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Pentax weekend

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

We went to the aquarium down in Yokohama again, our second visit in two months.

As usual, I was people watching. I noticed as always that a lot of Japanese use digital SLR cameras. And then I noticed something else: there were *way* more fellow users of Pentax DSLR's then I'd expected. I started to count DSLR's by brand, and was amazed to come up with this (before I stopped counting out of boredom):

• Canon: 10 cameras
• Pentax: 6 cameras
• Nikon: 4 cameras

Pentax is a decades-old manufacturer that produces some excellent equipment. But they're virtually unknown in North America. It's interesting to see how much market they (still) have in Japan.

And that's despite not being able to manage their advertising campaign with anything I'd call finesse. For instance, on the way to the aquarium I spotted this ad for a model that's not even on the market any more:

Two of the Nikon cameras I spotted were monsters carried by men (naturally) with a tonne of gear in tow. Either very serious amateurs, or people making a living with their cameras. Not so the Canon and Pentax models, they were just people carrying a small SLR around as they enjoyed their day.

Three good things that happened today:

1. Young ki-kun, the reason for our visit, loved the aquarium

2. When I picked up someone else's child in an effort to get him to stop throwing pebbles at the dogfish in the petting tank, the absentee mother finally showed up and took him away

3. My arm continue to heal nicely