RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Mr. Pentaxian Has Decided to "Move On". Who Will be the Next?

Friday, August 20, 2010

Mr. Pentaxian Has Decided to "Move On". Who Will be the Next?

Further to the acquisition of the D700 and new Nikkors, Lance B, the once (and one and only one) official "Pentaxian of the Year" has decided to "move on" just a few hours ago so that he can continue his LBA and expand his Nikkor lineup and Nikon system further and better:-

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=36078076

Somehow, I feel for Lance. When LBA cannot be cured within the Pentaxland as there is no more new offer nor breakthrough of any (no matter it is about lenses or bodies), what can one Pentaxian do?

Now, at least, Lance can continue to take new medicine from Nikon to cure his LBA (which actually can never be completely cured, I believe!). And in fact, Nikon has opened up a new world for him to expand his system/lineup and graduate to another level as a gear collector/hobbyist! (which is Nothing related to the (skill) level of a photographer, though! ;-))

Read Also:-

It's Time to Seriously Think Again about the Future of Pentax.. Really.

Comments (18)

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blende8 · 760 weeks ago

"When LBA cannot be cured within the Pentaxland ..."

Well, there are the very nice Voigtlander lenses, now the new 90/3.5 APO.
An excellent lens, at a reasonable price.

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Michael · 760 weeks ago

How about some abstinence? Or at least try the 12 Steps of the ALBA (Anonymous Lens Buying Addicts) (1. I admit I lost control over my gear, 2. ... you name it) or moderated lens buying programs :-)
Switching the brand is NOT recommended for any LBA!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 760 weeks ago

Give all your money to your wife for control, then I am almost sure that the LBA/CBA can be cured! ;-)

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WildSammy · 760 weeks ago

I'm in process of switching to another brand too. Already I sold almost half of my gear. I had K20D with F50/1.7, FA77/1.8 and FA31/1.8 lenses. Also I had AF540FGZ flash too, grip and some other thingies like O-ME53 and so on. I'm with Pentax since 2007. I started with K100D+18-55 and followed with K10D, AF360FGZ flash, Sigma 24-70/2.8, Tamron 28-75/2.8, Sigma APO DG 70-300, DA*16-50, DA*50-135 and till to my current gear set-up. What sad is all about that only the F50/1.7 with 18-55 lens was without any flaws and probably the K100D too. Both DA* failed, I had 2 versions of 16-50 and failed both with the 50-135 too. K10D had enormous problems with AF accuracy and went 4 times to service. They was unable to cure it so I bought K20D. I changed DA* for FA Limiteds. Again the focus problems. The FA31 had heavy backfocus(more than +10 in camera) and some mechanical failure inside the lens. Went to service 3x and also with body too. FA77 have also some sort of optical problems. I paid for service much money, but I don't understand why? My gear was in warranty and they didn't fixed it properly. The wait times to get gear back from service are about 2 months. When I calculate it together my gear was in service more then I has shoot with it. Mainly I'm shooting weddings, portraits, parties and landscapes. Between time to get my gear fixed I was using friends old Canon 350D with 24-70/2.8, 70-200/4 and 50/1.4 lenses which was not only faster in AF than my K10D/K20D, but also accurate! Yes I know many people without any flaws with their Pentax equipment, but I had bad luck. I don't want to say Pentax is not the good brand, but their service didn't fixed almost anything and they need to resolve also some design flaws in their equipment or to strengthen the QC. Also communication with our local Pentax brand reseller is very hard so I'm giving up and going to another brand too. I didn't finally decided if it will be Canon or Nikon or whatever, but I know it will be the fullframe :-) Sorry for my English, I'm not native speaker. I wish good light for remaining Pentax brand shooters.

5 replies · active 759 weeks ago

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WildSammy · 760 weeks ago

oh and I didn't mentioned on AF360 broke the battery doors and on AF540 the fixing mechanism on hot-shoe and also the S button broke and needed to be replaced. The FA77 was justified in service. So that's my Pentax story, but on the other hand I had also good times with Pentax. I had taken many nice shots and maked new Pentax friends and so on. Too bad my gear was malfunctioning. I really liked the Pentax brand because of difference this brand offers. So I'm crossing fingers for Pentax to improve, but for me it's game over. I finally decided to switch. Thanks for understanding me.

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RiceHigh 110p · 760 weeks ago

Sorry to hear about your story. Indeed, those quality and design issues of Pentax and gear in recent years have really bugged me much.

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David · 760 weeks ago

Well, gee that sounds like some real rough luck with all that gear you had break. Or that you are way too hard on your equipment. I am going to guess it is the latter because you would have had to get nearly every lemon that Pentax makes.

Plus, really you have an odd choice of gear:
• I get the 77 and 31 limiteds, as well as the 50/1.7. Low f-stop primes are always nice to have in the bag
• The 18-55, as it came with the camera in a kit, and is a real great, and light zoom. But you have WAY to much overlap in the low zoom. Now I don't know if those were a progression of lenses, as I cannot see anyone owning the 24-70, 28-75 and the 16-50 all at the same time.
• I have put my K10 through the ringer, and never had the problems you described. I also know that if you had reinstalled your firmware to a previous version, you could have one into debug mode and checked the back-focus. I had to send my camera into service one time (the shutter froze up) and got it back within three weeks, with no charges, and my warranty extended. Were you dealing with Pentax USA or what country?
• I guess I wonder about your lenses that you had so many problems with. Were these purchased new?

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WildSammy · 759 weeks ago

Thanks for your reaction on my comment. Yes, it was the progress of lenses. I had never overlapping focal lengths. What I wrote above was my progress in gear which I owned. I'm from Slovakia(Slovak Republic) and my gear went for service to Germany. The bodies K100D, K10D & K20D were bought new as so as all of the DA* lenses. The primes I bought used, but they should be OK. The main problem is in our local Pentax brand reseller. They're only one in our country and they're also responsible for service tasks. Most of gear they send for service to Germany. When they give them bad failure description I think the service in Germany doesn't do the service properly or I don't know what was the reason that my gear didn't come back fixed. Also the wait times are really long. I think our local dealer of Pentax equipment in our country should be replaced with another company. Not only me, but more people have problems with them. Also the other shops whose want to sell Pentax gear in our country have hard times to negotiate with them. The authorized reseller in our country developed some form of club and when you're member you get the best prices. So other companies have the prices bigger and have no opportunity to negotiate better prices with our local reseller. They're doing here sole trade and that's not good. Communication with them suck, their technician is most of time out of reach and they're not responding to emails. They're only selling and when someone have problem with gear they're giving hands off and won't communicate to resolve the problem properly. The biggest photo portal want to do reviews of Pentax equipment especially of K-7 and they denied to give them camera for review more times. So for me is only option to change brand to get rid of those issues. May be when some other company would sell and do proper service of Pentax equipment in our country I will stay, but in this situation there's only one option for me.

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RiceHigh 110p · 759 weeks ago

When QC of Pentax (and its factories) suck nowadays, I think service and support divisions of them couldn't help much indeed!

My experience for using the three different K-x units is that only one of them did not require focus adjustment via debug mode. And, only one of them did not underexpose by 1/3EV stop. The level of mirror slap and vibration did differ, too.

As for the Vietnamese made lenses, yet once again only one unit out of three had the proper quality whilst the others are problematic, as I reported here earlier.

That's sad after all. With the deteriorated and declining quality control and standard of Pentax, I don't think they can do better in the future.

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Richard · 760 weeks ago

Everyone's story is interesting to hear. I continue to find the colours I get from my Pentax dslr to be fantastic: natural, saturated at high isos, the best skin tones, the best greens.
I've used other brands. They're all great in their own way, but my instinct draws me back to Pentax and its great colour rendition.
In the end, no performance or popularity figures can replace your experience and instinctive reaction. Try dslrs for yourself and let your own judgement rule.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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WildSammy · 760 weeks ago

Yes, I agree that Pentax colours are fantastic. That's why I have chosen to go with Pentax back in 2007. Just because of the great colours it can produce :-)