What Reason Makes You Choose Pentax?

To many people, the first DSLR probably Canon or Nikon. What reason makes you choose Pentax? Just wondering. To myself, the reason is that my photography teacher use Pentax and I continue the habit. What's yours?

I tried them all and found Pentax had the right ingredients for me. That is, great colour reproduction, great ergonomics, elegance of design, quality of manufacture, and so on.

The gloves fitted perfectly. By comparison, other makes seemed quite clunky in many ways.

Same as John as well as the Art School I went to used Pentax and Hasselblad.

There are very few 'rubbish' products out there now, and all of the major brands produce cameras capable of producing good results.

I chose Pentax for a couple of reasons, partly legacy (I had one in the 70s & 80s), but mainly because it is just great in the hand and it feels so much better built than the competitors at the same price band.

Phil

Pentax was a name I just remembered from a child so when I decided to buy a DSLR i looked at the various models and brands I could afford. The Pentax K10 was weather sealed and just seemed to provided a lot in relation to the cost. when i upgraded to the K7 I was hooked on Pentax and have been ever since.

I now use a K3 which is a superb camera., yes i would like the option of full frame, but I am not really in a hurry and would rather have a Pentax full frame camera than any other brand. There is just something very special about Pentax and I certainly could not explain what it is.

When about 14 my brother gave me an old M42 thread Praktika with a Helios lens, he later gave me an M42 F1.4 50mm Pentax Takumar. I realised the quality of the lens and have stuck with Pentax since.

That 50mm was one of the best lens I've ever owned. Used with Kodakchrome 64 it captured amazing amounts of detail.

Unfortunately he later took it back!

I had a K-mount Cosina CT7 in the 80's and a few Pentax lenses, and when looking for my first DSLR, Pentax just felt better in the hand than other makes. I also always seem to pick the left field option for a lot of things in life.

I'd had a standard point and shoot (it might as well have been a phone) then moved onto a Canon Powershot G10. Really learnt the basics with that, so when I was lucky enough to come by a £500 inheritance, I decided it was time to get a DSLR.

So I set about researching what I could get for my budget, knowing only 2 things for certain

1. I had a £500 budget that I couldn't go over
2. Only Nikon and Canon make DSLRs

After a bit of Googling for reviews I had some new information.

1. There was a Canon in my price range and the reviewers raved about what videos it took but not much else
2. There was a Nikon in my price range and the reviewers found the menus to be intuitive
3. There was something called a Pentax, reviewers liked it, it had a good viewfinder, had in-camera anti-shake mechanisms and, according to the photos, was blue and covered in drops of water.

The reviewers didn't like the video capabilities, but I don't take videos and if I wanted to, the Powershot was half decent at that anyway.

I'd never heard of Pentax but read up on them and soon became confident that the K30 was the camera for me. Then came 3 bits of extraordinary luck

1. Mine was black
2. Mine was dry
3. My father in law, who had owned a Pentax SLR in the 80s, donated me his lenses - and they worked! My favourite is an A 35-105mm 3.5 which, although it has some glittery speckles on the inside of the front optic, does seem to take very crisp clear photos.

Glad I did my research!

My latest DSLR is a S/H Pentax K5, I started with DSLRs with a Nikon D70 I then had a D100 and D200 before buying a D3 which I didn't like so jumped ship to Canon and got a 5D before getting a 5DMk2 and a 1DSMk3. After reverting back to film I sold my DSLRs and Lenses and invested in a pair of LXs (had always wanted one since the early 80s) and a bunch of SMC and Tamron glass.

When I decided I needed another DSLR it was a no brainer to buy a Pentax as I was able to continue to use the glass I already had.

Had it a week now and am very pleased with it.

As a school boy in the 60s and 70s there was only two camera makers Kodac and pentax me dad had kodac (very uncool) and David Bailey used a Pentax ..... jeff..

Vert interesting reason.

Great brother. Other family members of mine has no photography experiences. If they, I may get into photography ealier.

I picked up several DSLRs in the shop. The Pentax K30 body just felt better in my hands and oozed a quality that similarly priced CaNikon products lacked. The K30's dual wheel controls and weather sealing also helped in my decision to choose Pentax.

Two things..

How many other threads do we have on this very subject?

for instance: How can the OP mark his own post as helpful?

Subjects are bound to come up again. Does it matter? We can always look at something afresh.