Another thread I posted in earlier made me reflect back on how I decided on the K-x a couple years ago. It also made me think back to how I was introuduced to Pentax DSLRs in the first place. In the United States, at least, Pentax doesn't seem to spend anything on advertising, and has practically no DSLR presence in stores, so I expect that most people were not introduced to the brand through conventional channels.
My first DSLR was an Olympus e-410 that I got for around $350 at H.H. Gregg after trying in vain to buy a new point & shoot camera that could take a decent shot indoors. I quickly returned the e-410 when I found out that the next model above it had shake reduction. I ended up getting an e-510 two lens kit for $450 on eBay. I dearly loved that camera, but eventually I became dissatisfied with how the Olympus performed above ISO 800.
So when the Canon t2i was introduced and everybody was making a big deal about how the new 18mp sensor performed at high ISO's, I pre-ordered one at $900 without ever actually handling a Rebel in person. When the camera came, I loved the images it produced, but I was very disappointed in the feel of the camera and the perceived build quality. Whereas my Olympus felt solid and substantive, the Rebel felt very plasticy and cheap. It also failed in the style department, with its jelly-bean shape and its unattractive flat-black paint. And the kit lens just screamed cheap, and produced an annoying sound of plastic-on-plastic when zooming. I felt ripped off that my new $900 camera felt like an inferior product to my old $450 camera.
It was about this time that I remembered briefly reading about the Pentax K-x when it had been introduced a few months earlier. I had just happened to see a brief article on dailytech.com when the K-x was first announced, and I remembered thinking that the camera looked cool with the different colors. So after being disappointed with the t2i, I went back and started researching the K-x, and decided I would give it a try since it seemed to offer more features for less money.
So I sold the t2i for what I paid, and then bought an almost-new K-x in white on eBay for $455...literally half the price of the t2i. And when I got the K-x, I was happy to find that it did not lack anything in style or build quality compared to my old Olympus. Unlike the t2i, the Pentax felt good in my hand. And with the money I saved, I bought my first upgrade lens, the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8.
So if I had not happened to read that brief article on Dailytech, and if the K-x had only been offered in basic black, I may not have ever found my way to Pentax. But I think that if Pentax had been available in the stores alongside the Canons and Nikons, I never would have bought the t2i.
I just did a Google search and found the old Dailytech article dated 9-17-2009, and looking at the comments I see that I actually left a postive comment. (My user name is Indianapolis). It was in April of 2010 that I bought my own K-x. Here's a link to the fateful article:
DailyTech - Pentax Announces Affordable K-x D-SLR
So I'm curious how some of the rest of you were introduced to Pentax and were convinced to buy your first Pentax DSLR. And it's probably wishful thinking, but perhaps some of the stories here can help somebody at Pentax realize that their lack of marketing makes it an uphill battle for somebody to make the decision to buy a Pentax DSLR.