K-01

[revolver]

<p>I have been waiting to pull the trigger on a micro four thirds camera for about 2 years now. basically waiting for the price to come down on a Panasonic DMC-GF3 or the DMC-G2.<br />then I come across this tonight<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pentax-K-01-40mm-Lens-Black/dp/B00740MR78/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1341543156&sr=1-1&keywords=Pentax+K-01" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Pentax-K-01-40mm-Lens-Black/dp/B00740MR78/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1341543156&sr=1-1&keywords=Pentax+K-01</a></p>

 

<p>part of the hesitation once I got past the Panasonic name was price...Like you should pay that much for Panasonic <rolleyes> not be a snob or anything...but they never came to mind over Pentax in my book.<br /><br />so, I came here to see if this has been discussed and sure enough there was Josh's post. THANKS for that!<br /><br />How's everyone been? made some changes in my life which got me off the computer and out in the world breathing some fresh air and just not sitting at a keyboard wondering where life was going...<br /><br />we are going on a cruise in a few months and I wanted to get another camera for the trip as a back up to my K100D.<br /><br /><br>

what I was going to look for tonight was some sort of sealed body camera. I took pictures the other day and there was a dust spot on the shot.<br />the one thing I HATE <img title="Mad" src="http://www.ebassist.com/forum/images/smilies/mad.gif" alt="" border="0" /><img title="Mad" src="http://www.ebassist.com/forum/images/smilies/mad.gif" alt="" border="0" /> about the Digital SLR's is that F***ing dust spot situation. never got anything like that with all the film I put through the K1000 for 30 F***ING years...<br /><br />its just aggravates the crap out of me. I was going to swallow my pride and look at the Ni....Nik <clears throat>...Nikon line of sealed body cameras and I came upon the review at DPreview for the K-01<br /><br />other than Josh's hands on experience....anyone else try one of these yet?</p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>25+ million Pentax K lenses lay around in the world, and ready to get mounted directly to this new camera.</p>

<p>Most of them will be manually focused, so the camera should have a good electronic viewfinder, but would be impossible to customize a viewfinder for various lenses in existence. </p>

<p>Not sure how 6 frames per second and focus picking will work for sports shooters.</p>

<p>Let's hope the sensor dust shaking off technique works better than current cameras utilizing this technique. It is a replaceable lens camera, so it will not be completely dust immune. Perhaps dust will continue annoy people, but possibly to a lesser degree.</p>

<p>Naturally, the space preserved for the mirror box is there, even though there is no mirror, kind of loss of major advantage of the mirrorless type cameras. The camera is thicker than most mirrorless cameras, but preserves original K lens mount distances from a lens to the sensor plane. As always there are design trade offs, but is good to have variety of cameras to suit various people preferences.</p>

<p>Bravo Pentax!</p>

[revolver]

<p>Frank,<br /><br />I read the review a couple of times after my initial excitement and it is not glowing. </p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>The camera is not a revolutionary development, but rather an interesting one that allows use of old K Mount lenses.<br>

It is surprising that Pentax undertook the effort to extend life, or putting new life into old K Mount Pentax lenses.<br>

Others would rather propose a new set of lenses, to make fresh pile of money, even if it means to make old lenses obsolete.<br>

I see it as taking care of people more than about company pocket book.</p>

 

[pbarnes]

<p>Christopher, I have owned my bright yellow K-01 for a couple of weeks now, and no, you can't have it, I'm keeping it. I already owned the 21, 40 and 70 Limited primes. I sold the 40mm for $250 and paid an extra $100 on top of the body price for the new 40mm. So I reckon it was a good deal for me. Josh's preview is pretty accurate, so I'll just fire off some observations not noted in his article. But before that, to sum up, it is a delight use, the image quality is stellar, and it is surprisingly heavy, OK, solid. I hope that translates into it being able to survive an occasional bounce off a hard surface, but I haven't got around to testing that yet. <br>

Some other observations:</p>

<ul>

<li>I wasn't sure about the lack of a view finder, but now I have used the camera with the sun shining directly over my shoulder onto the LCD, I can say it is not an issue for me. Even in direct sunlight I can still see enough to accurately frame my shots.</li>

<li>Two of the reviews I read stated that live view magnification was not available when the camera was set to manual focus. It's not true. Being able to manually focus with the screen at 6x is great, and for me, more than makes up for the lack of a viewfinder.</li>

<li>The blocky design, which I like the look and feel of, turns out to have a real practical application. The camera is stable when you place it on a flat surface in lieu of a tripod, in both horizontal AND vertical orientations. The bottom and the two ends are flat, and the beautifully designed strap lugs sit flat, so this is the first camera I have owned that I can pop on its end and and take long exposures in portrait orientation, which is just great for the sort of work I like to do. (So I now carry the little Penax IR remote with the camera)</li>

<li>Some reviewers complained that the green button could not be reached easily. I don't have large hands or long fingers, and I have joint problems in my right wrist, but I don't know what they are talking about. </li>

<li>The rubbery flap that covers the ports and the card slot is fiddly, but all it takes is a bit of practice to get it to easily go in properly, and once it is in properly, it stays there.</li>

<li>The thing I dislike most? Auto exposure bracketing is limited to three exposures (down from the 5 I enjoy on my K10D), but worse, it is now on the same menu as single shot shooting, continuous shooting, self timer and remote control. You cannot have remote control AND exposure bracketing, or self timer AND exposure bracketing, it's only one of the above. The only way to fire the shutter with exposure bracketing on is by pushing the shutter button with your finger. Which is just silly. And a real pain for me, as a favourite way of making an image is to capture the full dynamic range of a scene with a bracket of exposures and blend them in post-production, one of the joys of the digital age. But it won't work well if the camera is moving, and the camera will move if it is poked with a finger. I hope this can be fixed in a firmware revision. Who should I complain to about this? (Yes, there is an HDR mode on the camera, but the output is a jpg file)</li>

</ul>

<p>I bought the K-01 to be my travel camera, along with the Limited primes and my beloved 135mm f3.5 M series lens. The K10D has been retired. By chance I had a Lowepro Digital Video 30 case - it's light, well padded and fits the K-01, with the new thin 40mm lens on, very well. <br>

One last thing Christopher - you will have to decide between having the option of mounting quality lenses of the sort you need on your camera but dealing with the occasional dust spot, or not having that option, but with the luxury of no dust spots. Or you could get a K-01, choose a lens, zoom or prime, and just leave it on the camera. </p>

[pbarnes]

<p>Correction: I just remembered that the worst dust I ever got on my K10D sensor was when I was using it with a Sigma zoom - someone told me the zoom sucked dust in as you zoomed it. Maybe. When I shifted to using primes almost exclusively on it, my dust problem all but disappeared. And when any did appear, a quick blast with a rocket blower would fix it. </p>

[michael_elenko]

<p>Peter,<br>

Thanks for the insightful report. Don't know if that specific camera is in my future, but I enjoyed reading your comments based on real-world use.</p>

<p>ME</p>

[DWScott]

<p>Yes, thanks Peter. Useful insight into the camera. I admit I am tempted by the bright yellow one - reminds me of the yellow Hasselblad.</p>

[revolver]

<p>Frank, I am not surprised. that has been their intent since the their first DSLR if I am not mistaken. I know that was a selling point for me when I got the K100D. Not that I had a ton of lenses, actually just 2, but I did shoot with a K1000 for close to 30 years and thought that it would be cool to still be able to use those 2 lenses with a modern camera.<br /><br /><br /></p>

[revolver]

<p>Peter, that was an incredible reply. Thank you very much for taking the time. I had a mentally exhausting day and will reply more appropriately tomorrow. there are some points I want to address specifically </p>

[revolver]

<p>Peter,<br /><br />once again thank you for the depth of your review an sorry its been so long to reply.<br /><br />I ordered 2 cameras on Friday. The Pentax K-01 with the 40mm lens and a Lumix DMC-GF3K with a 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 lens<br /><br />I received them both today.<br /><br />I took out the Lumix first because I did not want to be biased with the Pentax.<br /><br />The Lumix is horrible. Its got a nice weight to it but other than that it feels like it doesnt fit my hand(too small and slippery) it does not auto focus and I cannot figure out the settings to save my life. buttons are poorly located and while a few pictures I took I did not have any manual control. probably because i cannot figure out the settings.<br /><br />now the Pentax.<br /><br />I agree with everything you said till you got to "Exposure bracketing is limited to three exposures..."<br /><br />I dont know what that means and I guess I dont consciously shoot that way.<br /><br />the camera is a little boxy to say the least. felt weird in my hands at first but that quickly began to feel good.<br /><br />that 40mm pancake lens is great. as soon as I fired it up I was snapping away. no problems finding the settings and choosing my options.<br /><br />tried my 18-55mm Pentax lens and a Tamron 70-300 on it. it is definitely not a camera for speed shooting or auto focusing quickly. <br /><br />LOVE the live display. the depth of color in the images on the screen is great and just as good in the computer. <br /><br />the many digital filters are incredible. I used one of a picture I took of my wife and it looks like an 80's video by the group Ah Ha...the song take on me...<br /><br />its even got a fisheye filter.<br /><br />initial reaction is I love love love this camera. Perfect timing as we are going on a cruise next month. I'll have my K100D, I10 and the K-01<br /><br />very happy with the camera right out of the box....as I was with the other 2 and especially my K1000 that is still working but sadly retired<br /><br />thanks again for your detailed reply<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>