My Pentax, My Adventure!

Good Morning Internet,

A lot of people asked me what camera that I use or currently hold. Pentax. What? Pentax, a Japanese company who has been around for almost a century! Not a lot of people know about the brand (even though they have variety of cool DSLRs)

Pentax was a big name during the film era, with Pentax K1000 as one of the toughest and sturdiest cameras during its golden era. My current Pentax collection includes Pentax K1000 (probably manufactured in the 80s, I don’t know), 2 Pentax P30t (1 in excellent condition and the other have some shutter problem. Both manufactured around 1995-1996), and lastly Pentax K50 (I bought it around 2013). I love them all.

Why tho? Why?

I have several reasons why I chose Pentax as my companion and here are why

1. Huge Selection of Lenses

How? It’s not even popular. Well, it’s not popular now, but back then, it was a big name. Pentax had produced millions of lenses for their film camera, and guess what? I can use those old lenses for my K50! Pentax uses K-Mount for a lot of their film SLRs and almost all of their Digital SLRs (The only lineup that didn’t use K-Mount are Pentax Q series and Pentax 645 series). Pentax DSLRs use in-body shake reduction (SR) instead of lens shake reduction that Nikon and Canon use. That means we can use old lenses and not worrying about having blurry images. Old Pentax lenses are pretty cheap now, but they still produce great images. I regularly use Pentax-M 50mm f/1.4 and it looks great.

2. Features!

Pentax K50 offers a lot of features that are comparable to its competitor in its class for less than the price that Nikon or Canon offer. The SR (in-body shake reduction) is one. There are a lot more. K50 is weather and dust proof, so I don’t have to worry about rain or sand. Almost all of the Pentax K lineups are dust- and weather-proof (some of the entry-level DSLRs are not sealed). There is a catch, though. Not all Pentax lenses are sealed. Only the one with WR at the end of the name. Another feature is, Pentax K50 has 100% optical finder. That means, what you see is what you get. Not really a big deal but a good thing to have. Next, Pentax K50 is powered by either Li-ion battery or AA battery. Yep, AA battery that you can easily find in a convenient store. A fully charged battery can be used to take about 600 images. Then, how much is it? I bought my K50 in December 2014. I got two kit lenses (18-55mm and 50-200mm), a basic Pentax Flash, 16GB SD card, and a Lowepro camera bag for $550. Pretty cheap.

3. It’s My Religion

Alright, this might not a good reason, but a friend of mine once told me that choosing a camera is like choosing a religion. To some extent, it might be true. I mean, if you go to some camera forum, you can see how some people are very loyal to their brand. My first ever camera is a Fuji Q-Cam, a cute point and shoot camera, from 2005. I used it for my school excursion, nothing more. In high school, I took a photography class, in which we will use SLRs. We use Pentax K1000, Minolta srT 101, and I forgot the other one. I always get the Pentax K1000. I fell in love with it at the end of the semester and here I am, a Pentaxian. My parents have a Nikon D5200. I tried it, but something didn’t feel right. Pentax K50 has a very comfy grip and that’s what missing in Nikon D5200. I have never tried Canon, so I cannot comment on that.

4. It’s Cool

Hmm.. another weak reason, but this is the truth. I have a white and black Pentax K50. I was planning to buy the blue colored K50, but my parents oppose that. “It looks like a toy!” they said. Ok, I go with the white then. It looks better than I thought. The only problem is that I have to regularly clean the body because it gets dirty easily. It’s weather-proof, so no big deal, I can just wash it (lol). But yea, look at this gorgeous baby!

Ok.. ok.. I think that’s enough!

Ahaha, those are the four reasons why I chose Pentax K50 as my DSLRs. I can talk all day about my Pentax K50, but.. oh well.

Until next time,

-MSI-