Sony beats Canon

What's this to do with Pentax?

Just got this weeks AP mag with a comparison of the Sony Alpha and Canon 400D

Sony gets 90% whilst Canon gets 84%. Given that almost any old trash will get at least 80% in Magazine reciews and (historically) only miracles ever seem to warrant 90% this represents a sound thrashing for Canon.

Which brings me back to Pentax. Reading between the lines, the Pentax K10D is already ahead of the Sony and it has not been released yet.

So the new Pentax is potentially king of the pack! ('though I will believe it when I see it.)

Graham

This may not mean anything....

For one thing the alpha is the first DSLR from sony and has had one of the biggest and most comprehensive pre-launch campaigns of any recent camera.

Secondly, AP has repeatedly shown itself to be well and truly in the pockets of suppliers, especially those who use high levels of cultivation such as sony. That nice little free holiday in Morocco DID play it's part you may be sure.

Thirdly, any real test or comparison should have been against the existing 6 milpix cameras since there are already doubts about noise levels with the current crop of 10milpix models, especially at higher iso settings.

Essentially, it holds well to believe nothing one reads in the UK photo press at face value.

You are more cynical than I am.

Still, I will lose no sleep if Canon get knocked off their perch, and I liked Minolta in its day.

Graham

This just proves though that magazine reviews are essentially not worth the paper they're written on.
Whatever our favourite marque is, we know that non of the major manufacturers produce bad cameras. It should be a case of what FEELS bes to you.
However we know, being Pentax users, that they do not usually mark Pentax as high as Nikion, Canon, Sony etc.
We can only speculate why, but "Cross my palm with silver" probably wouldn't be far off the mark.
This shouldn't make me mad, but it does, as it's these negative reviews that could ultimately see the demise of Pentax.

I suspect that the percentage of camera buyers that actually read these reviews is actually quite small. Probably most people just go into a shop and buy what they fancy at the time, or what the sales person directs them to.

If this is so, then the impact of magazine reviews might be only significant for a particular segment of the market place.

No doubt someone somewhere has the statistics for this.

Nevertheless, I look forward to the K10D review. let's see what fatuous comments come from AP this time.

From most all the reviews of the Canon 400D that I have read, they say it is un-necessarily uncomfortable to hold in the hand than it's competitors, and having had a feel of it myself also, I can only agree.

It kinda feels like a toy camera when compared to the Nikon D80.

I would think that it's ergonomic design would play a large part in how well it would fair in reviews, hence the low rating perhaps? After all, it doesn't matter how good a camera is if you don't like holding it.

It's a shame, because looking at the results achieved from both cameras, the Canon probably comes out on top of most tests.

You won't make any friends round here, saying things like that! Just wait 'til George sees that.


Let's hope that Pentax get their finger out as far as sending samples to magazines for review this time. When I was getting my D, I did think about the DS, but 2 months after the release of the camera, AP still hadn't reviewed it. I asked the editor why, he said they hadn't had one sent to them.

Ended up going to a camera shop, playing with a DS for about half an hour, then saying "Thanks, but no thanks". I think the assistant thought he was on to a sale, and seemed more than a bit p***ed off that I wasn't buying it, although he couldn't answer my questions about the camera, and just stood there while I looked through the menus and manual.

Main reason I didn't get it? After holding it for that long, my hand felt uncomfortable, hence the reason I went for the D with grip. Also didn't like having to go into the menu to select focus points. K10D seems good in both respects.

Dan

Pentax really need to get their act together with the K10D or people wont know of its existence, I mean c'mon, can you honestly see salesmen pushing Pentax if they have Canon stock on their shelves, they are going to ride on Canons "popularity" in the hope of getting a sale.

As for photo mags reviews being biased due to "incentives" from manufacturers, I can say from experiance that I bought Pentax because of one such review, Practical Photographys review of the MZ7.

Given the number of ads on TV for the Canon 400D I think Pentax have missed the boat again

I am not sure how you can miss a boat that hasn't yet been launched.

Canon is a hundred times the size of Pentax, with corresponding financial muscle. The fact that they are advertiing so heavily may be a sign that they see a threat from a superior product.

But I suppose you could say that about any Pentax camera.

Our job is to help Pentax publicise the K10D by telling people about it.

G