Focus on Imaging - Poor show for Pentax

I was at Focus on Imaging at the NEC today. Nice to get out and geek for a day and some really good presentations, especially an hours talk from Jeff Ascough..

But I have to say it's so disappointing to see such a lack of Pentax gear I knew that Pentax did not have a stand (as they didn't last year) but at least last year you could find Penatx lenses for sale at Jacobs and Pentax fit Tamron gear. This year I was honestly hard pushed to find anything at all with the Pentax name on it.

If it wasn't for their historical name you would honestly think it was dead as a brand.

I sat through a presentation for the new Nikon D7100 with my friend and kept saying 'Yup, K-5 does that" , "K-5 has that feature" . It's such a great camera that no one has heard of...

Sigh...

I think Pentax will be back at the show next year as i think 2014 will be a very interesting year.

Lets hope so Fletcher..

I'm going over tomorrow, sad to see little pentax on show. Hopefully it will still be worth the trip...

Hopefully the lack of spending on PR means they're spending all their cash on new lens/body development...here's hoping anyway. Having just bought a compact from another brand I'm certainly seeing how it can be done if cash is available, support & PR on this other brand are worlds apart from Pentax

Simon

There are plenty of pro togs I know here that know of the K5 and how good it is. Sadly for them, it's not a system camera and has no support for service or repair that pro's need. Several of them use Pentax Ltd's on their Canon's so they know their glass as well.

Joe public does not care about WR, low noise or pitch black auto focus. Indeed, he does not want to carry a DSLR about as it's cumbersome. He is not a photographer, he takes snaps for FB and Twitter.

Both Canon and Nikon have cornered the pro market hence new "photographers" are more likely to go Canikon.

As a minority user group, we should just accept the market for what it is. The fact that the D7100 being the same as your K5 will not prevent it from outselling the K5, its market force. Sadly for Pentax, they don't do marketing in time to catch a bus never mind a customer.

At least its good to be a minority user group alongside the Leica user group.

We should not loose too much sleep over what other brands achieve or claim. If the claims are true, you have the option to buy.

Best regards

Pentax far outsells leica, so not really a comparison. But you're riught, the numbers don't matter so long as we are using what we want to and what we enjoy using.

Life's too short to bother about persuading non-users.

Don't be so hard on "Joe public" though - he may surprise you - he isn't behind the door with technology.

I agree that Pentax not appearing at Focus is a big disappointment. Do they not understand the benefits of brand exposure? Surely it can't be that costly to Pentax to appear?

John is right - Life is too short to persuade non-users, but I if all things were equal (in the over the counter camera sales world) then I believe that Pentax would again be amongst the top players.

I know several guys who work in Camera shops, and they are of the opinion that Pentax produce some of the best cameras of their type (particularly for the money), but when a customer walks in saying "I'm thinking of buying a new camera... ...I've heard that Canon or Nikon are the best..." then it's an uphill struggle to sell the benefits of a Pentax, so often they will go along with with the customer and lead them to a model from those two brands. Why would they risk losing a sale?

The marketing campaigns and general exposure of the Canon and Nikon brands clearly work, whereas Pentax efforts have been lacking for some time. If you add to this the dis-incentives from Pentax fairly recently (bid.tv selling pentax X series cameras for significantly less than some camera shops could buy then for - and the Mathers situation) then I suspect they can look forward to a shrinking market share.

I was selling cameras in the day when Pentax, Olympus, Minolta, Canon and Nikon were the big players. The shop I worked in was too small for bulk discounts or commision incentives from these companies so we had the luxury of recommending cameras based mainly on what would be suited to the customers needs/wants - it's a shame (for Pentax) that it's not like that now

Well i've only been using my KR for just over a year now and i love it so i don't care what Cannon or Nikon bring out or what their users say i will stick with it thank you very much!!

Been to FOI today. it was very busy. Unfortunately I never once saw the 'Pentax' logo on any stall. Having said that I didn't notice 'Sony' either.

A bit off topic, but I was at a party last week and met a chap whose father had owned a great shop called Edinburgh Cameras, some people will remember it. I remember buying from them.

They were put out of business by Jessops whose buying power allowed them to sell at a far lower price than his father could buy from the manufacturers. He told me that incentives from Sigma were so great that he won a tour of the Far East from the sales he made during his university holidays. On the tour was a salesman from a camera shop in Shetland who had met the same sales targets! Shetland!

Pentax are a tiny concern compared to some others and I can't help but think they must know what they are doing as far as marketing is concerned albeit that does seem something of a mystery to us.

On my way home from FOi and have to say was a little disapointed. I did however go with my friend whise a canon shooter (1dmk3) and is looking to upgrade to a 5d mkiii. So we went to the canon section, which was huge by the way, and had a play with the 5d mkiii. I asked if there was something wrong with it as the focus was really slow to lock on with a 24-70 2.8 attached and was told no it was fine. Yet it hunted repeatedly and was really slow to lock on. My friend also asked why so I pulled out my k-5 mkii with the 16-50 attached and said here have a go with this and he was amazed at the focus lock on speed. We also compared the shutter sound on fast fps and the canon sounded like a tin box and the rep said you can put it on quiet mode which slowed the shutter speed down to 3 fps, again I put my k-5 mkii on high speed fps and my friend tried it and was surprised how quiet it was compared to the canon.

I
I never try other brands as I am happy with what I have got but I truly do think the mkii is finally a dslr Pentax can hold up to other brands, they just need to get their act together and do shows like Focus and get these bodies into peoples hands as the ew people today that tried my mkii well impressed.

This year I did not go to FOI, as I felt it would not really offer me any personal benefit. I think Pentax were right not to attend FOI this year, as the cost of a trade stand has to be paid for and how many people on this forum would buy from the Pentax trade stand at FOI?

I might be wrong, but I can't remember when i last came across a Leica advertisement on TV or in a photo mag. Pentax obviously has a bit of a cult following and produces some little gems with their LTD primes. The K5ll & K5lls is a very good camera. We do know that some pros do use them, they just don't feel the need to shout about it because they are using it to take photographs not promote the brand.

I think what some people are overlooking is that Pentax just can't compete with Nikon & Canon in terms of market share and PR. However, what we can do is support the company by buying their products and highlighting the benefits of the Pentax brand instead of comparing it to other brands. From what I have read, I think Pentax has some new tricks up it's sleeves which I am sure are on the horizon for 2014. As the saying go's "The best things in life come to those who wait"

If we don't support the brand financially and by promoting its benefits and jump to another brand, then it will be our own fault if it disappears. You certainly don't appreciate what you have until it's gone.

I agree with the majority of the comments supporting Pentax, and have supported them myself both financially (just don't mention that bit to the Wife) and by promoting them to others (3 guys in my office own Pentax DSLR's as a direct result of my "promoting" ) , but I am starting to feel let down by them. I believe Pentax were wrong in not attending FOI (again), they may not have the big budgets to spend on TV ads and magazines, but having a presence at a show such as this (attended by enthusiasts, photo industry representatives, journalists, etc) is vital to keeping the brand alive.

When I was selling the process I was taught was to sell the idea, then sell it again to make sure and then reassure the buyer that they have done the right thing. What some may be missing is the last phase of this - the affirmation that they are on the right track and haven't been duped into buying second best.

Canon and Nikon users get this affirmation all the time. Pentax, Leica, Olympus and Sony users don't, so sometimes maybe they waver.

However, if you're using an effective tool that you like for a purpose that you have defined, have confidence in your own judgement. You have done the right thing. Enjoy it.