Life Outside the NikCan world

CCSL

You very seldom hear mention of other brands but I have used Pentax since I started many moons ago and have loved them ever since and am just about to move to the new K5
keeping my K7 as a backup
I have looked several times at changing but could never justify ditching my ever growing collection of lenses. Also the fact you can pick up stuff on ebay for next to nothing like a 50mm f1.7 Prime for €20

So my question is for price and performance are Canon and Nikon deserving of the dominance they have in the market?

charybdis

You don't hear about brands that aren't Nikon/Canon very often because they have less market share than Nikon/Canon. Many of them make fine cameras, Pentax being one of the best examples of this.

Market positions do not necessarily reflect quality of product, price to performance ratio of product, which products are obviously better than others, or anything else other than who has the most users. Your question is meaningless because it is framed incorrectly. It's like saying "for making pretty cameras are Canon and Nikon deserving of the dominance they have in the market?".

Canon and Nikon make fine cameras, so do Pentax, so does pretty much every DSLR manufacturer. Some systems are more conducive to certain uses or styles of photography or user preferences, but there are reasons to favour any of them.

Although, suggesting that Pentax is good because their cameras can be used with old manual-focus lenses that are very cheap is misleading. All DSLRs are usable (to some degree) with older lenses.

ThOnda

CCSL wrote: »

... are Canon and Nikon deserving of the dominance they have in the market?

Are you joking? It is only question of marketing. The better marketing, the higher sales. The higher sales, the more you can put into R&D. The more you put into R&D, the more marketing arguments you have with your next product.

Don't get me wrong, I grew up on Pentax and still think that their DSLRs are the best value for the money, especially the weather resistance.

Just stop using logic and facts when you are looking at market share of any products. It has nothing to do with price and performance.

NakedDex

Everyone knows Vivitar is the best!!1!

Honestly though, I'm only on Nikon DSLR's because the film SLR's I started on were all Nikon too. I know a lot of my friends have the same reason for their choice of Nikon, Canon, Pentax an Olympus.
When I was jumping from film to digital first, I had people shouting the great Nikon v Canon debate at me with all sorts of reasons from valid points to completely ridiculous ones. In the end, I only stuck with Nikon for the same reason most people I've met stuck to their brand over the years; I'm used to it. It's comfortable and it's what I'm used to.