On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 1:08 PM, Tom C <[email protected]> wrote: >> That's fairly common advice. In reality, it's probably not bad. >> >> On the one hand, if a person is going to buy a camera without doing >> much research, steering them towards the brands with the largest >> market share isn't a horrible idea. If later, they go looking for >> books, articles or accessories, the big brands will be supported. >> Third party stuff almost always supports Canon and Nikon. Pentax and >> the others may be supported, but not always. >> >> On the other hand, 90% of the people that buy an SLR never buy much >> more than a bag to carry it in. A smaller group might buy a flash or >> one more lens. For that group, it just doesn't make any difference. >> Any SLR on the market will give them decent results. That group is >> unlikely to ever turn the dial away from "auto." If they do, it will >> likely be turned to a "scene" mode. >> >> The advice I've been hearing given lately is, "buy what your friends >> have." That way you can borrow their stuff and they may be able to >> answer questions. >> >> I don't think this kind of advice is hurting Pentax as much as their >> lack of marketing and sales. Maybe they'll settle in with Ricoh for a >> while and have a chance to build a decent distribution network. >> >> gs >> >> George Sinos > > I agree with that. In fact it's pretty much the advice I give. I could > have steered two people recently toward Pentax and I didn't. I told > them that Nikon and Canon were pretty much a toss-up. > > Most of these people want cameras with quick AF (and burst rates > though they don't know it) because they just want to point it at their > running toddler, hold the shutter button down, and have the camera do > all the work. I point them to dpreview for in-depth camera > comparisons, which is inevitably more information than they're > prepared to digest, much less read. When I show it to them, their eyes > just glass over. > > They ask me why I have Pentax. Because it was my first SLR and I had > accumulated lenses. If I had to do it over again I'd go with Nikon. > (That way when I get a D800E I wouldn't also be spending through the > nose on lenses as well). > > Most people don't take the camera off of auto. If they do, they don't > read the manual. If the pictures come out good they think it was the > camera. If they come out bad they think they weren't smart enough. In > fact many people don't understand why they have to manually turn a > ring on a zoom to zoom in/out when on their P&S this was a > camera-controlled motorized function. They generally see a quality > improvement between the SLR in Green/Auto mode and their former P&S. > They got what they wanted along with the self-esteem boost of carrying > an expensive fancy looking camera.
What's the point of wasting time giving valuable advice to such people who value self-esteem over good shots? They probably also drive an SUV even though they've never been off-road in their lives. Besides, people who want better image quality but to continue on Green/Auto (and I don't knock such folk) would be best off with a high-end P&S like a Canon S95 or G12 or the Nikon/Panasonic equiv. They won't be able to tell the difference from the o/p of a DSLR on auto because they wouldn't ever stretch the SLR's capabilities. Or send them to one of the Leica P&S's. Then they'll feel super-ultra-smug. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
