Getting ready for Christmas shopping, here is why I use a PENTAX camera.

The phone calls and emails are starting. Around this time of year -- Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's -- I am often asked what is the best camera to buy someone for a Christmas present.  So I though that I would write this post, as I have since 2011, and just share with all of you what you’re looking for here.  I have never done an official camera review, but here are my thoughts and why.  My last post was about what the Smartphone is doing to photography. So, this post is about PENTAX.  Not Nikon. Not even Canon.  Whether you’re looking for a DSLR or a compact, go with PENTAX.

First my backstory. My first camera was a Poloroid, back when I was a kid. With digital today, instant pictures have come a long way since Poloroid!  In grade school I had a Minolta manual SLR.... yes, film.   By the time I hit college I had two Nikon’s with several lenses and other stuff.  In between all of these I used a one-touch and a compact, the 110, the 126, all the way up to a medium format and a view camera.  When it was time to transition to digital I dumped all my Nikon stuff for PENTAX.  Come to think of it, I was a Nikon shooter for Twenty-Six years!

PENTAX is now owned by Ricoh, who has great (All-in-One compact) cameras that are Water PROOF.  Shock PROOF.  Kid PROOF.   Pentax / Ricoh has an incredible line-up and it seems they think of every need. Though PENTAX says their anchor DLSR is for advanced amateurs, the K-3 is definitely a pro level camera – Water RESISTANT and all.   Canon has a good colorful sensor, but it’s build and the way it fits in your hand don’t match the PENTAX.  Nikon made a good reputation for film SLR's, but for some reason I keep hearing the DSLR's don’t last like they should.  Bottom line is with PENTAX you get more bang for your buck, so why spend more than you need to? Buy an extra lens or SD cards with the savings.

What first sold me to PENTAX seven years ago is their clever marketing in that they, unlike the other three I mentioned, spend more of their time and investment in engineering a durable camera more than advertising it.  The second thing that sold me is how the sensor – as was explained to me – collects the image in analog and then converts it to digital = an image that looks like it was shot on film.  Just what I was looking for!  The third thing that sold me on PENTAX is simply every lens is far sharper and superior than any of my Nikon lenses ever were.  The new PENTAX K-3 can handle sports and action pictures as good as the others that cost three to five times more.

Finally, when I load my images into Apple Aperture editing software, I usually don’t have to play with the colors and tonal range (though I tweak it a bit to my taste) as I did with the other DSLR camera‘s that I tried out before I bought my first PENTAX K-10D.  All of the buttons on the PENTAX are in the right place, and the camera system is easy to learn and put to work instantly.  One nice feature of owning a PEXTAX DSLR is that you can see my images on the PENTAX Photo Gallery, and when you get your PENTAX you can submit your pictures to the gallery too!  By the way, all of the photography in my Art Photography Galleries are made with a PENTAX.

Next post I'll talk about the best place to store, share, and organize your photos.

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