Pentax K-01 not so bad after all. It has the best Video capabilities of any Pentax.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

Pentax introduced the K-30 a little while back and I already have that camera and wrote my last e-book about it.A few days ago, Pentax introduced the K-5 II and the K-5 II s. They are all great cameras, but none of the above can take video as well as the K-01.

The K-5, K-5 II and the K-5 II s cameras take good video, the problem is that they don't allow MPEG-4 AVC/H.264.   The K-5's can shoot video as follow:

• Full HD (1920x1080), 16:9, 25 fps
• HD (1280x720), 16:9, 30 fps and 25 fps
• VGA (640x480), 4:3, 30 fps and 25 fps

Pentax really raised the bar as far as movie recording. Not only does the K-30 records in full HD at 1080p, but it does so @ 24, 25 or 30 fps. In addition, the camera can record sound from the built-in mono microphone. It lacks stereo channels and external microphone capabilities.. The file format is MPEG-4 AVC/H.264.The K-30 can shoot video as follow:

•  FullHD (1920x1080) @ 16:9 aspect ratio, 30fps/ 25fps /24fps
•  HD (1280x720) @ 16:9 aspect ratio, 60fps/ 50fps/ 30fps/ 25fps/ 24fps
•  VGA (640x480) @ 4:3 aspect ratio,  30fps/ 25fps/ 24fps

Now, the K-01 can record the same formats as the K-30 but it has external stereo microphone input jack, and that makes a big difference. The K-01 does not have a prism viewfinder, but you wouldn't shoot a video through the viewfinder, you would shoot video with the LCD monitor. The K-01 is smaller and very portable. The 40mm kit lens is great.

I'm not much of a videographer, but I believe that the movies on the big screen are H.264

You can get there using the K-5's using software, but what's the point?

Thank you for reading,

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yvon Bourque