diff --git a/.chloggen/kube-distro.yaml b/.chloggen/kube-distro.yaml
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..b3b2dc3f6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.chloggen/kube-distro.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# One of 'breaking', 'deprecation', 'new_component', 'enhancement', 'bug_fix'
+change_type: enhancement
+
+# The name of the component, or a single word describing the area of concern, (e.g. collector, target allocator, auto-instrumentation, opamp, github action)
+component: collector
+
+# A brief description of the change. Surround your text with quotes ("") if it needs to start with a backtick (`).
+note: Adjust all collector-core image uses to k8s distro
+
+# One or more tracking issues related to the change
+issues: [2835]
+
+# (Optional) One or more lines of additional information to render under the primary note.
+# These lines will be padded with 2 spaces and then inserted directly into the document.
+# Use pipe (|) for multiline entries.
+subtext: |
+  Previously, the default distribution used for the operator was core.
+  We now have access to a purpose built distribution for Kubernetes. This distro
+  contains everything that core had plus components that are helpful in a Kubernetes
+  environment.
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index fca734ce3b..abe00c48e3 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ func main() {
 	pflag.BoolVar(&enableDotNetInstrumentation, constants.FlagDotNet, true, "Controls whether the operator supports dotnet auto-instrumentation")
 	pflag.BoolVar(&enablePythonInstrumentation, constants.FlagPython, true, "Controls whether the operator supports python auto-instrumentation")
 	pflag.BoolVar(&enableNginxInstrumentation, constants.FlagNginx, false, "Controls whether the operator supports nginx auto-instrumentation")
-	stringFlagOrEnv(&collectorImage, "collector-image", "RELATED_IMAGE_COLLECTOR", fmt.Sprintf("ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/opentelemetry-collector:%s", v.OpenTelemetryCollector), "The default OpenTelemetry collector image. This image is used when no image is specified in the CustomResource.")
+	stringFlagOrEnv(&collectorImage, "collector-image", "RELATED_IMAGE_COLLECTOR", fmt.Sprintf("ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/opentelemetry-collector-k8s:%s", v.OpenTelemetryCollector), "The default OpenTelemetry collector image. This image is used when no image is specified in the CustomResource.")
 	stringFlagOrEnv(&targetAllocatorImage, "target-allocator-image", "RELATED_IMAGE_TARGET_ALLOCATOR", fmt.Sprintf("ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/target-allocator:%s", v.TargetAllocator), "The default OpenTelemetry target allocator image. This image is used when no image is specified in the CustomResource.")
 	stringFlagOrEnv(&operatorOpAMPBridgeImage, "operator-opamp-bridge-image", "RELATED_IMAGE_OPERATOR_OPAMP_BRIDGE", fmt.Sprintf("ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/operator-opamp-bridge:%s", v.OperatorOpAMPBridge), "The default OpenTelemetry Operator OpAMP Bridge image. This image is used when no image is specified in the CustomResource.")
 	stringFlagOrEnv(&autoInstrumentationJava, "auto-instrumentation-java-image", "RELATED_IMAGE_AUTO_INSTRUMENTATION_JAVA", fmt.Sprintf("ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/autoinstrumentation-java:%s", v.AutoInstrumentationJava), "The default OpenTelemetry Java instrumentation image. This image is used when no image is specified in the CustomResource.")