On Sun, 8 Sep 2002, Margo Ellen Gesser wrote: > I am about to ask all of you a big question: Why ARE we using Pentax gear > instead of other brands? My answer is simple: I started with a K1000 and
Hmmm... Let's see.. Way back when I was a kid - about 22 years ago or so.. ugh.. I'm getting old(er).. my dad let me try out his Pentax SL. It's the OLD type of "spotmatic" (I wouldn't even call it a spotmatic considering it didn't have a meter). He had an old Gossen, but he had told me "if you're going to take pictures with it, in this light, just use 1/125 and keep that thing there (pointing to the aperture) at f8". No need for a meter, and I just focussed the 55mm 1.8 lens and snapped happily away. I then entered high school and saw my friends in the camera club with fancy shmancy cameras. My one friend had a Minolta (can't remember which type but I think it was an X700) and it had all the bells and whistles. I pleaded with dad and mom to snag me one for a birthday or christmas but all I got instead was a Konica Auto S3, which turned out to be a decent little camera after all ! So by this point, I had a rangefinder and had access to my dad's old school Pentax SLR. Seemed to do me just fine.. then I just stopped taking pictures. No photography, no cameras were touched for the next 15 years or so. Then I got a digital camera back in early 1998. Kodak DC120 - from a now defunct auction site (I believe it was onsale.com) I started taking photos again. This of course led to my current state of G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) :) 1999 came along and I upgraded to a higher pixel camera (Canon S10) which was a load of fun to use. Took it to the UK and Europe in 2000 and had a blast !! But when I came back home I wanted MORE control - I was tired of P&S - so Canon G1 offered me more of what I was looking for. Then.. in 2001 it was time to go nuts and go on a spending/trying spree of cameras -which of course led me back to Pentax. MZ-5N (wished I had kept it now I look back on it.. not knowing enough about lenses at the time), then 645n (just wasn't happy with it and the autofocus), then the K1000.. that's when I started to fall in love again with Pentax.. then the research.. the lenses... the M50 1.4, the M135 3.5 (now in David Brooks possesion).. then the LX.. time stopped for a moment :) finally the A 35-105 3.5.. There was the occaisonal foray into other brands.... and still are.. There was the Leica M6, the CLE, the Canonet (still have it), the Contax G2 and now the Blad. All of which were purchased as "try it, if I don't like it, I know that they'll hold some value in resale land". Pentax to me is nostalgia; this is why I continue to use it - I feel a connection with my dad and it reminds me of being a kid again. Even though I'm happy with the Pentax cameras, I don't think it's got anything to do with any other stuff.. for me .. it's about history and feeling good when I hold it in my hands. Cheers, Dave
