South Wales in the Snow, and whither Pentax?

[DrZhivago]

Does anyone else here use a Pentax camera? There seems a mystery in that from being one of the big six (Canon, Fuji, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus & Pentax) when I first bought an SLR in the 1980s, they are now hardly to be seen despite still making a range of cameras from compact (under the Ricoh name) through DSLRs, to a 645 medium format. They are one of only three makers of full frame (ie 24x36mm) professional grade DSLRs (along with Canon and Nikon).

Yet on the Pentax users' forum that I use there is a perpetual thread about how rarely Pentax is seen, with posts like : "On my cruise holiday, I saw thirty Canons, eight Nikons, five Sonys and only my own Pentax!"; or : "Two weeks holiday in Hawaii and mine was the only Pentax I saw!". Conspiracy theories abound, eg review sites being bribed to ignore Pentax or to puff other brands. Pentax seem to have a no-adverts policy, and us Pentaxians worry about its future. It seems you can only buy Pentax kit by ordering it, even from Jessops (Bristol, Cribbs Causeway). But camera sales (as opposed to phone cameras) have fallen drastically and even Nikon are struggling. Only Sony (where did they come from?) seem to be doing well, despite mixed reviews.

Anyway, here are two photos in yesterday's snow, at least one with a caravan interest!

 

[Anseo]

"Asahi" brought out a camera model named Pentax, and 'Asahi Pentax' always came to mind whenever I thought of the Pentax brand, at one time it was the brand of my desire, never did get round to buying an slr until canon introduced the affordable DSLR entry level EOS range.

Nice pics BTW B)

 

[DrZhivago]

"Asahi" brought out a camera model named Pentax, and 'Asahi Pentax' always came to mind whenever I thought of the Pentax brand

Asahi = Rising Sun. I have an older camera that has "Asahi Pentax" on it. Many Japanese companies adopted Westernised names when they went global; Nikon was originally "Nippon Kōgaku" which meant "Japan Optical" I believe - not very imaginative!

Pentax is now owned by Ricoh who were once in the "second division" with its cameras* but is otherwise an industrial giant. It is like Ricoh keep the Pentax brand for their higher end models indulgently as a (loss-making?) sideline as Pentax has such a good pedigree. It is a pity that most of the younger generation has never heard of them (like Leica and Contax?) - due to lack of advertising I suppose.

*In sales terms. Nothing wrong with them, but not at the technical forefront, tending to follow Pentax standards.

 

[DrZhivago]

Encouraged, here is another snow pic. That's not my house in my avatar BTW :lol: This was taken on Sunday and since then we have had more snow : now about 6" deep. I am up in the hills in the Monmouth area, and looking at the TV news it seems we have had as much as anywhere. Need to get the car out tomorrow, chiselling the door open will be the hardest part. The dog loves the snow; cat hates it. The pic here is a crop of only 10% of the original frame area.

 

[emmerson]

It would appear that I'm not very far away from you Dr. Z, in the Eastern valley, below Blaenavon, and we've had it bad, up to fifteen inches in places!
Ref chiselling the doors open, if you can get electrickery to the car, then use a hair dryer round the door frame. Works a treat, and warms your hands at the same time!
Lovely pics, btw. The dog looks like mine, and surprisingly there is a similarity to my place in the pic of the caravan in the lane.

 

[otherclive]

Encouraged, here is another snow pic. That's not my house in my avatar BTW :lol: This was taken on Sunday and since then we have had more snow : now about 6" deep. I am up in the hills in the Monmouth area, and looking at the TV news it seems we have had as much as anywhere. Need to get the car out tomorrow, chiselling the door open will be the hardest part. The dog loves the snow; cat hates it. The pic here is a crop of only 10% of the original frame area.

More a LUMIX person these days but Pentax were good cameras. To obviate the need to chisel your car doors open I use this stuff. But it needs to be applied before winter arrives ! Use on Caravan window and door seals too.

Nextzett Gummi Pflege, Rubber Care Stick, 100ml

 

[Trevormc]

My first SLR camera was a Pentax SPF Spotmatic purchased new in 1974, did have it untill the grandson borrowed it still waiting for it back. Sorry but jumped ship and now have a FF Canon.

Trevor

 

[DrZhivago]

My first SLR camera was a Pentax SPF Spotmatic purchased new in 1974

.... the best and last of the Pentax screw mount cameras. But Pentax continued to make basically that same camera until 1997! In 1975 they replaced the SPF's screw mount with the K bayonet and (with some minor changes on the front panel) it became the KM. Then they "simplified" :-( the KM by removing the self-timer and depth of field preview and it became the very popular K1000. The K1000 somehow acquired cult status, and market demand kept it going as the entry level SLR until 1997, by which time it was desparately out of date and being made in China to reduced standards.

More a LUMIX person these days but Pentax were good cameras.

They still are! The guys on the Pentax forum often tell how people are surprised to see them using a modern Pentax, having thought they were no longer made. Unfortunately Minolta and Contax have gone as brands, and it seems that several of the old brands now have an industrial "godfather" : Leica has Panasonic (Lumix), Minolta has Sony (now branded as such), Pentax has Ricoh, and Olympus also has Sony!

 

[otherclive]

This discussion on Pentax spurred a train of thought as I seemed to recall that my wife bought one when we were going to Assam. Searching in my cupboards I have unearthed a Optio E90 in glorious wine red. She bought it as a back stop in case the larger cameras had a problem or we couldn't find power to charge them. No compact power packs then. Its beauty was that it would run, if required, on AA cells which we always carried with us. My fall back was a Samsung WB which was a fine little wide angle compact but compared to the Pentax its menu system required a major in computer science to figure out.

 

[AdifferentJim]

I've got 4 Pentax cameras. I bought a Spotmatic II around 1971. I then later swapped it in the mid/late '70s for a Pentax MX and then bought a second MX. I still have both and 5 of the M series lenses. I used them as part of my job and processed all my own black and white and most of my colour transparencies.

In the mid '80s I bought a Sony Hi-8 video and used that whilst the kids were growing up. I also changed jobs and lost interest in the stills ( and my darkroom).

When my lad got married in 2010 I decided to get a decent camera and chose a Pentax K5 because my original lenses would fit. I kept the K5 but got a K3-ii. Both brilliant cameras. It seems I've got the bug again.

 

[DrZhivago]

I had an MX (it was stolen ) a superb little camera. It was aimed at professionals with a full range of pro accessories - a 5 fps motor drive, focussing screens, data backs etc. Unfortunately I think Pentax mis-judged the market by assuming professionals would demand manual only (as they had tended to) but in fact by 1980 pros were demanding Auto+manual. Pentax corrected this by adding pro accessories to the Auto+manual K2 (I've got one) and then brought out the LX (got one too, best 35mm film camera of all time IMHO, rival of the Canon F1n and Nikon F3) - but too late to stop Nikon and Canon cornering the pro market. I now have the older K10D, and a K1.

I know the K3ii is excellent - includes the Pentax flagship pixel-shift mode and in-body image stabilisation. Canon and Nikon SLRs cannot compete with those, although pundits believe they may follow suit one day soon; their existing in-lens stabilisation method obviously only works with lenses so equipped, does not compensate for roll, and you cannot fit legacy lenses to digital Canon SLRs anyway - shame, because there is some superb older Canon glassware out there

I am less enamoured by other "must-have" features in modern cameras - GPS, WiFi links, insane number of metering modes. Most are just ticking boxes for marketing IMHO. I use my digital SLRs almost entirely in manual or Aperture-Priority auto - like the old K2!

 

[Cento16v]

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[ericmark]

The Pentax K10D was a great camera, but it has the old sensor, so the max ISO is by today's standards rather low, I had the old Ricoh which used Pentax K lens, so I went for the Pentax so I could use old lenses. And on a tripod or in good light it is great, and auto focus is fast, and I have bellows, and reversing rings, and close-up filters so still well used.

However on my sisters death I got her Nikon D7000, only one lens, a Tamron 18-270, F/3.5-6.3 a poor lens as so slow to focus, often turn to manual focus.

However the sensor is another, light levels can be so low, and it still can take a hand held photo, new Pentax also has that sensor so nothing to do with being Nikon, it is just the K10D is old.

I have been warned not to upgrade firm ware in Nikon, as non Nikon batteries no longer work, however if you upgrade K10D you get extra functions, well worth doing.