[BrendanPK]

Well many of you may have said, that guy who shoots a tone hasn't been around lately, your right, not because I havn't wanted too but just haven't had the time. With the addition of a Division 1 college to my client list I had been shooting upwards of 10K+ frames a month and been busy as hell. I have also in this mess decided to start running 2 systems. After needing to send in a K5, 16-50 and my FA* 300 f2.8 for repair and getting basically no support from PPS (I have been a PPS member since they started, I even helped supply pentax with many images in the days before the great pentaxians they have now, and have promoted them more than anything I called up seaking the free loaner gear they say is part of PPS and could get none. Not because of anything I did, its because they removed the 16-50 lens they had in the program from it (they offered a 16-45 F4, thanks, but I have that, I needed the weather sealed 2.8 for a reason) A k5 to tyde me over for the week or so I may be with out a camera, nothing... no cameras available at all... Really? Before I could finish, the one 300 F4 they had, I was told was already out too.
So I said fine, they said If repairs took longer than expected they would try to work something out. Ok, not too big, I got cases of older gear for a reason, back up...
So Off to CRIS camera (pentax's US repair center) call ahead, and 2 day ship everything...
They did a excellent job of CLR my old 300 and had it back to me a week later, but due to pentax's lack of parts the 16-50 and K5 would have to wait, nothing they could do, its Japan they said...
Needless to say it took almost a month to get the K5 back, a little less for the lens
All this was the final straw, after a week I dropped $$$$$$$$$$$ on a Nikon D3 and various lenses, I enjoy the ease of use the D3 has and sim high ISO like the K5 but the weight of the nikon's is killer. I love my K5's and other bodies, great, fast, small, light... the D3 is faster in most aspects but at the cost of about another pound and 1/2 the batter life my K5 with battery grip. NPS (nikon pro service) is much better than PPS as they actually have equipment to loan, and their support is second to none IMHO)
Overall I still love my K-mounts and still use the K5 for golf (its like a pee-shooter next to a loud shotgun of the D3) and for my art repro biz... Its higher rez and having already gotten the kinks of color management keep it in that place) I still pack the K5 and lenses for travel and my car-camera when I am supposed to be off, but the Nikons are my main guns now for sports and news-coverage (though I really miss the video function of the k5 and bring it with me just for that sometimes.
Overall I am like another pentaxian, "duplo" or if your like me you know him as Thomas from Denmark/Greenland hes a great guy and great photographer and our last trip together photographing Arches National Park with our K7's back in 2009 was possibly my best photo trip ever and resulted in AWESOME photos. He too runs a Nikon for work and a Pentax for play.
but alas I will be soon supporting the site here and selling a few things (sorry not the 300mm) but some things I just dont need and have to part with to pay for stuff so keep an eye out over there
thanks again folks
Hoping to meet up with some of you again soon!
-B

[minahasa]

Good luck and come play with us once in a while..

[Urkeldaedalus]

While I remain somewhat dubious of the need for amateurs or semi-pros to buy $2,000+ full frame cameras (but hey it's their money, so they can do what they want. And I certainly would love a Pentax full frame, but I digress) I can totally understand why professionals would go with Nikon or Canon for exactly the reasons you described.

[slackercruster]

OP...that is why you have B/U bodies....and B/U's to your B/U's!

[tuco]

I bet if you needed to rent some glass for a special shoot, you'd find that experience a whole lot better with that Nikon too.

[BrendanPK]

to slackercruster I have back ups, I have 2 *ist-D, 2 K10's 1 K20, 1 K7, 2 K5's (now down by 1 k10 and 1 k5 that have been sold to help fund gear) Its not the point of having backups to backups to backups, why should I have to stock 4 of the same darn lens when I am a member of PPS who is supposed to be able to get said lens for loan/rental when needed. I dont know about you but I cant afford 2x most lenses, and as far as repairs go CRIS did a great job the problem was pentax not having the parts in stock at all, anywhere, for weeks on end!

I love pentax, ask anyone here, I didnt loose money for 3 years running a pentax workshop/meet and greet for nothing. I love my k-mounts but the problem came to the fact that the support became non existent when I needed it most and has seemingly been so for a while (not my first time with PPS being "out" of everything I needed)

Yes you can now rent some pentax things from great places like barrowlenses.com (just to let you know I am a member there and have been renting and purchasing various nikon gear from them for the last 2 months) but thats only because I am awaiting my NPS membership approval and for some things like a month long rental of a lens, NPS is not likely to provide me with as a brand new member. I also have been wisely trying out gear to see if I should spend $$ on it or not as a purchase. and to Tuco yes I can find Nikon gear almost anywhere to buy and rent, My local shop has some stuff (no big glass like a 300 2.8 or above) but enough that if needed I could grab a body for a day or 2 locally, and online rentals are full of just about any glass or body I want to try/need to use for an assignment at a reasonable rate. Also most of my fellow photographers have nikon gear that I can and do trade around with for specific assignments/needs, in retrospect my closest pentaxian about 20 min away had 1 body and a few consumer oriented lenses

Just to make it clear I am not 100% jumping ship, and I am only switching to the D3 bodies (eventually a D4 and/or a D3x) is because Its the top of their line and with my experience messing with the lesser bodies is just asking to pay more in the end as they can't take all the abuse I put them through. the full frame is ok, I dont notice it too much as my widest nikkor is a 20mm and my widest pentax was a 14mm (about a 20mm equivalent with the 1.5x crop) also the thing I love with the top end bodies is the ability to quickly record a sound clip to the image for image info (I am a photojournalist and must have peoples names, whats happening etc to put in a caption w/ the photo)

I still LOVE my k5, heck I still love my *ist-D but fact of life smacked me in the face too many times that i was just running a 4x4 race in 2wd the thing I miss most about not shooting many assignments on the pentaxes is how much lighter they were and quieter, and of course, I loved some of the glass!

[borno]

I was frustrated when Pentax (before CRIS) wouldn't service a FA*300mm f2.8 of mine after two attempts and had no choice but to give up. I cut losses as much as possible and went with Canon (because of the telephotos). I have no doubt Canon (or Nikon) would have fixed the lens with no hassle if it was one of theirs. As much as I loved my pentaxes if they don't give you service when you need it you are, sadly, on your own. The old saying "they are only tools" is quite true, and service is important to me as well. I love the Pentax forum though.