Spotmatic was the camera enthusiasts aspired to when I was too young to think about owning one, Nikon was strictly for professionals or amateurs who had more money than anyone I was likely to know. By the time I could afford a good camera, screw mount was seen as slightly old fashioned and the K-mount had been introduced. The universal nature of the K-mount devalued it slightly in my eyes (at the time) and it became associated with lesser brands. I was seduced by Olympus advertising. The ME and MX Pentaxes didn't have the cachet of the Olympus, and the owners I knew seemed to have reliability problems with them.
Later on Pentax became an "institutional" camera, the K1000 being the cheapest, reliable, marque camera that took good lenses. This was spoiled by the Chinese made variety which regularly fell apart, meaning quality K-mount lenses were left without an obvious body to fit them on that was affordable in numbers. Like most brands, Pentax came out with some real plastic clunkers in the 1990s and the company seemed to lose their way. When I briefly worked for a camera sales company I flirted with the idea of buying an LX, but the head of sales told me not to as "they are always being returned" with an endemic problem whose nature I have since forgotten.
In short, my perception of Pentax is they never again reached the mass public identity or confidence after the Spotmatics, but fell between Nikon's build quality, Olympus's coolness and Canon's innovation. Minolta were never a big player in the UK. If I were buying a Pentax in 2015 I'd opt for a nice old black Spotmatic for looks and a K2 if I was using it as my regular camera, but would probably buy something else first.
Later on Pentax became an "institutional" camera, the K1000 being the cheapest, reliable, marque camera that took good lenses. This was spoiled by the Chinese made variety which regularly fell apart, meaning quality K-mount lenses were left without an obvious body to fit them on that was affordable in numbers. Like most brands, Pentax came out with some real plastic clunkers in the 1990s and the company seemed to lose their way. When I briefly worked for a camera sales company I flirted with the idea of buying an LX, but the head of sales told me not to as "they are always being returned" with an endemic problem whose nature I have since forgotten.
In short, my perception of Pentax is they never again reached the mass public identity or confidence after the Spotmatics, but fell between Nikon's build quality, Olympus's coolness and Canon's innovation. Minolta were never a big player in the UK. If I were buying a Pentax in 2015 I'd opt for a nice old black Spotmatic for looks and a K2 if I was using it as my regular camera, but would probably buy something else first.