[firefly]

Here in Fredericton, the main boutique camera retailer in town prominently lines Pentax up right alongside Nikon in the first row glass case. Canon and Olympus are relegated to the second (read: back) row.

Both the regular old-timers that work there shoot Pentax, from way back when. They also claim the the Pentax brand sell quite well here in this city. I was also pleasantly surprised by their lens selection for Pentax for such a modestly sized shop.

[Ratmagiclady]

As far as people using it, I only came a cross a hand full of user out in the wild shooting. Everyone has the other two.

Frankly, I see a limited number of DSLR shooters out there, any given week, to begin with... it's a big Canon town, by the looks of things, but then again, the university *issues* Canon gear, so that makes up a lot of the number there. I haven't really connected with the photo club here as yet, so we'll see, really. I can't say it's terribly surprising, given the numbers involved.

[Corros]

Here in The Netherlands Pentax is a small player. Most seen are Nikon and Canon. Sony is the big runner up. This depends on the shops. Most people buy their camera's in the electronic super stores like Mediamarkt and Dixons. That stores don't have Pentax.

Also I've never seen a Pentax advertising. But the streets are full of Nikon, Canon and Sony.

[*isteve]

Pentax doesn't seem to be selling as much in the stores as when the k10d first came out, and there certainly isn't the same selection as Canon or Nikon, but I see Pentax cameras on a regular basis....especially the point and shoots.

I've noticed there seems to be quite a few posts from Canada and Australia...and considering the population base compared to other countries....is Pentax a larger force in some places than other?

Fantastic, my nearest store is a Pentax pro dealer, I am 20 miles from SRS (which is the top Pentax dealer in the UK) and 60 miles from Park Cameras (which runs it close on stock levels).

For the rest of the UK, I dunno. However I hardly see any Oly cameras, and very few Sony. I think Pentax do well as the "best of the rest" around here. I gather Pentax is harder to find up north.

[Robert S Donovan]

I currently live in Auburn, AL. We have one local camera shop. Canikon only. When I lived in Nashville, Wolf/Ritz stocked an OK selection of Pentax gear but the local owned shop (Dury's) had none. Fortunately there's B&H Photo...

EDIT: I'm speaking of Pentax DSLRs. I have no idea about their P&S cameras.

[monochrome]

I live in St. Louis. Our dominant camera retailer is Creve Couer Camera with 10 stores. Pentax is stocked and featured in every store and on line - bodies, kits, 11 of the lenses plus P&S and accessories. Certainly Canon and Nikon have a larger presence but Pentax is there and has shelf space. I even heard a co-brand radio commercial on classical FM Radio last fall (the demographic is men over 45 on that station). CCC had a loaner program last year where you could borrow a Pentax (only) demo body and lens for a day or two - very cool promotion.

Pentax is doing well in St. Louis.

[jglover]

What happened to Schiller's and City Photo? It's been over 10 years since I lived near St. Louis and those used to be the two major player....CCC seemed a distant third to me back then. I bought my first Sptomatic and a couple of lenses from Schillers about 25 years ago.

[Stratman]

Schillers is still around. I have been in there a few times, and they did have some Pentax stuff. even had a Tamron 70-300 in there, and I checked it out mounted to their K10D. it is a busy place for sure, they had a lot of customers in the store that day...I have not heard of City Photo, so can't comment on that...

[rfortson]

Pentax is doing great here in Houston. I can get pretty much any lens Pentax makes, along with all their accessories, for great prices. And best of all, they'll deliver it right to my door!

Oh, you were talking about brick and mortar?

The "real" camera stores I visit on rare occasion have some Pentax gear, but it's along the lines of Olympus or (used to be) Sony. Nothing more than a couple of bodies and a 3-5 different lenses, and a few random accessories. Enough that you know Pentax is around, but certainly no threat to the big two. Which is why I opened my post as I did.

[lesmore49]

I live in Western Canada and in the past year and a half I have bought:

• Pentax K10D body
• Pentax 16-45 Zoom
• AF Pentax 360 Flash
• Pentax 55-300 Zoom
• Pentax K10D Battery Grip
• Pentax 50 mm F1.4

I bought all this equipment at two high end camera shops in my medium-large, city.

In every case, as per 'Canadian Rockies' experience, the equipment was taken from the two store's stock. All in unopened boxes...new stock.

If you go to high end specialty camera stores out here...they seem to have Pentax equipment stock.

The Pentax DSLR displays at these stores seem quite good and seem to display a fair amount of Pentax equipment.

[SCguy]

I live in the town of the Nikon D80. The nearest camera shop (~40 miles away) carries Pentax, but not a lot. They carry the K200D and the kit lens and DA50-200mm lens. Other than that, everything is Promaster. I walked in, ready to spend and buy either a AF540FGZ or a DA 55-300mm. They had neither. The only thing I asked about that they had was a generic 49mm lens cap. I like supporting small businesses, but if they wont stock any Pentax, I'm forced to order online.

Around here I have seen many people shooting Nikon. I have seen no Canons. I saw one Sony once, an A200. The owner asked me to set his camera back to drive mode instead of single shot.

RD

[Reps]

Local dealer does a superb work in Pentax stuff: all bodies, flashes, almost all accessories on-site, IMO rather impressive lens collection (Sorry for only local language but marked in green are instantly available): Photopoint - Fototarvikud - Objektiivid - Pentax objektiivid Also there are 39 Sigmas and 9 Tammys for Pentax plus 6 Zeisses :-)
BTW Our local currency translates to € as 1:15.6 and to $ as 1:12.5 and all prices include 18% VAT - slightly expensive by US margin but still acceptable as the prices have already jumped up due to... You know :-(
Best and happy using Pentax gear, JR

[maritimer]

firefly says :
Here in Fredericton, the main boutique camera retailer in town prominently lines Pentax up right alongside Nikon in the first row glass case. Canon and Olympus are relegated to the second (read: back) row.

Both the regular old-timers that work there shoot Pentax, from way back when. They also claim the the Pentax brand sell quite well here in this city. I was also pleasantly surprised by their lens selection for Pentax for such a modestly sized shop.

Guess I'm going to have to head up to Fredericton one of these weekends. Down here in Saint John, we have Black's Photography and Appleby's. I've actually never been into Appleby's ( the wife works uptown so she gets to go get the prints ) but they say if Pentax has it they can have it ordered. Blacks has an equal number of Pentax / Nikon / Cannon but the selection is pretty sparse. Probably my biggest irks of moving back home from Calgary

[pedrojoper]

It's not easy, but you can find the K20, K200 and K2000 around here (Portugal), although only with the kit lens. But I've never seen a pentax lens for sale at a store, or even a third-party in pentax mount. Or even a flash.

To Corros: MediaMarkt is one of the few places you can find pentax gear around here...

[Entropy]

In upstate NY, it's basically impossible to find Pentax gear.

The majority of dealers that have been listed on Pentax's site in the past 1-1.5 years as carrying Pentax SLR gear carried no such gear.

Binghamton/Elmira/Ithaca, NY - Nothing. Actually, there's almost nothing left in terms of photo stores in those areas now. Ithaca Photo is gone, as is the other photo store that was in Ithaca around 2000-2002. Tuthill's Photo in the Binghamton area is gone, and when they did exist weren't carrying Pentax despite being listed as a Pentax dealer. The camera shops in Elmira I checked out were pretty close to being gone. There were two camera shops in Rochester (only two despite being the home city of Kodak!) that appeared quite healthy, but had no Pentax gear despite at least one being listed as a Pentax dealer.

Delaware Camera in Buffalo did carry some Pentax gear but pretty much kit bodies/lenses and Sigma lenses in K mount (that's where I got my Sigma 17-70).

I didn't see too much Pentax gear at Ra-Lin in Syracuse either. (They are listed as a Pentax dealer).

The only camera stores that really carry Pentax in New York state are downstate (i.e. NYC, specifically B&H and Adorama.)