Some thoughts from Japan

Just returned from 2 weeks holiday in Japan with a few thoughts about Pentax and its place.
1. At least in the Bic Cameras store in Shinjuku the KP is a hit. Only had a quick try and prefer the ergonomics of my K-S2.


Pentax had a significant display area here and at other stores which I had time to visit during a busy schedule.
2. Saw almost no Pentax cameras on the streets and at sights with the notable exception of Kyoto Railway Museum. I am at a loss to explain this.
3. Although there were people with DSLRs and mirrorless by far the most common image capturing device was a smart phone. In fact it was quite common to see people wearing/carrying a more sophisticated device but still using their phone.

Sadly my Q7 had a close encounter with a Tokyo pavement and began to exhibit some random behaviour so I will have to buy a new travel body before my next trip.

No surprise that the image taken by the Pentax (i'm assuming) is of a low light city scene whilst both Canikon cameras feature 'action' / movement shots ! The Canon being the more challenging shot than the Nikon one arguably...all fits the established stereotypes. Is that the way the different brands are actively marketed in Japan I wonder?

Interesting perspective anyway...thanks for the input.

Karlo

You can buy Nikon/cannon cameras in just about any electrical store in Australia but you wont find a pentax anywhere much

Back here in the UK, I attended an organised shoot yesterday via the excellent Timeline Events at the Black Country Living Museum in the Midlands. Maybe 50-60 people in the group. I did not see one other Pentax user apart from myself, mostly Canon/Nikon . Couple of thoughts: 1. Why do they shoot mostly static subjects as if they were shooting an F1 race? 2. Starting to prefer my KS2 to K3- ergonomics better for me. 3. Timeline are a brilliant outfit- absolutely endorse them.

Fully agree on the unnecessary need to machine gun static targets, I did a shoot with some static aircraft recently and experienced exactly the same thing, along with other shoots I've done either organised or not.

The great thing with the aircraft shoot was along with myself, there were 4 other Pentax shooters there as well, with a similar number of togs overall

I normally see a couple of other Pentax shooters on Timeline Events events...on other photo charters I have seen upto 4 other Pentax shooters, including one regular who has a film Pentax and a digital Pentax side by side on a homemade frame and shoots simultaneously

Nice camera.

I'm a member of Durham Photographic Society which has more than 100 members. While the majority are 1,Canon and 2, Nikon users there are at least 7 or 8 other Pentax users here (three of us are members of PUF) which seems to reflect the average position Pentax hold with the other two in international sales.
Interestingly a lot of my camera club friends have been downsizing to mirror-less cameras, most notably Olympus, over the last year or so, jettisoning their great heavy full frame Canon and Nikon gear because of weight issues. And just when Pentax are seriously getting into the full frame game.
David

Funnily enough, I also just got back (a week ago) from a couple of weeks in Japan.

I went into a few of the big camera shops and Pentax always seemed to have a decent area with pretty much the whole range, cameras and lenses, on display and available in stock. All the display cameras I tried had charged batteries and the security on items allowed swapping to try things out. I did see a few Pentax cameras out and about, including a K3 with a 31mm limited on it. I think that's the only time I've ever seen another limited lens in the wild (on that trip I was shooting mainly with my DA limiteds - 15, 21, 35 and 70).

I was struck by the number of mirrorless users in Japan, especially the Fuji X system (which is wonderful but expensive), Olympus m4/3 (almost never Panasonic) and especially Sony A7s. Fast primes also seemed more common than here in Europe, where I rarely see anything that isn't a kit lens.

While it's very clear that mirrorless is the future of photography, in Japan they seem to embrace that much more than here in Europe, where people still think that for a camera to be good it needs to be BIG.