Thanks for all your posts/answers.

It's just so aggravating not being able to see or hold a X70 in hands. In the back of my mind (if I had one, per asking my wife.. ) I had planned on ordering on line anyways.. but at least wanted to see/hold one in person.

I'm a old "Asahi Pentax Spotmatic 35mm SLR" person myself. Bought it new when stationed overseas in 1964. Back at that time there were two models. Asahi: which was the non-USA model.. and the "Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic 35mm SLR" which was the USA model. Same camera.. different names.

Once again.. thanks for your answers from my UK/European Pentax friends.

ShiKu Chishiki

Was looking at purchasing a X70. On the Pentax web site I found 8 Wal-Mart and 2 Sam's Club stores listed as retailers of Pentax in my local area.. as well as a Wolf/Ritz Camera store that was listed in the phone book.

After spending a couple of hours calling all of them I was told NO X70 could be bought there. I e-mailed PentaxUSA with the following:

"No one in my area carries the X70. Why? I've spent the last two (2) plus hours calling all the stores (as listed on your web site) in my local area to no avail...

...and you wonder why people are buying Cannon, Fujifilm, Kodak, Nikon, Olympus, etc., etc."

The reply I received back from "Michael C. Pentax Imaging Technical Support" was as follows:

"I'm sorry, the "Where To Buy" option on our website is the only option we have to find local retailers."

Am I missing something here? Didn't I already say that I had contacted retailers in my local area and NO X70's were to be found? My question via the e-mail was:

"No one in my area carries the X70. Why?" It would have been nice if they had answered my original question!

I can't believe that Pentax (or any manufacturer/distributor) doesn't keep records as to where they ship their product. You mean to tell me their shipping department boxes up the cameras and labels the shipment to go to "Anywhere, USA"? I'm not that dumb to believe that. How are they going to get paid for the cameras if they don't know who they sent them to?

Pentax's e-mail ended up saying to me: "besides looking through you're local phone book, you could try entering a different zip code and try the retailers located there."

It's bad enough I've wasted a couple of hours already.. and now Pentax wants me to do their job for them too? Isn't that asking a little too much? I'm the customer.. not one of their employees!

ShiKu Chishiki

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No.. it's not your camera,
it's the person taking the photo!

Thank You all for your comments.

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No.. it's not your camera,
it's the person taking the photo!

The X70 operating manual (pg. #219, ie: system requirements), has the following: Use Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater. What's the validity of this?

I know I'm good on the O.S requirement because I have either Windows 2000 Pro or Windows XP as my operating systems.. but all five of my computers run "Mozilla FireFox 3.0" as their web browsers.

Is the Internet Explorer 5.0 requirement just a generalized statement meaning, ie: "any web browser version that's as old as I.E. 5 or newer can be used".. or is it specific as to, ie: "Internet Explorer MUST be the web browser used"?

I would hate to dismiss the X70 from contention to buy just because I was forced into using Internet Explorer.

Thanks for any replies you may give.

ShiKu Chishiki
__________________
No.. it's not your camera,
it's the person taking the photo!