Pentax Popularity

I rarely visit places that experience mass congregations of DSLRs. So a recent visit to the overtrodden tourist trails of Paris and to Disneyland gave me the opportunity to conduct a straw poll of the relative abundances of different makes.

As expected of course Canon and Nikon made up the vast majority, although by how much did surprise me. I would say that Nikon was a clear winner. In third place limping long some considerable distance behind those behemoths came Sony.

So what of Pentax? Well, to my amazement, I only spotted one in five days and it was hanging around my neck. I am led to conclude that either Pentax enjoys a truly minuscule market share or that Pentax users are a rather more sophisticated breed eschewing the tourist traps and the routine views that they bring. Apart from me of course, I am happy to snap away shamelessly at the Eiffel Tower with the hordes.

I wouldn't have swapped my bag of selected wonderfully compact and beautifully engineered primes for the array of hulking great zooms on show though.

Since swapping from Canon in December I have not seen another single Pentax camera.

I've have spotted other Pentax users at Ty Groes, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Dinas Bran Castle and Llangollen - it seesm there are more hidng near where I live than there seems

I saw one in Tynemouth last Saturday, and I have seen them at locations scattered around the UK. I'll admit though, you do have to have a keen eye

I think I saw one in a remote part of Gloucestershire early in 2011 but it may have been a trick of the light.

Only seen one since I became a Pentaxian. In February at the National Space Centre I spotted an old chap shooting what looked like a K-r.

When we go on days out with Sue's brother and wife plus some other family members, we present a dazzling array of Pentax cameras. 2x K-5, 1x K20D, 1xK10D, 1 K-m, 1 K-x, 4x Q..........and maybe more. When ADAPS tallys its users, if it ever bothers, there are again quite a few Pentax Users.

It depends where you are, who's there and whether you note every camera that passes.

I tend to be absorbed in image making and I'm not really bothered what other people are using.

I happened to spot one July 25th 2009 ... so rare I even got a photo in case no one believed me.

Out of the members of our Photography club that I've seen this year (~30 total) 3 others shoot Pentax, out numbering the Nikon shooters 2:1!

In recent years at motor racing events I've seen three (one a pro.), but I've generally been too busy to look much.

There are a lot of Vauxhalls and Fords on the roads but few Rolls Royces.

I forgot I also had a conversation with a fellow Pentax User whilst taking shots in Bury Port last summer

Maybe the canons and Nikons are that big in physical size compared to pentax that you didn't notice the pentax.

I know a few gig photographers that shoot pentax now due to my recomendations, in the Last 6 years of shooting festivals I met a guy from Japan shooting in the pit at Glastonbury with a IST d attached to an fa* 80-200 and a young journalist in the pit at latitude last year with a red k-R, latitude is one of the few festival pits where you can only get in with a detachable lens body.

To be fair, Pentax was always less common than Canon or Nikon and along with Minolta & Olympus fought for third. Then Olympus all but gave up when AF arrived (IIRC at one point they only made the OM4Ti SLR and a handful of lenses).

Sony seem to have little interest in the legacy Minolta user base and are more interested building a new one from scratch. Olympus seem to have settled in the 4/3rds format.

Nikon & Canon both have a bewildering range of SLRs, many dealers have them wall to wall whilst only having a couple of Pentax bodies with kit lenses. Pentax lens prices don't help - the DA 50/1.8 is double that of the Canon & Nikon equivalents. Whilst only a small point in a larger system, for a beginner starting out, it is a significant difference.

Pentax advertising/sponsoring is noted by its absence too (although very good when you see it).

Well I was ready to shake the hand of a fellow Pentaxian as chances are I would have come across them on one forum or another. I saw a Pentax compact or two and an X90, but it wasn't a case of not noticing them, there simply weren't any fellow Pentax dslr users amongst the couple or several fundred dslrs on sho. Really, not one. As I said they were probably to be found around less salubrious corners looking for more interesting images.

I rather like being in the minority, or as I would prefer to think of it, 'one of a select few', after all I recently owned a Saab 9-3 (great car BTW)

I really do feel that the owners of other DSLR Brands are missing out on a treat, especially with the K-5 variants. They are such beautiful cameras to use, ergonomic and sturdily built. I wouldn't swap mine for anything.

Regards
David