. I understand how this works.

There is a lot of pressure at school, but I would put it right back on the guys who suggest switching." Show me what you're doing with your gear I can't do with mine." If you want ask us, we'll tel you if they are right or are just brand pushing wannabees. The if it's something legit, flash, more AF speed, something where Pentax is not top of the line we'll let you know. For my friends son, their whole program was built of studio flash, really, the live 60km from some of the most beautiful wildlife country in the world, and their program is built on studio flash, (It's astounding, life is fleeting, madness. takes it's toll.) . But being from Ontario, I can't imagine any University in Winnipeg, is any better. Apparently the 6D met those flash capabilities. So, without knowing what you're doing, it's hard for us to guess what the problem is.

My guess is, pose a problem on here and a million guys will tell you how to solve it, or tell you it' can't be solved.

But that won't save you from the mindset of most current day photography teachers. With all due respect, they are brand specialized hacks. They can tell you what the Canon solution is, but they can't tell you what the Pentax of Nikon or Sony solution is. The qualifications for teaching photography at a University these days seem to be pretty lax.

[Na Horuk]

Overestimating my ability? If I hadn't made the choice to return to school at 56, then I'd say that might be true.

Ah, I thought you were just a highschool kid! Nice of you to reply, you took it all very well.
Thing is, over here we get a similar thread every couple of months or so, and sometimes they are rather mean-spirited, sometimes its not even by people who own Pentax gear. This is why our response is often rather brutal I wish you best of luck, and if you have any further, more specific questions, feel free to ask!

[lesmore49]

I've been a Pentax shooter for a number of years now, but I have found the lack of lens availability frustrating. I always thought my images were pretty good, but since I began attending photography school a few months i have been impressed by the sharpness and quality of the images produced by fellow classmates shooting some competing products (Canon and Nikon).

I'm not sure what the problem is, but I've found my Pentax equipment is capable of producing as good, or better quality pictures than the competition. In other words they're competitive, except perhaps in the area of fast lenses. I've been taking pictures since '68 and have also Canon, Leica, Mamiya medium format, OLympus, Zeiss, etc....equipment.

As far as lens / equipment availability, I think this will be an ongoing problem in many towns and smaller cities. Camera stores are encountering difficulty and closing, which is a concern to me. Big changes in the past 10 years. I have a sense that if things continue to go on like this, business wise, in 5-10 years many of us in smaller centres will be having to order our specialist 'pro' equipment online from big cities such as Toronto or New York. I'm saying this will be the deal for specialist pro equipment from all manufactures including Canikon. Again, my opinion, based on almost 50 years of photography, some of it as a photojournalist, many years ago.

I currently use a K5 with the following lenses.

FA 1:1.4 50mm
DFA Macro1:2.8 100mm WR
DA 1:4(22) 16-45mm ED-AL
F Zoom 1:4-5.6 70-210mm

I want to remain loyal to Pentax, but I'm finding it more and more difficult to do so. I plan to go pro when I'm finished school and want to be able to provide high quality images. Is it possible to do so and remain a Pentax shooter? If so, what equipment would I want to buy when I upgrade? What does Pentax have to offer that can compete with the high quality images that Canon and Nikon can produce?

Would appreciate any advice you can give.

If you want to go pro...say get into wedding photography...check out medium format section, here in this forum. Read about what pros say about their Pentax 645 D/Z and read what some of the pros there, say about their Pentax 645 equipment. Go to some of their websites. These are people who often also use Canon (1DX, etc. ) and Nikon equipment (D 810, etc.) along with their Pentax 645 equipment . I think you'll be impressed with their view of their Pentax medium format equipment. In the end the decision is yours

[Nicolas06]

Watch these, then decide.

"Pro Photographer, Cheap Camera" Series by DigitalRev: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ECB90D96DF59DE5

This is fantastic !!! A must watch i love how a pro worldwide fashion shooter manage to get stunning shots with what is basically a 0.3MP camera for small childs or Zak Arias that manage to use a crapy old camera with his pro flash to get quite interresting shots !

A must see for anybody that is thinking he doesn't have good enough gear.

[clackers]

This is fantastic !!! A must watch i love how a pro worldwide fashion shooter manage to get stunning shots with what is basically a 0.3MP camera for small childs or Zak Arias that manage to use a crapy old camera with his pro flash to get quite interresting shots !

A must see for anybody that is thinking he doesn't have good enough gear.

Yep, it's a superb, entertaining series. You can see Zak Arias' people skills getting him excellent street portraits, not the camera.