Web Analytics RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: A Poll of "My Favourite Entry Level DSLR"

Thursday, July 31, 2008

A Poll of "My Favourite Entry Level DSLR"

Here is a poll on the above topic:-

http://www.dcfever.com/polling/index.php?id=45

(Page is in traditional Chinese, use Babelfish to translate if needed)

The selected five models from the five DSLR brands are closest in the street prices and actually are targeted for the same market segment. They are actually very representative for what an average beginner would consider and could get for such a cheaply priced DSLR and kit set.

The number of votes made within the month is actually not small, in a total of 3,242 votes for the period, and thus the final results obtained are quite representative and self-speaking for what the mass market would think and opt.

Yet again, Pentax came last in the poll with their K200D, even the small frame sensor format Olympus E-420 won slightly (but both the shares are low). People do like the D60 and the A350 most, whereas the EOS 1000D still got a considerably large share, even though it came third.

So, there must be some "good" reasons for people didn't and don't choose the Olympus and Pentax, in both there should be some real bad things that are obvious. For the Olympus case, the main disadvantage is simply just all about the 4/3 system, namely, problems caused by the small sensor format such as poorer higher ISO performance, less dynamic range, just too much DoF, smaller and dim viewfinder, very limited choice of lens and poor availability plus the high risk involved in the investment on such a lens system. For Pentax case, it may not be as obvious, as all the competitors' offers are all APS-C DSLRs also. So, what makes the differences? In fact, they are also quite obvious, namely:-

1. Pentax just do not have a big name as Canon, Nikon and Sony do in the eyes of most average customers, especially for those who are new to DSLR photography;

2. Pentax K200D is obviously much bigger and bulkier than all other offers in the same price range, which in fact is just a major con which hurts much the sales of the K200D. This is just a very poor marketing decision made by Pentax afterall of which they just put a stone to throw on their own feet - when the first impression to the potential customers is bad and in fact it is just highly undesirable to have such a bulky and heavy entry level DSLR for most people for their practical daily use. The case is even made worst when AA batteries are inserted into the K200D which just make an operatable camera to be even much heavier;

3. Pentax do not have a pro grade DSLR model in their lineup, nor, they have neither a Full Frame body nor lens system which Canon, Nikon and Sony all have - when there is no true flagship and a bright future ahead, people just don't choose such a system, even those most of those people would never buy such a flagship - simple marketing reasoning again;

4. The specifications of the K200D is the weakest: Ridiculously small frame buffer for continuous shooting, and a slower shooting rate as well, ancient type metering system (and indeed the actual performance is inferior also, not just on paper), no Live View and so on. But then, some Pentax fanboys would start to argue (forever) that the K200D is weather sealed. Yes, it is. BUT, so what? .. as long as there is not a kit lens that is weather sealed! So, what's the point of making an entry level body weather sealed (which just made the camera body to be larger and increased the manufacturing cost)? Did Pentax be just so silly to expect and hope that those beginners would buy a DA* lens which is doubled the price of a K200D body alone as a "startup" kit?? In short, it is just of no marketing sense at all, or just even no common sense!

5. In fact, the K200D has virtually no innovation of any kind at all! This holds true somehow for the EOS 1000D as well. But then the 1000D is yet already miles ahead of the K200D in terms of those more updated features and technology used, such as Live View with Live Histogram and Live AF, etc. The D60 has an innovative sensor cleaning system that can be useful (which Pentax also had a similar patent but have never been able to implement it in any model yet, anyway).

Well, some Pentax fanboys will surely yet again to bash me for being "too negative" or whatsoever. But when sadly the situation is just like that and when Pentax is lagging behind in the competition all the time and the majority of consumers don't choose Pentax, what can I do? (Even though I am always trying to make some good suggestions for them) And also, when Pentax don't think how to upkeep themselves in the game and improve and don't listen much as well..

Just remember that: "The market tells the difference(s)"(!), which is just something that universally holds true..

29 comments:

  1. Anonymous31/7/08 22:30

    Are you sure you named your blog correctly?
    You seem to bash Pentax more often than not.

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  2. Anonymous1/8/08 09:01

    You have to give this up Ricehigh. You no longer have any credibility.

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  3. Anonymous1/8/08 09:04

    If this is representative of market it is no surprise. If it is above market share it actually a great result!
    Get back into your hole Ricehigh

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  4. Anonymous1/8/08 11:12

    In this blog you ask "What can I do?"
    The answer is sell all your pentax gears and stick w/ Canon.
    As to your lack of ANY knowledge of statistics just shows me (again) you are basically poorly educated in statistics.
    3000 votes out of billions of consumers, in a month when Canon (june 08) and shortly before this, sony (roughly available after March 08) launch new models.....
    Statistically, Pentax and Olympus are in a dead tie.
    To be fair, it could be better for Pentax but it is no GLOOM and DOOM for anyone but you...
    PLEASE go away. Go back to the high school that failed to teach you anything about anything...and sue them. Maybe write a registered letter to the principal telling them of your "troubles"....
    Actually, keep writing, your bias is showing a little more each time and soon you will have zero credibility left.

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  5. What a horde of brand-blinded angry fanboys who just can't face any reality whichever looks "negative" to them! Funny enough?

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  6. Anonymous1/8/08 21:07

    The frustrating part is you actually take yourself serious... Mr. What kind of engineer are you???

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  7. So, you don't take yourself serious then? Oh, it doesn't matter anyway..

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  8. Anonymous2/8/08 14:58

    RiceHigh I am succesfful professional wildlife photographer in UK. I was shooting with the Pentax before until I learn from your blog how bad my Pentax equipment is indeed compare to more superior technology from Nikon and Canon! Well so I now switch to Nikon and have even better success and so I must thank you afterall.

    Well you are helpful enough to so many good photographer and so I must say that you should just ignore all these silly fanboys! They are just jealous that you have succesful and most popular blog. So they come here to show there hate to you when they just have no life of there own indeed!

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  9. Anonymous2/8/08 21:22

    To anonomous above me... you got to be kidding........
    you found out your equipmnet was bad from here??? Not your own professional findings???? how pathetic is that...

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  10. Anonymous3/8/08 03:10

    Well Mr. Anonymous it seems you do not know much about successful pro photograpy. We are to busy taking great picture to do measurbating. This is why measurbator like RiceHigh is so valuable in case you did not know. So stop showing your jealousy for RiceHigh. Just concentrate to be good photographer or get a lie and leave him alone. He does not need your jealousy here.

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  11. Anonymous3/8/08 05:40

    Is RH talking to himself again?

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  12. Anonymous3/8/08 06:40

    What is wrong with you Mr. Anonymous??? As some people have stated before on this blog RiceHigh does not need to post to himself on his own blog! Only brainless people with accuse something like that. He is too busy with many things in his life to talk to himself. Why do you come here to make false accusation? Maybe it is YOU who has no life. In case you did not know there are many professional photographer who use this web site to learn what Mr. RiceHigh has to teach. So may I suggest you be quiet and just take the time to learn?

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  13. Anonymous3/8/08 06:59

    Interesting grasp of the English language for a UK resident...

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  14. Anonymous3/8/08 07:15

    Well now we can all see your racism coming out Anonymous! Of course you must only judge someone on there English instead of quality of there work which I might add is probably much better than you! This says a lot about you don't you think???

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  15. Anonymous3/8/08 10:37

    So Mr. RiceHigh now you can see that together you and I have silenced these pathetic fanboy fanatics. That was not so hard since they do have much brains afterall. Please continue with your teachings. We professional photographers appreciate your great work indeed!

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  16. Anonymous3/8/08 10:57

    Now I look on one other Pentax forum, the one all the blind fanboys love and I see how unfair they are to Mr. RiceHigh with deleting his post when he did nothing wrong afterall!!! Now this makes me angry to see that they are also just jealous of your success and take their anger out to you in such unfair way. They pretend to have courtesy but is this truly courtesy or is it underhand unbalanced hate to attack there strong competitor???

    Do not worry Mr. RiceHigh. Most of real professional photographer will be loyal to this blog. Please continue to teach us. Please do note that I am not same as pro wildlife photographer. I am in other field but also professional as you can see.

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  17. Anonymous3/8/08 14:13

    That's whole discourse above me is the most pathetic thing I have EVER seen on the Web..
    SAD......

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  18. Anonymous4/8/08 15:55

    I am convinced that Ricehigh is answering his own blog

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  19. Anonymous4/8/08 22:24

    i used a canon 400d for a brief period this summer.

    while it was much inferior to my k100d in some aspects (ergonomics, sr, image quality-- color mostly), and the lenses (ef-s series) were trash compared to my limiteds, it had some bright spots.

    AF was excellent even in bad light. It hunted but achieved focus where the k100d would get nothing.

    onboard Flash pictures were damn good for what they were. skin tones were nice. with k100d it is very hit-or miss, and skin tones usually come out too whitish. Flash just seemed less harsh.

    exposure was always dead-on while the k100d had more or less 80% success rate.

    oh- and the 400d was significantly lighter and the mirror slap was cery gentle.

    am i switching to canon? fuck no. i love my lenses and i love a lot of things about pentax =, but their current offerings need work.

    K200d - no iso3200 and noisy iso800 == no deal. 6mp sensor is better.

    K20d - for the money, and since i already have k100, imrivement in camera handling is not significant enough for my uses

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  20. Anonymous5/8/08 19:42

    Well Mr. Anynoymous I must say that of course everyone has right to choose there own system preference. I must agree with you one point that K20D is not worth upgrade from K100D. However I would question why you choose K100D over Canon 400D when you admit that Pentax cannot even AF accurately??? Even if you like the Pentax glass how good can image quality be when you only have out of focus picture??? Does this seem reasonable to you afterall?

    Also please do note that ergonomics and color is subjective preference. Most photographer will disagree with you. This is not my opinion but marketshare says this is true. Pentax has pathetic marketshare no even 5%. Will people choose Canon because it has bad color and ergonomics? You reasoning is not good but of course I must respect your choice.

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  21. Anonymous5/8/08 23:32

    why do all these professional wedding and wildlife photographers sound exactly the same as Rice High? they all write the same way..and..is rice high successful? I only come here from time to time to make fun of his own dumb opinion and learn the limitless of one's stuipidity because it is funny.
    ain't nothing of his personal opinion, none based on facts, helped me improve on my photography skills.
    I know for sure that I am a better photographer than all of y'all anti brand name mofo's and fanboys.
    it does not really matter what you use as a photographer..it's just a personal preference. and I like what my Pentax Camera can do for me. so what is the problem ? pro photographers...???? never complain about their equipments..because they know that they are confident...what a dumbasses..you maybe pro at being dumb..but nothing else.

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  22. Anonymous6/8/08 08:45

    Well this just too stupid to argue with you any more. Do you see professional photographer use P&S camera for assigment? Do you see they use camera phone? In case you did not know the quality of the gear will make the BIG difference.


    Do you think my client will accept noisy P&S picture with blow out bright area? Even they are not photographer at all it seems they know more then you even!!! I must just laugh whenever I see amateur say that the camera does not matter only the photographer. What a stupid silly lie. And usually it will mostly be stupid fanboys will say this only because they defend there bad choices.

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  23. Anonymous6/8/08 11:11

    Hey Mr./Miss/Mrs. Wedding Photographer. Lets swee your portfolio or just shut the f up...

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  24. Anonymous8/8/08 07:40

    Still waiting to view your portfolios Mr./wedding photographer/wildlife photographer/fashion photographer.
    Still think your all one in the same. Namely RH himself..
    Try not to delete this one...OK ;)

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  25. I have to agree what has been mentioned at least twice above - the K200D does not appeal at all. The K100D Super and K20D do and either would be something I'd be happy with.

    The problem with the K200D (as pointed out by an anonymous here) is too high of pixel densities. The K20D's CMOS sensor is a way around this. Panasonic have finally realized that too many pixels is not a good thing and have actually reduced the number of pixels in an updated model (the LX3)

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  26. Anonymous9/8/08 07:16

    TO ANYONE WHO CARES. APPARENTLY OPINONS OTHER THAN THE AUTHORS ARE BEING DELETED.
    I published at least 2 posts asking Mr. Wildlife and Mr. Wedding photographer (Apparently Mr. Fashion photographer has "left the building")for a portfolio or website of their work.
    These posts were deleted.....
    let's see how long this one lasts.....
    RH your stooping pretty low these days....

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  27. Anonymous15/8/08 11:59

    Who said, "You can take the girl out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the girl"?

    Was it a "professional" (implying successful) bed wetting measurebator? Or was it his critics?

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  28. Anonymous13/1/09 07:29

    ma 'nculet!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous29/1/09 00:12

    I just got my k200d. It is really nice!

    ReplyDelete