RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Pentax K Series Ranks Below Average in a Recent DSLR User Satisfaction Survey by J.D. Power

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Pentax K Series Ranks Below Average in a Recent DSLR User Satisfaction Survey by J.D. Power

"A study conducted by market research firm J.D. Power and Associates has found that “Nikon Pro Series” DSLRs rank highest in customer satisfaction. The company surveyed 4,500 verified online DSLR buyers to find out their satisfaction across five factors: image quality, durability, features, ease of use, and responsiveness."

From: http://www.petapixel.com/2011/07/19/nikon-ranks-highest-in-online-customer-satisfaction-among-dslr-buyers/

Via: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=38944858

Actually, Pentax K ranks No. 5 amongst 7 with a "just-failed" mark of 883 below the passing mark of 887. Nevertheless, the K is still ahead of the Canon Rebel as well as the Sony A, which is ranked last.

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flomat · 712 weeks ago

Well, that's quite a surprise: a product with a price tag 5 to 10 times higher than the cheaper one generates more satisfaction.... ;-)

If you put the score in relation to the price for a complete set of a gear (including some lenses), you will easily find out, that Pentax K ranks well above average.

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mihai · 712 weeks ago

Rice,

man, drink a coffee and look again at the graph. The difference between best and worst is 4%. What does it mean to you? If you do not understand, resize the graph from 0 to 1000. What do you see? Well, if you do not have an epiphany let me tell you this: all cameras are the roughly the same (from a buyer/camera relationship. Pro photographers buy pro cameras and expect pro results. Amateurs buy amateur cameras and expect nice photos). The majority rated cameras around 80-90% (max on Gaussian curve) of what they expect so the negative ones are a minority who got a defective instrument or have unrealistic expectations.
Which category are you in?
1. Did you get bad cameras?
2. Do you have unrealistic expectations or ...
3. you are a critic for the sake of criticism?

4 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 712 weeks ago

Hey man, I just report what it is stated.

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Spotmatic · 712 weeks ago

It's time to develop your own view on news articles, Rice. There's no need to re-iterate what's already been said (or published). Use your intelligence, you can do it! I visit your blog less and less because I have other sources for the same news. You don't offer any interesting opinions and insights, maybe it helps traffic if you do.

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RiceHigh 110p · 711 weeks ago

Well, I am not always expressing my own opinions. Sometimes, I opt to just blog and let YOU decide!

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mihai · 712 weeks ago

Rice, on this one you do not report, you invent news. It is stated the min, the max and the average. There is no 'just-failed'. Check how many camera series have 3 stars. These cameras are like a student class with an average grade 9 out of 10 when the failing grade is 4.
People would come here with great pleasure if you would report real news and failures (spots on K5 sensor) not only randomly picked posts describing 1 in 1000000 malfunctions.

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Victor · 712 weeks ago

Christ, the difference between place # 3 and # 7 is less than 1%. It's nothing!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Kazu · 712 weeks ago

This demonstrates that all dslr are pretty much the same.

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D0n · 712 weeks ago

Just shows what we already know... some brands generate a level of fanboys that are happy to ignore reality.
Like Harley Davidson Owners. Most motorcyclists wave to each other, an old tradition. These days about half the Harley guys won't wave at anything unless it looks like a Harley or custom chopper. You spend three times the cost of a Japanese bike for an over weight, unreliable, piece of of A$$ jewelry, that spends more time in the back of your truck than riding on the freeway... you strip it down until there isn't an original bolt left, then spend $80, 000.00 rebuilding it with screaming chicken parts, only to get your A$$ handed to you by a kid on a 600 cc sportbike, and yet you still think your bike is better than everybody else's, and delude yourself into thinking the bike makes your man parts look bigger...
I suspect many CaNikonians also own Harleys..

1 reply · active 712 weeks ago

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frank · 712 weeks ago

people with harley's tend to be elitists, but are more ignorant than anything. It is sad when ignorance is embraced by the mass majority. .

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Chris Stone · 712 weeks ago

I think that the results show that the Canon xxD, Nikon Dxx and Dxxxx, Pentax K and Canon Rebel are all very close to each other in therms of satisfaction. Sony should be concerned that its A series scores much lower. Canon and Nikon should be happy that their professional cameras are at the top of the list.

I don't think that these results show any thing wrong with the pentax K series.

Regards

Chris Stone

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Alex Monro · 711 weeks ago

Apart from the very narrow spread of the data that others have commented on, the names of the categories make me wonder if J D Power even know what they're talking about. Some of them, like "Canon Rebel" are clear enough, but what's a "Canon Mark Series"? "Nikon Pro Series" seems clear, but then, what's "Nikon D-Series"? Surely all Nikon DSLRs start their model number with "D"? Is a D3s a "Pro" or a "D"?

I think that this "Survey" says more about about J D Power than it does about Pentax, and personally, I'm not sure it was worth the bandwidth downloading the page.

1 reply · active 711 weeks ago

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Wadna · 711 weeks ago

Clearly the "Mark" Canons are the full frame pro units 1D Mark 1, 2 & 3, 5D Mark 1 & 2 etc.

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Wadna · 711 weeks ago

If you take the Pro cameras out Pentax rates in the middle of a tight bunch with Sony dragging the chain a bit.
What the survey also tells us is the people with Pro cameras are marginally happier with their camera than those who own the consumer/enthusiast cameras. Perhaps that's because they know what their camera can do & how to use it.
I'm always surprised that you, Rice, use jpg files straight out of the camera rather than RAW files but then perhaps you're appealing to LCD users - put it on Auto & click the button.

2 replies · active 711 weeks ago

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Chris · 711 weeks ago

Don't put the JPG users so easily away as "LCD users".

JPG vs RAW is an ongoing discussion. There are still two camps, and both produce very good results.

If you, like me, are using a computer-based PP workflow mainly for
(i) multi-frame techniques (panorama, super-resolution, HDR, or a combination of these)
(ii) for heavy picture editing such as removal of persons or unwanted objects in the background etc. (iii) and the occasional perspective correction or removal of CA.
then there is no need to force yourself through a mandatory PP workflow with every image.

If shot correctly, most pictures are already correctly exposed and look good straight out of camera.

However, with RAW, you HAVE to do PP, otherwise you are definitely not getting the best out-of-camera results.

Just my 2c.
C

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Wadna · 711 weeks ago

Sure you have to do PP - it's your photo isn't it?!

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Wadna · 711 weeks ago

With jpg you get a "good" result - one the programmer thought you should want.

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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Pentax K Series Ranks Below Average in a Recent DSLR User Satisfaction Survey by J.D. Power

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