PENTAX Ranked #1 in Buyer Satisfaction

[Jaemie]

PENTAX ranked highest in online DSLR buyer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates

The study measures satisfaction with DSLR cameras across five factors (listed in order of importance): picture quality (including picture clarity, sharpness and color); durability and reliability (including damage resistance, battery life and sturdiness); variety of features (including zoom, image stabilization and low light settings); ease of operation; and shutter speed/lag time (overall speed of the camera, including shutter lag time).

Pentax ranks highest in online buyer satisfaction with a score of 899 (on a 1,000-point scale), followed closely by Nikon (891) and Canon (888). Pentax performs particularly well in durability and reliability; variety of features; ease of operation; and shutter speed/lag time, while Canon performs well in the picture quality factor.

I've been pining for a K-5 for some time. This makes the decision even easier.

 

[Solarflare]

I would say that 899 vs 891 vs 888, of 1000, doesnt sound like there are huge differences. This is very likely well inside the margin of error.

 

[Jaemie]

I would say that 899 vs 891 vs 888, of 1000, doesnt sound like there are huge differences. This is very likely well inside the margin of error.

JD Power is well respected. It seems reasonable to assume they calculate significance appropriately, although I have no idea as to their methodology.

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Here is an interactive table with a breakdown of the results: Power Circle Ratings - Compare Products & Services | J.D. Power

 

[fjrabon]

The flaw with all customer satisfaction surveys is that a lot of self selection goes into the process. Like, for instance Apple kills everybody in customer satisfaction. But if you poll only those that are buying their first Apple product, the figure drops substantially in comparison to how other companies perform in that measure. You can make the argument that Apple products score so well in customer satisfaction because people want to be satisfied with them. (not that I totally buy that as a complete explanation, but I think it's probably at least part of the puzzle).

Really, I've only ever found customer satisfaction surveys to be useful for extreme differences. For instance, I have a pretty good idea that Canon, Nikon and Pentax are generally better camera systems than Panasonic dSLRs (though I do love my Lumix LX5) from that survey. But then again, I didn't need JD Power to tell me that either.

 

[Dillard]

I would say that 899 vs 891 vs 888, of 1000, doesnt sound like there are huge differences. This is very likely well inside the margin of error.

I agree. An 11 point spread out of 1000 isn't enough to sway my opinions and thoughts. Especially when dealing with a customer satisfaction survey.

 

[sovietdoc]

I never take into account consumer surveys when I buy gear. Individual reviews that I can openly read on the web, yes.

And despite all the negative reviews of 5D III that turned up on April 28th on Amazon, I still got mine. Figured, those must be Nikon trolls. Same is happening now with the 1D X. Nobody has even seen the camera and yet people already post up bad reviews. LOL

 

[pixmedic]

I never take into account consumer surveys when I buy gear. Individual reviews that I can openly read on the web, yes.

And despite all the negative reviews of 5D III that turned up on April 28th on Amazon, I still got mine. Figured, those must be Nikon trolls. Same is happening now with the 1D X. Nobody has even seen the camera yet and yet people already most up bad reviews. LOL

LOL...Nikon trolls. I know some people get pretty serious about brand loyalty, but enough to post false reviews? Seems like that would be bad for people trying to make a legitimate comparison between products. I love my Nikon...and will gladly stick with Nikon, but not enough to talk crap about another well proven product.

+1 for using the term "Nikon Troll" tho :mrgreen:

 

[jake337]

Pretty easy to get good customer rating with like a hundred customers....


Just messing around of course!

 

[sovietdoc]

LOL...Nikon trolls. I know some people get pretty serious about brand loyalty, but enough to post false reviews? Seems like that would be bad for people trying to make a legitimate comparison between products. I love my Nikon...and will gladly stick with Nikon, but not enough to talk crap about another well proven product.

+1 for using the term "Nikon Troll" tho :mrgreen:

Well I shoot with Canon but I am not at all "loyal" to the brand. There were particular reasons I got the gear I got. If Nikon had what I wanted, I'd use them in a heartbeat.
I think they have some outstanding pieces of kit in their collection but they are overcharging the $#!+ out of their customers. Oh and forget about "release dates" If the release date is set to "January 1st", what they mean is January 1st two years from now.

After reading D800 and D4 reviews I am pretty positive that there are lots of Canon trolls too.

What it probably is; those are the same people trolling Canon and Nikon because they got a Pentax.

 

[unpopular]

Pentax users just don't know any better.

 

[Jaemie]

Pretty easy to get good customer rating with like a hundred customers...

In this case, it was "more than 8,100 verified buyers who purchased a DSLR camera."

 

[fjrabon]

Pretty easy to get good customer rating with like a hundred customers...

In this case, it was "more than 8,100 verified buyers who purchased a DSLR camera."

I'm sure he was mostly making a joke, but the 8,100 was the total people for all brands. It didn't give the breakdown for how many used each individual camera brand, that I can find anywhere. Considering Pentax's market share of dSLR's, if the sample was roughly representative of the overall market, it probably was only a few hundred pentax shooters in the survey.

 

[pixmedic]

I dont remember much from statistics class back in college, sooo...out of 8100 people surveyed, If Nikon and Canon had fairly close amounts of people, given close shares of the market, and Pentax had a much smaller user base to survey from, what does the outcome of the survey really mean?

 

[fjrabon]

I dont remember much from statistics class back in college, sooo...out of 8100 people surveyed, If Nikon and Canon had fairly close amounts of people, given close shares of the market, and Pentax had a much smaller user base to survey from, what does the outcome of the survey really mean?

Not very much. It's especially meaningless since we are left to guess at the sample sizes for each individual brand.

It's even more compounded, because consumer satisfaction survey's are inherently non-representative to begin with.

 

[Jaemie]

Well, at the very least we know the Pentax buyer is a happy individual.