US prices to your door

Viewfinder

Any chance that your New Year's resolution might be to be more positive in 2010 :

For more price comparison there is a tool to watch Continental prices: www.argep.hu This is a Hungarian local market price comparison place, but on the first page clicking on the flags of different countries, you are linked to the similar pages of the German, Austrian, Swiss, Polish and Russian market. Take note, that all prices are in local currency and these prices already include European Pentax warranty (usually 1 year) or alternatively the retailer’s own warranty. (Though retailer's warranty is practically useless if you live in another country.) Since these are local sites, only small part of the listed retailers deliver abroad. And of course, one part of them are well reputed retailers, while others not. Anyway, it is interesting (sometimes shocking) to see how prices go in other countries...

Do you use Pentax cameras viewfinder? You don't seem to like them very much!

Yes, I do use pentax cameras although less and less at the moment as my new 5x7 and rollfilm cameras get more use now. My first pentax was an S1a bought secondhand in about 1970,..it still works well and is simple and easy to use without memorising a 200 page paperback that is so boring you can use it to fight sleep disorder.

At the present time I am very dissapointed in the pentax dslr models and hope that this once great and innovative make will see the light and start 'zagging while the others are still zigging' Pentax cameras at the moment are poorly designed and much over priced in the UK.

While people go on kissing the pentax bum there will naturally not be any improvement in design or value for money. Fortunately, the digital world is changing now and pentax will probably have to innovate or sink. Sites like this are vital in keeping pressure up on manufacturers to improve what they do. Remember, the black plastic SLR is now over 40 years old and was not the best design in the first place,..just easy for the industry to make. All over the web there is criticism of the camera industry and desires for more modern digital imaging systems.

As to whether I will be kinder to pentax in 2010, that depends on whether penatx is going to listen to it's many critics across the world, or continues in it's policy of deafness being the best way forward.....

A friend of my regularly travels to New York (unfortunately not to Houston). He never comes back empty handed...

Why not just switch brands and become 'instantly happy' :

Well since you are a pentax enthusiast, which make is better?.....

....I came to pentax for DSLR because of the anti-shake as I was doing lots of on stage shots at the time. Previously, I was going to buy a minolta system but they went to Sony. I may well change back to Sony when the a900 comes down in price. At the moment DSLR's are more or less a failed experiment for me......

....Hate the black plastic blob more than nextdoors dog!!

The annoying thing is that I could probably put a kx to use as the low light image quality is suposed to be good and HD video clips in the same box would be really handy......But, I'm not going to risk a camera with such a bad reputaion already for battery probs, mirror vibration probs, video probs...no decent sound. I can't help wondering if it's been purposely crippled by pentax so that they can ask even more for a 'next model' a little bit more sorted out. As it is the kx is VERY expensive for what it is.....

BTW folks

It's the people in N Ireland who are getting the real bargains from B&H - for Ireland shipping is cheaper and there are NO items for VAT or Duties so the final total for the K-x is $608.25 !!!!! Truly a bargain .

Assuming of course that you have an address in the Republic to have the stuff sent to and then retrieve it from.

I wonder where you would stand with warranty claims.

I feel the comments about a 200 page manual that you need to learn are rather unfair. I've only had to dip into the manual for my K-m twice, once to work out how to use Pictbridge and once to figure out what "Progam AE" mode is.

Considering that my most advanced SLR before then was a P30T I don't think that's too bad - it says a lot for how well thought out the menus are that you can just fit the lens, load an SD card and batteries, switch on and figure the rest out by playing with it.

In terms of logic of operation and ergonomics the current DSLRs from Pentax are very similar to any of the later film SLRs. There is a remarkable continuation of the same operational logic.

If you took a Spotmatic and a K20D there is no reason why you can't ignore the extra features and use them both in pretty much the same way.

Pentax should be applauded for a very high degree of backwards compatibility that other manufacturers have ignored. Only Nikon comes close to the same position.

I think viewfinder wants Pentax to break from the rest of the DSLR pack, and really innovate. I would like to see that also, but I can't agree that Pentax cameras are poorly designed or problematic in the context of the Canikon competition. Quite the reverse, which is remarkable for a smaller company.

Just a few quick thoughts:
- Nikon have used the same sensors as Pentax (6mp in D40 and K100, 10mp in D80 and K200) If the sensor is the same where is the real difference?
Weather-sealed? SR in body? AF in body? Uses legacy lenses? Stainless steel body?
- Who cares about Live View? Not me; with stability problems (MS), I prefer to have the camera to my eye and at least one arm braced as well.
- No really long lenses? If you need something that long, then it will have to be supported, and there are a number of long K-mount lenses around and you switch off SR for a tripod anyway.
- If you look at overseas prices, you have to consider the whole deal. I could buy a K7 slightly cheaper in Le Havre, than in SRS; on an X70 the difference is the other way. Of course, the French TVA is higher than our VAT, and any dealer will have a policy for moving stock when it sits on the shelf too long.

I think that a body has to have the features that you need (not want, need) and that feels "right" in your hands, and its the glass that makes the real difference. For me, that means Pentax and Olympus, and I don't recall Pentax ever designing a polygonal shutter release like that of the OM-30 so I ended up with more Pentaxes than the other brand.