Official thread for Pentax contest entries...

My relationship with Pentax started over a dozen years ago, when I bought a very used but well cared for K1000 kit for my wife for our wedding anniversary. She used this camera when she was in a high school photography class. At the time, she really enjoyed urban and architectural photography, so I thought I'd help re-spark her interest.

Try as she might, the spark never returned. But a small fire was started under me. I was fascinated by the machine that was a humble 35mm, manually operated camera. "Honey, may I use your camera since you aren't doing anything with it?" This camera led me to a few compact digitals, which led to a Pentax K100D Super, which 18 months later turned into a K20D and a half dozen lenses. (The K100DS is now re-igniting the photography fire for a friend of mine who used to shoot a Pentax film camera.) Now I'm shooting crazy and having a lot of fun in the process, sharing what I capture with family and friends on a photography blog. I know I'm doing something right when I get messages telling me they've "stolen" another photo I've made to use as their computer background image! That's good enough for me. I'm no Ansel Adams, but I'm making progress.

Why have I stuck with Pentax? I trusted the K1000, therefore I automatically trusted the K100DS, and it never failed me. The transition to the K20D was natural and I've thought nothing of staying with Pentax, I never even researched the other brands. Spending the time here at Photo.net has demonstrated to me that Pentax is an underdog in the camera world, but that they can still go toe-to-toe with the big guys, and this appeals to me. Just because a manufacturer has a large advertising budget (Canon, Nikon) doesn't make their product superior. And to quote Mark Twain, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." This would certainly apply to Pentax.

" . . . All you have to do is write a post talking about why you love Pentax, or why you chose Pentax instead of CaNikon, or even just what being a Pentax photographer means to you. That's it, just write about the camera system you use and tell us why you use it."

35/50/135.

The master has learned to love the sturdy basics. No frills, brotha'. Darlin', just type your own phone number in my cell phone. You can leave something by the bed tomorrow morning. But, don't touch my Pentax.

Pentax 35mm, 645 and DSLR jumble around in my bag nowadays. I started out with an ME Super, years ago, and hung on to it. So far, it's been around the world and back; with me when I jumped out of a plane, nearby on one of the worst, and over my head in my hand on one of the better days of my life.

The system is durable. Let's just say my "manufacturer's recommended practices" stop somewhere after morning coffee and don't resume until after "tabbed out" on a long, hard day.

The equipment does exactly what everyone says it should do. It doesn't fuss, demand more money, complain, or in any way whine like a neglected girlfriend who is anxious about the progress I'm supposed to make in the future. It shows up, does the job, and kicks it to standard every time.

I tried one of the other brands. I dropped one of those once. The film door popped open. I'm sure the resale guy got his hundred bucks back.

I could absolutely care less what any Cadillac-driving, yuppie, frat-boy wannabe expects from his pushbutton wuss of a system. I do not care how much money the other guy spent, or, if some employer or purchaser thinks that I should have spent more. I pack the camera when I want to make pictures.

I had to learn the math; I had to learn the system; I had to learn to rock. Pentax equipment holds up. It's me and my leather jacket that has to pick up the chicks and the bar tab. The camera's there to help me catch the shot.

I choose Pentax because I actually use my cameras. K1000, 645, K200D, and yes, still, that old ME Super on the shelf. From parachute drop to underwater bag, the Pentax cameras have held up.

If you see me whip out my Pentax, try to keep up.

I live in a small town in West Virginia that is pretty isolated. The nearest real camera store is about 200 miles away, and the nearest Best Buy is even further. So when it came time to decide which brand to buy, my only realistic option was to read stuff in magazines and on the web. I read reviews on PNet and other places about Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony. Since I was new to digital photography, it was pretty confusing. No, make that VERY confusing. I'd had some experience with film, but this was adding several layers of complexity. I was sure that any of those brands could produce good pictures; I chose Pentax mainly because the descriptions that I read of how the camera's controls worked just made more sense to me than the others.

I use a Pentax DSLR because the very name Pentax takes me way back to my younger years. I used a Pentax spotmatic for about twenty years shooting mainly slides of my kids, my husband, all our pets and all of our friends and their kids. After not doing any photography for about 10 years I started at the bottom of the digital ladder with a small point and shoot up to a not bad Kodak. Then I got the itch for a DSLR. What to do? I read and read and then saw you could buy a Pentax DSLR and even (with a adapter) use old Pentax lens. Since I had 3 lens and my old spotmatic it was just the best idea. I have a Pentax K200D and could not be happier. I am as fond of my new camera as I was my old one even if the new one stumps me once in a while with all its buttons and whistles.

Why Pentax? Because at the time I was looking for an SLR, they were providing the best feature set for the money. Why stick with Pentax? Because of their in-body image stabilization, because of their full backward compatibility with all K-mount lenses ever produced, and because of their beautifully crafted and stylish Limited series of lenses.

I am just going to keep it simple, Pentax is the only camera manufacture to cater to my specific needs and not castigate me for keeping a selection of older but valuable set of lenses.

Why Pentax? You might as well ask why Santa Claus? Because all the innocent children of the world believing in him, and in their innocence reminding us of the joys of being young and open and uncorrupted by greed, lies and hamburgers that don’t taste as good as they look in the picture, and because the Easter Bunny undoubtedly would use a Pentax if he/she were not so busy with delivering candy eggs, and because Tinkerbelle is so small and so quick that only a Pentax could capture the moment of her appearance, the moment that is when and if she leaves Neverland, where Peter is right at this moment taking a picture of Captain Hook with his Pentax, holding his Pentax up to his eye, fondly grasping the contoured hand grip which so perfectly fits his slender hands as he laughs at Hook, who glares briefly at Pan who in turn captures the moment with a quick touch of his right index finger on the ever ready Pentax shutter button, a button that Hook can never press because he has no index finger, and of course then there is Ringo, and who can forget that scene by the Thames? That is why I use a Pentax.

I first started using Pentax equipment in the early 70's when I got a new K2, 35mm SLR. It was the first of a long line of K-mount bodies. I gradually amassed a small collection of lenses which I continue to use today, thanks to the Pentax tradition of making their new equipment backward-compatible.

When Pentax entered the DSLR market, I was the first one on my block to get an *ist DS -- silly name, but a great camera. Having recently graduated to a new K7, I enjoy it, and all my old and new lenses every day. So far, I have the 21mm, and the 40mm primes -- two of the three lenses that Ned designed the new case for. The K7 is a real jewel of a camera, and I am constantly amazed every time I 'discover' a new feature.

It's the lenses, really. I had my first DSLR from another manufacturer and was reasonably happy with that. Gradually I noticed that just about every lens I really wanted was for Pentax, not for the camera I owned. A small pancake lenses, high-quality primes, whole generations of great used manual lenses still perfectly fine on a digital body. The breaking point was the announcement of the 10-17 Fish-eye zoom. Quirky, offbeat - and a wonderful idea. I sold my then DSLR and got a K10D instead.

I still use that K10, with a whole set of compact lenses (including the fish-eye, of course). I also use a Pentax 67 - the medium format lenses are as good and as compact (relatively speaking, of course) as the 35mm ones. I'll get a new body once my K10 gives up, but there's no hurry; it's a good camera and gives me excellent results with those wonderful Pentax lenses of mine.