Email:
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Hi Photographer friends,
I received my Pentax K-01 last week and have been using it everyday since. The image quality is excellent, about the same as the K-5 or even better, and the camera is about half the price of the K-5 when it was introduced. The prices will come down eventually, but full price is what you have to pay to get the newest toys, before everyone else does.
For low light shooting, I get better results with the K-01 than with the K-5. The Focus Peaking option is just great. It becomes very easy to use old legacy manual lenses. Speaking of lenses, the Pentax K-01 uses all of the K-mount lenses ever built, and that's more than I can say about all of the other mirror-less cameras on the market. Most mirror-less cameras are using a smaller sensor, and I don't care how much they boast about the image quality, you just can't get higher quality in a small sensor. Sony is close to the right solution with a large sensor in the NEX-7, but regular lenses won't work without an adapter. I hear that the 24.3 MP sensor is not real good at high ISO. I would guess that there are too many pixels, all packed in the same surface area as any of the APS-C sensors.
Yes, the K-01 is bigger than all the other mirror-less cameras, but what's the deal with the small cameras? You wind up with a 50mm lens that is bigger than the camera. When I want or need small, I use my iPhone.
Now, about all the whining of the lack of EVF or OVF, I halfway agree that it would be nice. Pentax may design some kind of "flash bracket" mounted optical viewfinder, similar to what range-finder cameras used to have. In fact, I found several companies that made that kind of viewfinders. Pentax even has a 47mm equivalent viewfinder for the Q camera. The built-in flash of the K-01 is in the way, but chances are that when you need the flash, it's dark enough to see the image on the viewfinder. Other than fill-in flash, when it's too bright outside to use the LCD monitor, it's likely too bright to use the built-in flash as well.
There are many used and new "flash bracket" attached viewfinder on Ebay. You can find them for just about all standard focal length, like, 20mm, 24mm, 50mm, 80mm, 135mm, 200mm and more. There is still the problem with parallax error when taking close-up pictures, but you can correct for that. Folks, we don't pay for film anymore. You can delete and retake pictures all day long.
One more important thing about the K-01, it is gorgeous. It's like when new cars are announced with a totally new look...everyone complains about how ugly they are, but soon thereafter, we get used to it and we like it. The K-01 is the look of the future. Pentax has always been at the forefront of technology and bold design. You may not know this, but the first SLR with metering was a Pentax. The first 645 format was a Pentax. Theu have a long list of "First". They always innovate while the rest imitate. Remember the first color DSLRs? Pentax started that but all other companies now produce color cameras.
Once you stop worrying about what other people think, you will get a Pentax K-01 or another similar camera that will hit the market soon, marketed by copy cats with more money than Pentax.
P.S.
- Once you have an external OVF, you can etch line to match your particular lens or lenses angle of view.
- If you are griping because it's hard to put the DA* 300mm on the K-01 and hand hold it, the keyword is "Tripod". And that is the general rule with any cameras.
Thanks for reading,
Yvon Bourque
If you disagree, don't get mad, I'm having a great time and so should you. :)
