|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-10-2014, 03:13 AM
|
| |
I was at my local camera store a few weeks ago picking up a couple of CR2s for a MZ60 I wanted to try out. But this story isn't about the MZ60, its about the sales pitch the assistant was giving a young woman and her dad about which DSLR she should sink yer holiday money into.
It came down to Canon and Nikon as far as the salesperson was concerned, and she had the young woman tossing up between a Cannon 650D and a Nikon 5100. That girl was walking out the shop with one of those cameras or the other, and that there is why retailers love the Canikon duopoly; the salesperson doesn't care so long as the customer walks out with something, and having the "choice" between Canon and Nikon makes the customer feel more in control of their decision. Any more options, and the customer is likely to just walk out the shop to "think about it"... and then spend their money elsewhere. A duopoly like Canikon is juuuuuuuust peachy for bigger retailers.
Needless to say when the sales person went out back to grab one more accessory that was vital for all new photographers, I sauntered over and suggested to the girl that she check out the K30 and twin lens kit on the bottom shelf (barely visible) that was going for about two thirds the price of the Canikons... and then I mentioned weather sealing and backwards compatibility. I think she got the message...
Rob
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-18-2013, 02:15 AM
|
| |
Really guys... where are you all living? I haven't posted in a while (this is one of my favourite threads), but I keep seeing Pentaxes all over the place. Was walking across King George Square today and saw a white K-r on a tripod being operated by a young bloke. His girlfriend had a red one.
Make no mistake... I see ten or twenty times as many other brands.... but that still means about five or ten percent of cameras is a Pentax, so I see one every few days. Then there is the K1000 thing that was happening with the hipsters round here a while ago...
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-26-2013, 01:17 AM
|
| |
I get this all the time. It's because we live in a world where everyone has been trained to be brand loyalists and part of that training is to fear and loath "lesser brands" more than similar "big brands". You can see it in other areas as well. Walk up to two guys arguing the toss over Ford and Holden, and announce yourself as a Volvo or Subaru driver. The two big name fanbois will turn on the newcomer, because they are more afraid of the unknown that the newcomer represents than they are of their own evil twin. Ford and Holden are actually so similar in product and approach, that a criticism of one is really a criticism of both... and non-conformity is the greatest criticism of all. It's your classic market duopoly dynamic; the major players actually ensure their mutual survival by killing of the real competition. The end result from a consumer's point of view is effective monopoly (ie: bad news for innovation and competition).
Photography is not my day job; it is a hobby and an art form for me. However, I have been lucky enough to start getting enough paid gigs now that I can effectively feed my hobby with my hobby. That which I earn by the lens gets spent on the lens. This means that I am rubbing shoulders with a lot of lesser professionals and wannabe professionals and the comments I get for using Pentax gear in some discussions reflect the duopoly theory precisely. I have actually been bailed up by two competing Canikon guys and told that my Pentax should not be used for professional shooting, and that my work cannot be good enough as a result. Well, that might be true, but that would be because I am only an average photographer. But when pressed on why Pentax is to blame for my average photos, the effective response is that only Canon and Nikon are used by professionals...
Anyway, folks, the impression I am getting is that the prosumer ranks (these are the most vocal) of photographers are filled with individuals who know more about camera gear stats than they know about taking photos. They are prime candidates for marketing and the brand snobbery that follows from it.The real professionals I have been lucky enough to encounter know enough to realize that gear is just gear and I can actually understand why they go Canikon; they are looking for a complete system, and every accessory made for cameras is made first for Canikon. Really, not even Pentax loyalists can argue with that. I love my cost effective Pentax stuff, but if I was earning my real money from photography I would want to buy into the system with ubiquitous support. But as for most other camera toting folk... it all comes down to the marketing and people's training as good little consumers.
That is why two mega-companies selling stuff that is too expensive for mediocre products can whip companies that produce innovative and cost effective stuff at the cash register. Pentax only really stands a chance with folk who are pragmatists, sentimentalists, experimentalists or are simply bloody minded. But lets not forget... its not as though Canikon produce rubbish cameras, either. Get a modern DSLR from any of these manufacturers and you are going to get an amazing bit of gear, especially when you compare what you are getting with a lot of other consumer-grade electronic fluff.
As one last little example of the power of simple brand identification... my offsider who actually runs the biz side of my photographic ventures has decided she'd like to jump behind the lens, too (she has a better eye than me, after all!). After me teaching her on Pentax and us producing all of our successful stuff on Pentax (ya know, the reason we have a biz in the first place)... now that she is looking at cameras herself she is going to get a Canon or a Nikon. She doesn't know which. She doesn't know why. She actually described it as simply feeling that with Pentax she was always alone... and that Canikon is all around. You can't reason with that:).
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-16-2013, 05:55 AM
|
| |
Hello Gordon; you may have me at a disadvantage. If we we met at the fair, I didn't connect you to the poster who scored that fabulous sounding kit in the 6x7 thread. Well done, on that!
As for my own 6x7 adventure, I have vowed to stay clear until I have my 35mm film processes up to a satisfactory level. I have a good K1000 kit now (thanks to a couple of purchases at the fair and a gorgeous Pentax-M 80-200 4.5 and M-28 2.8 immediately after), but am still struggling with the finer points of developing. After I have that sorted, I will start enlarging, with most of the bits and pieces for a darkroom already scrounged and assembled. Only after I have my analogue workflow for 35mm sorted will I allow myself to think about the 67 again:). Maybe at that point I'll drop you a line and you can show me the gear you scored... so I will have an idea of the standard to look for! I was very envious reading that list of gear.
Cheers.
Oh... and I didn't see any Pentax cameras today that weren't mine...
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-07-2013, 07:12 PM
|
| |
I saw that in the paper... but Brisbane isn't Sydney. Oh, well.
The selectors must have been after a particular look. That second photo is my preference too... great lens flare and dramatic palette. The first looks like a (very nice) postcard.
I am beginning to think I must be hallucinating. Was out with my K1000 in town the other day trying not lo look like a hipster while taking some long(ish) exposures on tripod with cable release. Saw a stormtrooper K-x... passed close enough for me to identify it positively. I pointed and waved, but the owner just looked at me strangely and quickened his pace. Seriously, all the Pentaxes are here!!!
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-19-2013, 01:02 AM
|
| |
@ Transit: It WAS a great day:). I am not normally into markets but I was helping a friend run her stall and was pleasantly surprised. There was some amazing stuff there and I managed to pick up a Pentax-M 28mm f2.8 and a Pentax-M 80-200mm f4.5, both in great nick.
@ Steve1307: Well, some of the cameras looked like they were out of the Twilight Zone. If it was a strange vortex for Pentax DSLR's, it was also a vortex for weird Soviet and Eastern Bloc cameras. As for the hipsters, funny you should say that but I did watch one of them trying to load his lomo film into an ME while his mate coached him using an online tutorial... on his IPhone. No joke. So, amusing as that was I suppose its proof that the cameras weren't just for street cred. But then, I remember all too well my own first humiliating public film loading experience only a few short months ago (I still blush at the thought), and so I refrained from laughing and pointing. Much. :)
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-18-2013, 09:31 PM
|
| |
Just back from a vintage camera market (Cameraholics, Brisbane).
There were probably dozens of digital camera-toting folk in the hundreds who were browsing. There were several hipsters carrying K1000's and ME Supers, and when I stepped outside for a BBQ sausage there were three guys discussing the green button and how to use it for metering using M-lenses on their K-5s. One of the stall owners was an avid Pentax shooter, and to cap it all off a gentleman walked over and struck up a conversation about the Q I was carrying... he wanted to know what I thought of the Q-K adapter and whether I had shot telephoto with it yet...
This is obviously a Pentax Bermuda Triangle or something...
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-17-2013, 11:28 PM
|
| |
Returning to this thread because it is fun.
Well, I think the reason you guys don't see any is because they are all here. I was on a charity walk just the other morning and saw two Pentaxes as well as mine... a blue K30 and what was either a K10D or K20D. There were very few other DSLRs about. But then, it was raining...
Seriously, I see a Pentax or two every week.
|
|
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-21-2013, 08:17 AM
|
| |
It seems that this thread is a bit of a rite of passage on this site, so I thought I would contribute.
Jeez... I see another Pentax every other time I go out. I actually shared a coffee with a nice Korean tourist a while back on account of the fact that we were both carrying K-x's. My home town is a bit of a tourist stop, so there are always lots of DSLR's on the street and while easily ninety percent are Canikons with the balance being a smattering of Leica, Sony and Pentax... I still see Pentax a fair bit. Quite memorably, in September last year I was shooting at a medieval fare when a French bloke tapped me and waved his K-5. We spent the rest of the afternoon shooting together... and he had a pro-bag FULL of Ziess and Pentax * glass. The brief samples I took with that glass did nothing to assist my LBA! Lovely stuff. I value those experiences more than I would seeing ten thousand Pentaxes dangling from the necks of tourists.
But I digress.
So... my take is that yes Pentax is rare, but that should be no surprise. Going by these posts, most of us seem to have arrived here by one of three paths. The first are those who shot Pentax in the film days, the second are those that inherited Pentax gear, and the third are those that arrived during the digital age after plenty of hard research revealed Pentax as superior value. There is no room in that mix for the average consumer who wanders into a mainstream store and asks the sales assistant what they should get. Also, there is not much room in that mix for the aspiring pro who may well recognize the competitiveness of Pentax gear but sees Canikon as safer overall SYSTEMS with which to advance their careers (hard to argue with that, actually). Consumers and wannabe pros account for the vast majority of DSLRs seen hanging around necks. Thus... we see ten Canikons for every other type of DSLR out there.
So, as I see it Pentax appeals to a very, very narrow niche of discerning enthusiasts and sentimentalists, somewhere off to the side of the normal spectrum ranging from brand-conscious consumer, up to gear-headed "prosumer" and then through to pragmatic professional.
I for one, hope this never changes. While I wish Pentax well and certainly a bit more market share wouldn't hurt to ensure the company's survival, I sincerely hope that Pentax never resorts to the mass-marketing ploys, vapour-ware announcements and lego-brick upgrade paths of Canikon. I do hope they continue to offer quirky alternatives as well as good solid cameras built to high photographic standards rather than the banal demands of the marketeers and product managers.
In the meantime, I will revel in the knowledge that wherever I am in the world, if I see another Pentax I can raise mine, smile and know I am in the company of a fellow traveler. Can't do that with a Canikon. Well, I could... but I'd be grinning and waving a camera a lot, and people wouldn't know what for:).
|
