The difference between a Pentaxian and Canikonite

[vegard_nervik]

<p>One of the great advantages of using Pentax is that we can look at a lot of great photos on the Pentax forum. It is one of the nice things about this forum, in my opinion, that a lot of pictures is posted and it is nice to look through them and comment now and again.<br>

Being tired and having nothing else to do I ventured into some other brand forums to look at their pictures as well. But... there wasn't much too look at, except for Sony. Since I am not particularily interested in reading about equipment I don't have, I did not pay much attention to the discussions, so I figured I would do a bit of absolutely meaningless comparison. I opened the last 20 topics on the different brands and counted the number of pictures. Yes, I know I am mentally challenged...<br>

Here are the results (pictures of equipment excluded):<br /> Canon EOS 11 pictures<br /> Nikon 15 pictures<br /> Olympus 17 pictures<br /> Sony 43 pictures<br /> Pentax 119 pictures, including 47 in our lovely POW, which to my astonishment nobody else has.<br>

So, my friendly conclusion must be that they post all their pics in the galleries and critique forum, because they can't be just petting their IS / VR lenses, those canikonites.<br>

However, having nothing else important on my mind I started thinking, so here are my top 10 explanations to this phenomenon:<br>

1) Pentaxians are deviant pornstars, we like to use our equipment to the fullest of its capabilities.<br>

2) Pentaxians likes to show how we use our equipment.<br>

3) Pentaxians know that short equipment can work just as well as long equipment, it is about where and how you use it.<br>

4) Pentaxians bring their equipment everywhere and use it even in wide open territory and in the narrowest alleys.<br>

5) Pentaxians don't have the most famous equipment but we are proud of what we can do with it.<br>

6) Canikonites like mostly to look at their equipment.<br>

7) Canikonites have used so much money on their equipment that they have to eat at McDonalds, therefore many have become so fat that they cannot find their equipment any more.<br>

8) Canikonites have to stabilise their equipment before shooting because they don't have in-body shake reduction at shooting time. Thus, they get all blury when they have shot a quick series and need to rest.<br>

9) Canikonites believe that by having famous equipment everybody thinks they can use it properly. Therefore they need not actually use it.<br>

10) Canikonites are very worried about their equipment getting a bit wet while shooting.<br>

Any alternative explanations are most welcome, since I am not sure if I got it 100% right. A bit of mocking is allowed in this thread...</p>

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[john_behrends]

<p>Very funny, great post. JB</p>

[luca_stramare2]

<p>You know the old story of the donkey who was presented with two heaps of hay and died of starvation because he was not able to decide which one to choose. Canikonites have a huge choice of camera bodies and lenses to choose from spend a lot of time trying to answer the question "what camera and lens should I get?", and then "What camera and lens should I upgrade to?", while others have less choices, so, once made, they can take the camera and go out in the field to shoot pictures. It is like my photo mentor, for all his life he had one camera with one lens and he was taking pictures with it.</p>

[a few images]

<p>Good analogy Luca! And a funny post Vegard!<br>

I was like your photo mentor in a way, Luca. I had one camera (had three lenses though) the venerable Olympus OM-4Ti.. And I still own it. It ate at me for a few years to switch to digital and I hoped Olympus had my camera - alas, they did not. In my search I found Pentax. And after much searching I could see that going the Pentax way, while not popular on the 'forums', was by far the system that made the most sense. While Canon folks were busy with their saturated images and talking about their gear, Pentax seemed to stand out with their 'film-like' digital images, millions of useful lenses and by far the strongest devotion to previous owners of Pentax equipment with their 'all of our lenses fit your spankin' new camera' motto - what's not to like? I got a camera that I shoot, a lot!</p>

<p>Oh, and I got it for a fraction of what the competition cost with more features and better IQ.</p>

[hagar]

<p>Very funny.. and sadly mostly true I think :-)</p>

[jgredline]

<p>#6 had me rolling. <img src="http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp128/jgredline/laughinghard1if1.gif" alt="" /></p>

[luca_stramare2]

<p>Tom, that's the point. It is nearly impossible to get good pictures using a camera you don't like. I am a strange Nikonian here, my most used camera (the FM2) is 20 years old and the newest (the F100) is 6, my manual focus lenses are also 20+ years old (E series), while the autofocus ones are also from the last century (1990s). I believe that when you get caught in the "there is always another piece of equipment between me and a great shot" trap, you are paying too much attention to the equipment and too less to the images. And, of course, the broader a camera system is, the easier is to get caught in the trap.<br>

Besides (joking) explanation No. 11 is: the main reason why Canikonites buy Canon and Nikon is because they see other photographers (i.e. Pros) taking fantastic pictures with far more expensive cameras and lenses from the same brand. The Pros taking fantastic pictures of wildlife with a D3 and a 300 mm 2.8 are the best guarantee of fantastic shots with your D40 and cheap 18-200 zoom... and even with your Coolpix.</p>

[michael_elenko]

 

<p >Vegard,</p>

<p >That’s an interesting exercise you performed, and it agrees with a few assumptions I’ve not been vocalizing in “mixed” company, mainly that Pentax shooters are more interested in pure photography and making photographs disproportionably than shooters of other brands.</p>

<p >I’ve only been using Pentax equipment for 4 years, and still own and use great products made by most of the other brands. Pentax camera design has some sublime little differences that only a serious photographer could recognize, and then utilize in taking a great shot.</p>

<p >While it is imperfect, the mere existence of the PPG and how active it seems to be (and how engaging the site is), demonstrates that Pentax=Fine Photographs.</p>

<p >I only wish more people could get this message.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >ME</p>

<p > </p>

[kchayet]

<p>I'm addicted to all PN forums because I work at a local camera store. I get to play the whole field while at work, though I do not shoot Pentax simply because when I started my DSLR search I already had a lot invested in another system. That being said, I'm very, very fond of the K10d.</p>

<p>Your theories are excellent.</p>

[bob_marz]

<p>Vegard,</p>

<p>Some interesting thoughts and ideas. I am almost one year into my K10D and this forum and I couldn't be happier. This is like flyfishing to me, a life long event, almost said hobby, but I know how serious Pentaxians are.<br>

That being said, it has been noted many times before how nice and how helpful all of the extremely knowledgeable Pentax users are to everyone here, even newbies like me.<br>

I actually got my feet wet in SLR photography back in the 80's with a Canon AE-1 and it was a decent camera for me.<br>

This K10D with be my only body for some time to come with my three lenses to learn from.</p>

[darren_schlamp]

<p>I would disagree. There is a some hand-waving involved in my post, but this was the best data I could find in a reasonable amount of time, and I wasn't going to post the entire spreadsheet of data. <br /> <br /> The Pentax DSLR <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUST23502820070403">market share</a> in 2005 and 2006 was 4.6% and 4.5% respectively. All I could find for a 2007 Pentax number was <a href="http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-rumors/37238-good-bad-indifferent.html">for FY07 (ending March 08)</a> , and after comparing with the <a href="http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/2007-Worldwide-Digital-Camera-Market-Share-Review--18014.htm">units sold</a> by other manufacturers, Pentax remained roughly consistent in market share with previous years, between 4% and 5%. <br /> <br /> Here is the problem - Flickr has stats on each <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/">camera brand</a> (I couldn't quickly find comparable stats from Photo.net). You can search for number of photos for each camera model (here are the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/pentax/">Pentax</a> numbers).<br /> <br /> When I added up all of the numbers just for the DSLRs of each of the main 5 brands, here were the results as of about 2pm today:<br /> <br /> Canon - 238,916,087 (53.1%)<br /> Nikon - 174,603,226 (38.8%)<br /> Olympus - 14,325,240 (3.2%)<br /> Sony - 10,244,140 (2.3%)<br /> Pentax - 11,613,749 (2.6%)<br /> <br /> Pentax should be closer to 4.6% on the above list. Going from the camera listings on Flickr, Pentaxians are underperforming, and need to be submitting almost twice as many pictures to keep up with those who use the other DSLR brands. In conclusion, Pentaxians actually need to be taking and submitting more pictures, instead of thumbing our noses at other camera users.</p>

[14mm 2.8l]

<p>Picture threads on Nikon and Canon forums are routinely deleted by their moderators. </p>

<p>Pentax forum is pretty cool in that these threads are allow to exist here. Really I'd say its cause Doug Stemke is cool professor and the moderator hat he wears here allows for the friendly slide show anything goes atmostphere here. Anyone else and most of the POW, Pic of the month, pic of the year, my vaction, my hike, my car, my favorite model, ect would get trashcanned. Don't get me wrong, I love the pics here. I wish I were allowed to post eos pix on eos forum for fun, but I have been made well aware of the site rules. So I don't. </p>

<p>Go ahead and try to post some family pix or vacation pix on the Big Two forums without some relevant lens specific or camera specific or photoshop specific question and your thread will get disappeared and you'll get an email from photonet saying why its gone.</p>

<p>So I wouldn't read a whole lot into a lack of Eos and Nikon pixs at this site. The users at eos and nikon know the photonet site rules.</p>

<p>You wanna see some good pix, then go to Canon and Nikon owners own websites.</p>

<p>Heres one of my favorites:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.birdsasart.com/">http://www.birdsasart.com/</a></p>

<p>and his canon related bird pixs and info on his numerous classes:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.birdsasart.com/bn.html">http://www.birdsasart.com/bn.html</a></p>

<p>Lindy</p>

<p> </p>

[jgredline]

<p>I laughed at the OP and in particular #6, but I also saw a post like <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=4388140">Darren Schlamp</a> coming and frankly the numbers don't lie. I also agree with Lindy's post. We are blessed to have Doug and now Justin as our Pentax mods and am greatful we can have these picture threads. I for one shoot as many pics with my G9, G10 and Fuji cams as i do with my Pentax gear..</p>

[elnoralouisa]

<p>Ok, I TOTALLY agree with you, but not sure about Canon forums, but other forums totally discourage posting of pictures. It must be like only one, and then for a good reason. Also, if you post a picture (on other forums), you better have a good spine because there will be nothing good left of what you thought was a good picture when they are done talking about.<br>

That would be why I have only posted one picture (duck discussion), because of my experiences on other boards. I have NOT participated in a Canon discussion, so don't know how they are. Have only owned a Canon for a few hours--it was enough for me!</p>

<p>Debbie</p>

 

[musings]

<p>Brilliant, Vegard! Loved the post! I especially like the "deviant pornstar" comment...(and for Mis and Justin, that's what SHE said! ;->).</p>

[14mm 2.8l]

<p>Ah, I wonder if Josh Root will make Justin follow the photonet site rules concerning fun picture threads?</p>

<p>It supposedly something to do with bandwith or something like that and thats why the fun picture threads are not allowed per photonet site rules.</p>

<p>They actually do have one fun pic thread per week at nikon forum now, "w/nw # xx" which is a weekly picture thread. I think only one image per week is tolerated.</p>

<p>Congrats Justin on getting a Moderator Hat, I hadn't noticed your promotion on the pentax mainpage</p>

<p>Lindy</p>

[brendonmeyer]

<p>Pentax and "No Words" are the only 2 sub-forums I visit here. I'd guess that since Canon/Nikon have a much larger user base, if they were to allow photo threads that could eat up much more bandwidth than the Pentax forum. That, and most Pentaxians use outside image hosting for the most part, except for POW threads. Anyway, just a guess.</p>

<p>I wish more Pentaxians would post in No Words, too. I hardly ever see any names I recognize (except for the regs there). The No Words forum auto-resizes to 700, too, so it's much easier to throw up a pic to go with the theme. Check it out if you haven't already. Would be nice seeing more Pentax names over there.</p>

[michael_kuhne]

<p>I took the whole thing to be tongue in cheek. I like no.7 best- lol!!</p>

[shots worth sharing]

<p>I think going Pentax when I was ready to go dslr was one of my better decisions. It wasn't entirely dumb luck: value (especially SR & backward lens compatibility) was a major consideration. I was pretty pleased with myself when my son, Abe--who researches methodically before making this kind of decision--followed me down the Pentax path. </p>

<p>I'm not a gear-head so I don't much care about other systems one way or another--it's the photos that matter.</p>

<p>I certainly second Brendon with respect to No Words--it's great fun and it would be nice to see more pentaxian involvement. But beyond that, I'd encourage folks to check out the portfolios of folks who frequent pnet regardless of what gear they use There's some really wonderful and inspiring stuff. Just follow links from No Words or Critique Fora.</p>

<p> </p>

[nealcurrie]

<p>I actually dislike the frequent posting of pictures here because when I want to look at other's work, I use the gallery. As the number of pictures increased, my time spent here decreased.</p>

[musings]

<p>Justin got promoted to Pentax Sheriff? I didn't notice that either, but a congratulations is in order! Well done!!</p>

<p>Lindy -- I know we have brought this up before, but if posting photos is not allowed in the threads, then why is there a menu to add a photo for every posting?? (Maybe this is a question for the new sheriff to answer...)</p>

[debashish]

<p>In 1980, I nearly bought an olive green Canon F1 body in Hongkong. The deal was the body with Canon FD lenses: 300mm, 100mm, 50mm, 24mm. I had handed over the cheque but found that the shopkeeper was giving me two non-Canon lenses. There were mutual recriminations and the shopkeeper calmed down and returned my cheque only when a HK police constable with red tabs on his epaulets(signifying Anglophone) happened to stroll by. Thereafter, the choice was clear: no shopping on Kowloon side, and I knew that only Pentax had the 400mm lens I wanted at the right price for me together with a mechanical body. Even the Olympus 400mm 6.3 was much dearer. So I bought an MX body in chrome: 28/2.8, 50/1.4, 100/2.8 and 400/5.6 SMCP-M lenses, a magnifier, and two focussing screens, one of which remains unused to this day, and 25 red, orange, and PLL circular Hoya filters. I later added another body. I wish I had known about the qualities of the Pentax SMC lenses at that time but I did'nt; otherwise I could have got them at a discount. HK shopkeepers sold all used equipment of all brands except Leica at discounts. One body was stolen in 1995 together with the 100 and 28 lenses and the PLL circular and I had to replace them from internet shopping, adding a SMCP-M 35/2 and an 80-200/ 4.5. Then I found a Cokin PLL linear which was not as good as the Hoya and, in New Delhi, a ghostless UV. That's what I used till November 2008 when, assisted by the sage advice of this forum, I bought a K200D with the 16-45/4. Very nice but after the MX feels a little like cheating when you can fidget with settings after seeing the image on the screen. Of course, it slows one down and is can be quite temperamental on occasion by refusing to co-operate on white balance and rendering unpredictable colours. Every mechanical camera user now on DSLRS should return periodically to the former for relearning self-restraint and composition using primes.</p><div></div>

[14mm 2.8l]

<p>Heres a thread I started in Eos forum taken with a 5D and two lenses, majority of my images got trashcanned and two remaining got further downsized from the 700 dpi wide I uploaded them at.</p>

<p>Note in italics moderators note and then you can tell me what the picture posting rule is at photonet:</p>

<p><a href="../canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00QO1X">http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00QO1X</a></p>

<p>oooh!!!!</p>

<p>Olive Drab F-1 eh?</p>

<p>I owned one for a few years. Lovely collectable. Very Valuable Relic. 1 of 2,002 made in January & February 1978. I sold this Olive Drab F-1 a few years ago for more than my Canon 5D full frame cost me new this year:<br /><img src="http://www.adkinstone.com/images/wimberlyodf1.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[musings]

<p>Apparently, only photos that are related to topics are allowed...</p>

[14mm 2.8l]

<p>Actually I think your photos are fine if related specifically to questions you're asking.</p>

<p>We'd know all the photonet rules and links to each if the moderators who run Nikon Forum, Shun and Eos Forum Bob & Marc in Eos ran this forum for a month or two.</p>

<p>I recall a thread in Pentax forum where Josh Root critisized the abundant picture threads here in pentax forum but Doug is a busy professor and likely just lets this forum be. Exception was Mr Skipit and his underage sexy teenage girl pix. He got tossed eventually for some reason: related or not who knows?</p>

<p>I'm fine with the rules and as I said pentax forum is fun with all the pics. Just don't assume Nikon and canon owners are just goofy collectors who don't shoot based on a lack of fun images on the Nikon and Eos forums.</p>

<p>Lindy</p>