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New Pentax K1 - Full Frame!!!

Kyle Nagel

New member
I just received my new Pentax K1 (and grip) on Monday. I am really busy with work right now but I hope to have time over the Memorial holiday to really put it through its paces. I have the legendary 31mm Limited that I hope will pair nicely with it. Extremely high first impression though.
 

Michael Nagel

Well-known member
Kyle,

Have fun with the K-1. From what I heard the FA 31/1.8 Ltd. lives up to its reputation on the K-1.
It seems that the best positive surprise is the FA 43/1.9 Ltd. There was less love for it on APS-C, but on the K-1 the rendering looks way better.
The FA 77/1.8 Ltd. should also be as good as ever.
I hope you will try the 43 and the 77 as well - the K-1 is the right camera for these three lenses.

I like the 77 a lot (here on the K-3).

Best regards,
Michael
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Kyle,

I still use my Pentax early SMT lenses, but with an adapter for the Sony A7R, although I should return to the Spotmatic and film for a while!

I'd love to know how the K-1 full frame compares to a Canon or Nikon camera!

Anyway, good luck and happy shooting!

Asher
 

Michael Nagel

Well-known member
I just received my new Pentax K1 (and grip) on Monday. I am really busy with work right now but I hope to have time over the Memorial holiday to really put it through its paces. I have the legendary 31mm Limited that I hope will pair nicely with it. Extremely high first impression though.
So - did you have time?

Best regards,
Michael
 

Kyle Nagel

New member
Sorry I didn't get back to everyone sooner, the Friday before Memorial Day I got up on my roof to get my swamp cooler fired up for the season and completely threw my back out picking up a heavy vacuum. I was down for about a week and subsequently didn't get to do much at all that weekend as I had hoped.

I have since had a chance to escape for a few days and do some outdoor shooting, and while I still want (and need) to do some more post-processing of my images I do have a few immediate impressions:

1. Focusing is much much faster than I anticipated, I am using screw-drive lenses without HSM and they are nearly instantaneous. I can only base this on my lenses which are mostly smaller primes, so I cannot comment as to whether it is just as fast with older and/or larger zooms. I would expect with the new HSM lenses it would be phenomenally fast.

2. High ISO performance is also exceptional, I typically shoot low ISOs since I have a really bad tendency towards pixel-peeping and I try to not to exceed 200 ISO when possible. With the K1 up to 800 ISO actually satisfies most of my pixel-peeping, and up to 3200 I would find usable in many situations. This was my biggest surprise. I'm sure less fussy users would be surprised at even higher ISOs.

3. Ergonomics are also great, I have the optional battery grip on mine due to having very large hands and I absolutely love the feel and layout. Solidly built and great controls.

4. The detail and dynamic range are also better than I expected, as I find some time to process more of my images and play with them a little more in Lightroom I will be able to better comment on these two topics, but at first glance they both appear absolutely phenomenal. I assume the increase in detail is due to the removal of the AA filter, which is of little use to me given the type of photography I do. I have not even tried using the AA filter simulator.

5. I really want to try out the Pixel Shift feature but whenever I've had some time to it has been too windy to use it, I am hoping to get out this weekend and find a good place to try it.

Keep in mind most of what I shoot is outdoor/landscape photography (and a little wildlife as well) and I use smaller prime lenses, so all of the above comments are based on that type of photography. I do not do much if any sports/action or studio shooting, so my results and experiences with this camera do not reflect any challenges or issues that might be encountered when shooting in those situations.

My overall impressions are very high at this time and I love this camera, so unless I find some major issue down the road I would rank this as a 10 out of 10.

Lenses used so far:
Pentax 31mm f1.8 Limited
Pentax FA 50mm 1.4
Pentax FA 20mm f2.8
Sigma 300mm f4.0 APO (Images shot with this lens were razor sharp)

Kyle
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks for the update Kyle.

Looking forward to seeing some examples of your favorites with any lenses you try!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I had the occasion to shoot with a K-1, here is one example at ISO 3200:




More examples here. 1-3 using the FA 43, 4-6 using the Tamron 28-75/2.8.

Best regards,
Michael


So Michael,

What's your impression and guidance to the rest of us on the social value of this Camera?

What draws you to it?

Asher
 
Last edited:

Michael Nagel

Well-known member
What's your impression and guidance to the rest of us on the social value of this Camera?
Strange question - social value of a camera?
Well - the K-1 is certainly not a Veblen good - no one will brag about it.

Strong points for me are image quality, ease of use and from what I could experience it seems to be a dependable camera.
The two additional wheels reduce further the need to access the menu. The smaller LCD screen compared to e.g. the K-3 is a bit of a let-down. The led-lights illuminating the card slot and the bayonet help when it's dark,

Any news from Kyle? He should have some pictures by now...

Best regards,
Michael
 

Nigel Allan

Member
I was a Pentax 35mm fan and loved my LX and K2 and still have them and the lenses, so was a bit disappointed when they were too slow to claim their rightful place in digital photography and somewhat missed the boat. I then bought my first digital which was a Nikon D300 and now have a Nikon D750 so would feel it hard to justify buying the K1 now.

Having said that I have always loved Pentax ergonomics and design...they just seem to do that part so much better than Nikon or Canon...the feel of the Pentax is just right, right size, not too heavy and so on...it is very tempting to be able to own a digital equivalent of my beloved LX though...
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I was a Pentax 35mm fan and loved my LX and K2 and still have them and the lenses, so was a bit disappointed when they were too slow to claim their rightful place in digital photography and somewhat missed the boat. I then bought my first digital which was a Nikon D300 and now have a Nikon D750 so would feel it hard to justify buying the K1 now.

Having said that I have always loved Pentax ergonomics and design...they just seem to do that part so much better than Nikon or Canon...the feel of the Pentax is just right, right size, not too heavy and so on...it is very tempting to be able to own a digital equivalent of my beloved LX though...

Nigel,

Glad to have your comments. Nikon is so well made and keeps up to date. I too was a Pentax fan and still have my Spotmatic!

Pentax really did well with their 645D and 645Z, leveraging their extensive experience and photographer feedback to regain a place at the forefront of professional MF editorial, landscape and studio photography.

But today, Fuji appears to have edged ahead with its mirrorless offerings of amazingly well thought out APS-C and GFX MF cameras. Not only are the cameras well made but the lenses are unusually stellar too. So it’s now Fuji with Sony who are driving innovation.

Still, if and when Ricoh wishes, it has all the capability and resources to have their Pentax brand leapfrog over everyone and take a commanding position again.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Pentax K-1 II Specifications

From Newcamera.com, spelling errors included!


Finally the full specification of the Pentax K-1 Mark II DSLR leaked, the upcoming Pentax K-1 Mark II camera will have same sensor as of the Pentax K-1 DSLR camera. On of the most important thing is Pentax K-2 features ISO range of 819200 which is really amazing for 36MP high MP sensor. Take a detailed look a the the core specification

Pentax K-1 Mark II Full Specification

Valid 36.4 MP CMOS sensor
– Mount is KAF 2
– ISO 100 – 819200
– sensor shift type 5 axis shake correction (SRII)
– SD / SDHC / SDXC (UHS – I compatible)
– dual card slot
– Finder is 0.7 times magnification, 100% field of view ratio
– AF of live view is contrast AF
– Liquid crystal monitor is 1037,000 dots 3.2 inches, flexible tilt type
– Wi – Fi
– size is 136.5 x 110 x 85.5 mm
– weight is 1010 g (Battery and SD card included), 925 g (body only)
– Shutter is 30 sec – 1/8000 sec, Sync speed is 1/200 sec
– Interval shooting
– Video is full HD 60i, HD 60p (25 minutes or 4 GB automatic stop )
– stereo microphone, or an external microphone corresponding
– continuous shooting is 4.4 frames / sec at full size, 6.4 frames / sec in APS-C
– GPS · electronic compass built
– battery D-LI90
– battery life is 670 sheets
– AF is SAFOX12,33 points (25 points cross type), the EV-3 18
– 8.6 million pixels RGB metering Nsa, from EV-3 20

K – 1 Mark II will be announced soon, replacing the current K – 1. K-1 Mark II will also be released with a kit with D FA 28-105 mm F 3.5-5.6. The price in North America is $ 1999.95 for the body only, and the kit with 28 – 105 mm will be $ 2399.95. The highlights of the K – 1 Mark II are as follows.

Equipped with the original accelerator unit, effectively reduces noise, maintains detail detail and rich color even at high sensitivity 14 bit processing Adopt PRIME IV image processing engine
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I like that the synch speed in the K-1 Mark II is 1/200 second, which is far better than the Fuji GFX at 1/125 second!

35MP is already so capable that it can compete with MF camera even at 5O MP or more as when the picture is properly exposed, the fine detail can only be seen in 60” tall prints when one gets to within 10” of the picture. So this is essentially, like the Sony A7R, fully competitive with much more expensive offerings. Again, as with the Sony A7RII, having 5 stops of image stabilization, built in, brings so many other lenses to these platforms!

Asher
 
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