Why Pentax?

[Emjay Enterprises]

Dear Pentaxians

Yet another survey question

Why do you to use Pentax cameras when there are other 'bigger', more recognized brands out there? What is it about Pentax cameras and its accessories which makes fans out of you?

 

[le petit prince]

Because we are a cult and worship at the shrine of Pentaxism.

Ok, seriously.. for me:
* Price to quality ratio -- tops. Cheaper for equal or better quality/features (photographically speaking) than bigger brands.
* In-body SR.
* Prime lenses -- no other brand focuses so much on quality primes in this era of zoom mania.
* Personality too, I guess, for some? many? of us -- we don't tend to follow the herd. At least I don't.

 

[night86mare]

because it gives the most value for money

if i didn't have the option of k100d when i made the switch to dslr, i don't think i could afford anything else at that time..

because i like the layout of the menus, functions, etc, although this could be because i'm used to it already

because well, pentax concentrates on the things that matter, i.e. shake reduction, image quality, rather than mindless advertisements aimed at brainwashing people and then passing on those costs to consumers in various ways..

because well, i'm proud to be a pentaxian and proud to be different

is that enough?

 

[nik34]

I started picking up photography as my hobby 2 yrs back,i'm using ( N ) brand & hands on
with nos. of semi Pro & Pro body & also not forgetting X lenses.:sweat: but i must say their difference ball game,me no Pro just a serious hobby photographer. i need something simple /
user frenly & most true to life IMQ equipment..that's what i feel now..PENTAX.

 

[aosis]

For me it is straight forward.

1. I supported Minolta but since the wrap, I realise Alpha prices are comparatively high for me to follow.
2. Pentax lenses are cheapest /value for money / I can afford. So MJ, please keep up with the good price.
3. With my experience with Asahi Pentax since old screw mounts era ... ah remember the Super Takumar ... I am convinced that this is the right setup for me.
4. The functions in the camera are good. Shake reduction, sensor cleaning, AA batteries on the go, typical hotshoe flash, natural colours, goes on and on ...
5. Quite banal ... I hate the market share dominated by just 2 makers. With all performers each in their own way, I believe the pie should be divided equally.

 

[woefulwabbit]

I was exposed a lot to DSLRs near the end of last year, doing my solemnisation, wedding photoshoot, actual day... even during my honeymoon a friend I made during the tour was also using a DSLR so I became interested in getting a DSLR and doing some photography. Everyone was using Canon 5D mk1, except the tour friend who was using a Canon 350D, so my natural inclination was to go with Canon too. Went back to work, quite a few of my colleagues are photography buffs and almost all of them had Nikon D200 and D90s and they recommended Nikon to me. I wasn't sure how serious it was that I was going into photography so I decided I should probably get a good second hand camera. After doing a bit of research I was pretty much decided to get a Nikon D80 and an 18-105mm VR, second hand from CS B&S.

For some reason, I decided to check out what Olympus and Pentax had to offer, and I thought they were not bad. I liked the idea of in-body stablisation so that I don't have to pay a couple of hundred dollars extra per lens for stablisation and their prices seem good. Also at the same time, my father heard about my interest in DSLR and told me he had a couple of old SLRs with lenses in a dry cab that he hasn't touch for a loooong time. I looked through it and there was a Pentax MX with 2 M lenses and a Canon EOS 500 with 2 EF lenses. The choice to go Pentax was then obvious to me.

1. The Pentax K10D seems to be a highly rated camera and far cheaper than my original choice (which would have cost me ~$1150), I spent only $600 instead.
2. I get to use the old lenses which are clean, fungus free and are still of good quality.. and in-body stablisation works well!
3. Probably no chance I will go full frame, but future lens upgrade options seem a lot cheaper than if I go with N or C.

So Pentax was my choice, and I never regretted it.

(Although I admit, if money was no concern I would have bought a Nikon D90)

 

[DSLR-user]

only one word : "SIMPLY THE BEST"
once a Pentaxian, forever Pentaxian !!!
Lastly, thank for those Pentaxians who support me !!!!

 

[xylestesins]

Full frame?

Who needs that when u can go for digital Pentax 645 soon?


Pentax just has many features that we all love, and are seldom based off social influence. Almost every Pentaxian i know of did their homework well, and that's why they were led to this brand. Had we followed the herd and the usual coaxing in camera shops by the uncles "Why Pentax? Go Canon or Nikon la..", i doubt we would be here at all.

Going for the usual C / N can't be wrong, but there are other choices out there that may tailor better to our needs, and us here have decided Pentax is the one for us!

Pentaxians seldom find the need to popularize or market our products to our friends, we merely let them see what our cameras can do and how it can perform, that is proof in itself :thumbsup: And that is also how Pentax markets its products to the consumers, simply by showing what their cameras can do and letting the buyers who have done their homework pick their choice.

For me, it's a little bit of everything, but the major advantage has to be total compatibility with M42 lenses, body SR and VERY value for money products. I started off with film, so i hear alot of the legendary performance of M42/K-mount SMC optics, and it naturally influenced my decision when i ventured into digital as well.

 

[Reportage]

Dear Pentaxians

Yet another survey question

Why do you to use Pentax cameras when there are other 'bigger', more recognized brands out there? What is it about Pentax cameras and its accessories which makes fans out of you?

simple...for $1.2k or less can get K20D which is i use the term loosely "pro" level camera. $1.2k with other brands can get what...entry level??

 

[art2d2]

My first DSLR was the Canon 350D, it was good, served me well for a year. Then I realised I beginning to get addicted to L lens buying, which is expensive in the long run. Then K10D came along, a weather sealed, built-in anti-shake camera that can use old lenses since the 70s, and it cost so much less compared to other brand offerings in terms of specifications. And best of all, I fell in love with the pancake lenses. Which until today no other manufacturer have such a wide range of offerings of pancake primes, and they perform as good as their looks.

 

[neon2]

First of all, I have to take my hat off for Emjay for being so initiative in doing its market research. In my opinion, Emjay is asking the right questions at the right place! Emjay, you are the FIRST distributor that I have ever seen doing the market research directly with your product users instead of going through some market research agency. Kudos! I hope you carry on this effort and makes Pentax a big brand in Singapore.

Ok why Pentax? Simple. I am talking in terms of K200D.
1) In-body SR. This is one big cost-effective feature for us consumers.
2) Weather sealed body and DA* lenses (also weather sealed). Ideal for Singapore humidity.
3) Have the option of using BG3 grip. I like using big camera. Makes me feel confident holding it because I have sweaty palm, so a grip is a bonus.
4) Prime lenses are plenty. Super Takumar is in my wish-list.
5) Feels good in my hands. This is very important!
6) Very value-for-money in terms of quality to cost ratio. For Pentax's price from adorama after currency conversion, you cannot get anything near to Pentax's quality in Canon or Nikon at the same price.
7) Runs on AA batteries. This is one SUPER big advantage of Pentax! You can get AA batteries virtually everywhere but you can't charge your Li-ion batteries everywhere. And also BG3 used AA batteries too.
8) Very good quality kit lens compared to Canon, nikon and Olympus. One major good factor is the focusing does not turn the front glass, so polarizing filters are good on Pentax kit lens. Olympus kit lens front glass don't turn too, but it is focus-by-wire which is what I don't fancy.
9) Different from the mainstream Canon Nikon users. I like to be different. I think this is a trend for Pentax users.
10) In my opinion, good ISO performance. Better than Olympus, at least.

There are many more factors that makes me choose Pentax, but I remember them off my head, so the above is the obvious ones. Now, the interesting fact is I DON'T OWN A DSLR yet! Haha... All the above info are gathered through quite a bit of Internet research for months and reading in ClubSnap.

As of now, I am waiting for Emjay to bring K200D to the local retail stores so that I am buy it at reasonable price.

 

[Gengh]

When I was looking for an entry-level DSLR, the K100D was definitely the most value for money in terms of the feature set it offered. The in-body SR was an important consideration since it probably meant cheaper lens purchase in future. There's also something about the Pentax colours that appealed to me, though I can't explain why.

And now having been with the brand for a while, I think the Limited primes are really cool. Don't own any yet, but it's always nice to keep that option open... The current K20D prices in US also makes it the most value for money body in that range. Hopefully this will be the trend for all Pentax bodies to come.

 

[darrrrrrrrrr]

i bought a pentax because of the close-knit community here on CS. feel the lurrrrrve...:heart::heart::heart:

 

[felixcat8888]

The simple reason that I first started out with entry level SLRs with the K-mount and gradually upgraded to a PENTAX Z-20, which is still in working order to this day. I have a good collection of Pentax glass and I have a rare SMC 85mm F1.8 manual lens till today as well as Chinon, Ricoh and Cosina branded lenses.

My first foray into DSLR was a grey Canon 400D and after 2 months realised that if I wanted to use my Pentax branded lenses, I would require an adapter. Now WHY would I want to go to the hassle and use an adapter when I can actually use the K-mount right away? I started to look around for a 2nd hand K10D and realised how silly I was to go the Canon way. In-built stabilisation, cheaper but better quality lenses (hope it stays this way under Emjay), and the close-knit community of Pentaxians. Pentax has all along been known to have better colors then the other brands.

Because the previous distributor's pricing was ridiculous, I decided to get a grey K20D instead. I will definitely get local warranty sets IF the price is right so that I do not have to keep calling a friend in Hong Kong to buy for me and have it carried over when she comes back to Singapore.

Now my dear son is also interested in photography and I do hope to get him his own DSLR sometime in the future and at the moment, he is using an old Super A to get to know photography.

 

[fengwei]

Most of us (me included) here chose Pentax because:
1. value for money
2. great cameras w/ built-in shake reduction, and excellent lenses especially prime lenses
3. Pentax colors
4. capable of using old lenses because Pentax dSLR cameras are compatible w/ all PK and M42 mount lenses.
5. being different from the rest

 

[CY_OH]

I had existing Pentax bodies and lenses from my father, including Pentax ME, MX and close to 10 lenses . Bought Pentax Z-1 in late 2001.

Wanted to go digital as early as 2003 but had limited budget. *ist D was too high priced and prosumers like Konica Minolta A1 and A2 had noisy high ISOs. All along had been loaning Canon DSLRs from school and friends and had used 300D/350D/10D/20D/30D before.

Considered changing to Canon with used 20D/30D, 17-40L, 70-200 f2.8, but would still need several thousand after selling of existing equipment and there was no IS. There was the question of having Pentax lenses that may not be sold.

Chose to wait for K10D vs used Pentax body like *ist Ds. My main criteria was twin dials, pentaprism viewfinder, top LCD. The built in SR, 10MP vs 6MP and weather sealing attracted me. The twin dials, Hyp and green button was very similar to the Z-1 I was using, plus I could use my existing lenses.

After buying K10D in Dec 2006, liked the ease of selecting AF points, grip that that allowed battery to remain in camera, ways to change functions of dials in Custom Functions, built in JPG conversion that was very useful.

Canon users were aware and envious of the weather sealing, 9 cross-AF points that were not limited to f2.8, and use of built-in-flash for wireless flash control and one had asked if I had any Limited/Pancake lenses, which led me to buy the thinest and most affordable DA 40. A Nikon user was amazed by the ability to preview the Colour Balance setting live on an image when changing settings.

 

[phantasmal]

1. Used a Pentax Film when young

2. Built in SR (think K10D was one of the 1st) and being a Panasonic compact cam user, IS or SR is very impt. Reduces cost of lens i think.

3. Value for money, hope not all the new lens are ex.

 

[DXu]

For me..........:bsmilie:

Canon = Honda
Nikon = Toyota
Sony = Mitsubishi.......

PENTAX = Subaru........All weather, all terrian, all condition........affordable and reliable:thumbsup:

 

[aosis]

For me..........:bsmilie:
PENTAX = Subaru........All weather, all terrian, all condition........affordable and reliable:thumbsup:

hahah .. that's my setup. :bsmilie:

 

[scorpioh]

Mine's a pretty long story:

I got my first camera, a Canon ixus70 some nearly 2 years back. Within months, I found that I wanted a dslr, I do not really know what was limiting me but I felt a dslr has that "cool" factor. As I wasn't sure if I would really enjoy photography, I thought of just getting the D40x (the only candidates were the D40x and the 400D for me) with a simple budget of ~$1k - the d40 with the kit lens would be my entire system as far as my photogrphy career is concerned. By a twist of fate, I did not buy the d40 at the last minute.

I continued my research on the different brands. Somehow Pentax caught my eyes and really suits my taste, especially in design and construction. I plunged straight into the k10D even though reviews mentioned that it is not built for the novice. But so far, my experience with it is quite positive. My first wish-list was the DA40 (the slim factor sold me) and I got it quite soon after acquisition of the k10D and sigma1770. I especially love the built and design of the limited primes. That began my quest for the limited primes and I think its the prime lenses that would make me a life-long Pentaxian.

Pentax is quite a cult brand in Singapore. I don't have time and effort to explain to others why is it good. But if you do not succumb to the mass market propaganda, getting Pentax is a no-brainer for the common photographic enthusiast (I do feel Pentax bodies are lacking for events and fast-paced photography).