On a memorable trip to Canada I used my father's Pentax KX 35mm SLR. The top of the Niagara Falls were falling as normal however the bottom, frozen solid. A fine mist saturated me as I looked through my viewfinder. Montreal's cobbled streets were filled with snow and hanging icy thorns. I exposed film to film. My hands felt the nip but the trusty Pentax wasn't bothered and performed brilliantly. It could handle the elements. I'm happy in hindsight to say that my friends non Pentax SLR passed out with hypothermia whilst the KX sprung away like a March hare.

During a visit to the Severn Valley railway I came across an ME super body in the carriage that served as a bookshop.I was told it had been found in a very battered state, presumably dropped from a train. It was offered for £2.00 as not working. I thought that I might take it apart out of interest and so bought it. However on closer inspection the batteries seemed to be in the wrong way, when re-inserted all the LED's worked. A second-hand lens and a B/W film resulted in a superb set of prints! Testament to real Pentax quality!

I guess you could say photography is in my blood... My Grandad had a studio and shot weddings, my dad was a photographer too; it was my dad who gave me his Pentax asahi when I was strong enough to hold one. I have since completed a BA Photography degree, won a kodak student award and I am now in my 2nd year of running Katie Lowe Photography my very own wedding and freelance business, and throughout all of this pentax has always been my image making baby. I have stood by pentax into the digital age, because like my dad said 'they are optically brilliant, the best in the world in the world'. I have a pentax mz30, a K10 and K20d but of all my pentax cameras my most beloved and treasured is my Asahi, the way it looks, feels and handles you can't beat it, it's like therapy for me and I fully intend to pass down my Asahi to someone with a visual awareness to match my beautiful camera.

In 2002 my father passed away. He was a heavy smoker, an avid photographer and his Super A, like his pack of twenty, were inseparable. When he did leave he passed to me his Pentax, a camera that had developed, excuse the pun, a smell and feel typical of my dad ingrained within the body. My wife, a digital user, accuses me of hoarding clutter that, not only has that strange odour about it, but takes up too much space and is rarely used. I disagree, it may not hold any film but it still contains some great memories. Priceless!

I dragged my husband to a colleague’s wedding insisting that he practise using his then new Pentax birthday present. Once there he enthusiastically snapped everyone though he knew no one. Meanwhile I watched the official photographer devising a range of contorted poses for the bride and groom. The bride became more and more agitated then snapped “Could we be normal please?” To my husband’s amazement he was proclaimed a hero when we presented his photos on CD. With the aid of his Pentax he had captured the many joys of the wedding day. His interest in photography zoomed from there.

Sorting out the belongings of a friend we discovered a Pentax Spotmatic which had borne witness to many music festivals in the 60's/70's including 'The Stones' Hyde Park gig in the summer of 69. This year, we gave the camera to my son for his photography studies. He was surprised to discover an exposed film inside and we all waited with anticipation......Beefheart? nope....Who? nope......Knebworth? BINGO! Soapbox Race 2004! The young boy smiling at the camera on that hot sunny day is now using the camera that is as old as his mother for his studies. Now I call that SPOTMATICFACTION!

I used to use various Pentax Spotmatics while working as a cruise photographer in the 1970's. They often got battered, dumped onto bars while we had a drink, soaked in sea spray, but somehow they worked on and got us the photos. The beauty of the cameras was that they were simple, and easy to handle and felt righ in the hands. If the new K-7 follows that trend there will be a lot of happy users.

My ME Super was the first proper "gadget" I ever owned and its coloured lights mesmerized me from the start. I bought it shortly before an interrail trip, travelling around Europe with four fellow students to mark the end of our college days. My friends said we could easily have fitted another country in if I hadn't spent so long trying to compose the perfect picture. Twenty six years later the five of us only meet up occasionally but the vivid colours of those photos take us straight back to that wonderful summer spent together.

I have fallen head over hills in love with Pentax LX. It was passed down to me from my dad. I was overwhlemed by the first prints back from the developers. Now every time I look through my viewfinder to capture a moment I'm filled with excitement and anticipation to see what wonderful images I'll get back. Before my Pentax LX I was uninspired by photography, now my bedroom resembles a dark room and I spend hours developing my own pictures. Through using my Pentax my imagination has leapt forward and uncovered a world which I never knew previously existed.

i remember asking dad why he used a Pentax. he said many years before he had bought a pentax compact camera but couldn't make it work out of the box. He had become so frustrated that he put the camera down and jumped up and down on it smashing it into pieces. He wrapped everything up and sent it back to Pentax. Surprisingly he was sent a new camera with the advice that 'should he be unable to make the new camera function please contact Pentax rather than smash the thing up.' He always bought Pentax thereafter.

The first time I went to have some images printed, the man behind the counter asked "What camera did you shoot these with?". He was most impressed by some of the shots I did. I love my K100D and although I know that a good photographer does not depend on a particular camera, I'm using a Pentax just in case. :)

Working in Swaziland has enhanced my appreciation of being able to capture memories in digital format as there are no dedicated photographic outlets to have good quality photographs developed. When travelling around the rural environs with my family, one gets to capture the essence of the people and some of their traditional ways of living and interacting, and then taking these home and explaining the atmosphere of the photograph to my children in greater detail. These opportunities and the freedom of not being restricted to film has been the best returns on my investment in a Pentax iSD.