Yes, Jens, your question has certainly elicited a lot of very diverse
replies. Photography means different things to different people. If money is
no object, you can do what you like, but most of us are on tight budgets.
Like you, I am a bit of a sentimentalist. Having started out with Pentax &
having a fair variety of M42 & PK lenses available, the choice to stay with
Pentax was relatively simple. I did make a brief foray into Canon, using the
Pentax lenses via adapters - fiddly, but fairly simple with M42 lenses (A/M
switch) ; more tricky with PK's. Pentax's Green Button (or AE-L) function
makes stop down metering very easy & gives a new lease of life to all those
old lenses when used on Pentax digitals. Only two short years ago I was
still shooting film & having the negatives digitised but, sadly, the film
labs have all but disappeared. On the other hand, my wife & daughter have
recently acquired Fuji FinePix Super-Zoom P&S's which do the job remarkably
well.
Alan
-----Original Message-----
From: Jens
Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2013 12:29 PM
To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List
Subject: Re: Which camera brand would you choose, if you started from
scratch?
First - I'm pleased, that so many want to contribute to answering my
questions.
Secondly: 10 or 15 years ago I'd tell a beginner, that it is easy to get
excellent second hand lenses for Pentax K-mount.
But that's not quite true anymore.
((I've been looking for a Sigma 100-300 EX 4.0 for months - impossible to
find one for Pentax.
And some focal lengths, made by Tamron, are not offered for Pentax at all
:-(
I can buy new Pentax lenses, but they seem to be quite expensive - and the
best ones are hard to find second hand)).
So, today I'm not so sure anymore about what to say to beginners.
But I actually have friends and famuily members, that have chosen Pentax
because of my photographs :-)
I guess that the best advertising is showing fine photographs. Remember the
Pentax (67) calendar ??
I geuss the new AA filter is a uniqe feature, not offered by other brands.
And I think Pentax bodies gives me more features/better ergonomics and user
interface, at lower cost.
I guess I own perhaps 50 lenses or more for Pentax K-Mount.
So, I could never afford to change brand myself, unless I have to (Pentax
goes belly up - or I win the lottery can afford to get Phase One equipment).
And Yes, the mentioned kult status - and the fine forums, like the PDML, is
quite a uique Pentax thing too :-)
Regards
Jens
--
Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself.
On Oct 20, 2013 05:28 "Boris Liberman" <[email protected]> wrote:
Oh, the reason is pretty simple, Cotty.
You see, Pentax is all but virtually non-existent in Israel. You have
to
actively want to break barriers to buy Pentax. Newly announced cameras
arrive with months of delay here. The international warranty means
nothing to local service centers. To get your camera serviced by Karat
(the one I've been praising) - you either have to be in close vicinity
of Big Tel Aviv or you even have to pay to messenger service to have
it
delivered there. Or you have to deal with shops with rather gray
reputation(*).
Ultimately, being a Pentax owner means that from the start you have to
overcome some very serious inconveniences and/or silly logistical
issues.
In fact, I wouldn't recommend Olympus and/or Panasonic too. I mean I
would, but I would repeat time and again that the person who asked for
my advice would have to start by figuring out who's giving the service
and what do people say about that specific company.
If I lived in Great Britain, France or United States - then I would
certainly give a different answer.
(*) A friend of mine bought Canon outfit from one such shop. We went
for
shoot. Focus was all over the place, the exposure was decidedly
over-burned too. I suggested to him that he requests for his gear to
be
serviced. Ultimately they said that the camera and lenses were withing
specified tolerances... Bullshit, if you ask me.
On 10/19/2013 9:16 PM, Steve Cottrell wrote:
> On 19/10/13, Boris Liberman, discombobulated, unleashed:
>
>>> How would you convince a beginner to get a Pentax?
>>
>> I wouldn't. Sorry. In fact, even a beginner has some idea as to why
>> they
>> would want to get into photography. So I would probably ask them
>> and see
>> what kind of result they're after. Because, say, if they're not
>> going to
>> print bigger than 10x15 cm or if they're going to look at the
>> photos
>> only on their computer screen, I wouldn't suggest a DSLR for them
>> to
>> begin with.
>
> Boris, I find this odd.
>
> Why not recommend Pentax? For a beginner, the product line-up is
> ideal.
>
> Something like the MX-1 can give a better experience than just a
> cheapshit point n shoot.
>
> If they want to get into using different lenses, then a Pentax DSLR
> is
> ideal. They will get better value for money - even pointing them to
> (say) DP Review reviews (there an echo in here??) will confirm
> Pentax
> status as such. Sure, some will be swayed by wanting Nikon or Canon
> on
> the front - but a lot won't - and in fact you'd be surprised how
> many
> want to avoid the heard instinct. Pentax still does carry a certain
> charm as a 'cult' following. A lot of people like that.
>
> So what if they don't want to print - even at all? The point is they
> can
> be creative and make some amazing pictures using some simple
> lenses.
>
> In the old days, anyone wanting to do some better photography -
> students
> included - would pick up an SLR camera. Why not a DSLR?
>
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