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Pentax K-1 - 36 MP Full Frame DSLR


Zach Ashcraft
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Pentax releases their long awaited Full frame K-1. From a stills standpoint it looks incredible with some very innovative features (Astro Trace is pretty cool). Video only does 60i/30P at 1080. 60p at 720. 

In body 5 - Axis stabilization, though not sure if it works in video mode. Will be interesting to see if they put any effort into this long term

http://us.ricoh-imaging.com/product/k-series/k1/

My thoughts: Its a little on the conservative side for how late this release seems, but I have a feeling it will be bullet-proof and reliable if their recent medium format and crop efforts are any indication. I'd also be really interested in using my old Pentax K1000 lenses on this. Built in headphone and mic jack is a nice addition, but there is really no mention of video quality at all anywhere.

The price seems right.  

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EOSHD Pro Color 5 for Sony cameras EOSHD Z LOG for Nikon CamerasEOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles for All Canon DSLRs

The SAFOX 12 AF sensor module features 33 AF sensors (25 cross-type sensors positioned in the middle). The center sensor and the two sensors located just above and below it are designed to detect the light flux of an F2.8 lens, making it easy to obtain pinpoint focus on a subject when using a large-aperture lens.

The auto focus module sounds underwhelming. I wonder how far into the corners the auto focus points spread, they're probably quite centered judged by the image next to that text snippet. Fullframe DSLRs seem to be kinda sucky when it comes to that issue, I think that's a lot more enjoyable on mirrorless cameras.

I still remember "focus & recompose" with the 5D II. Clearly don't want to go back.

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Guest Ebrahim Saadawi

That's Fu#$ing AMAZING! 

1799$!

Full Frame SLR with a huge OVF, 36mp sensor, IBIS (5 stops), completely weather-sealed, FULLY articulating screen, just phenomenal!

They could have said 3799$ and it'd have been totally normal vs the direct rivals. 

All those sharp quality Old pentax lenses plus their new 12 lenses plus 645z lenses now will work and have IS. 

This light-years beyond Canon & Nikon same price Prosumer DSLRs (6D/D610/A7II). Hell this is even a very strong D810/5DSR/A7RII that sell for 3000-4000$

As soon as reviews come along to confirm it works, this is my next Stills camera.

I was going for a 7DII/D500 but thus just blows them away.

Who thought it's pentax who'll do this?!

The major brick of ice on the cake would be IBIS working in video mode & no aliasing/moire downsample. It has a headphone jack so that's promising. Imagine if it'd have D810 video quality with IBIS. It'd be my video camera too.

It does look UGLY. Incredibly UGLY. But I can forgive that if it's really what it claims!

Anybody know the mount adaptability to other than Pentax lenses? Long or short flange distance? What's the mount brand/official name. I really reaaly hope it takes Nikon and or Canon lenses because of the IBIS.

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1 hour ago, Ebrahim Saadawi said:

Anybody know the mount adaptability to other than Pentax lenses? Long or short flange distance? What's the mount brand/official name. I really reaaly hope it takes Nikon and or Canon lenses because of the IBIS.

Not great, because Pentax has one of the longer flange-mount distances. You certainly won't get Canon EF mount on there and possibly not Nikon either, given the similarity of flange mount distance.

Agree with you though: it looks like a nice camera for the money.

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1 hour ago, Ebrahim Saadawi said:

Anybody know the mount adaptability to other than Pentax lenses? Long or short flange distance? What's the mount brand/official name. I really reaaly hope it takes Nikon and or Canon lenses because of the IBIS.

Flange distances here.

Leitax offers Pentax K bayonet mounts for certain Leica-R, Contax C/Y and Olympus-OM lenses.

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5-stops of 5-axis image stabilization?  Impressive.  Once that tech (eventually) makes it way into 4K consumer cams that shoot 60p, man, that's some nice creative flexibility.

I don't know if I'm leaning too much on my EM5II IS these days, but I've really integrated it into my style of shooting.  Would just like that extra bump of 4K @60 for useful 1080 post-production flexibility.  

Soon...should be soon.

Anyway, as a gear head, I find the wonkiness of the Pentax camera kinda good looking.  Sort of like a dumb American muscle car.  It looks stupid and cool at the same time.

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1 hour ago, fuzzynormal said:

Anyway, as a gear head, I find the wonkiness of the Pentax camera kinda good looking.  Sort of like a dumb American muscle car.  It looks stupid and cool at the same time.

Agreed. Reminds me a lot of my K1000 as well which I'm fond of. It photographed my about 5 seconds after I took my first breath 

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I expect they are using the sony 36mpx sensor as used in the d800 and a7rmk1.  a stunning sensor - imo actually a little nicer than the new sony 42mpx.  the fact that they're providing a nice solid 14bit file it'll likely be closer to the d800's image than the a7r was.  add all the bells and whistles and the only thing I'd be complaining about is the pentax mount!

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I'm a Pentax owner. As for video capabilities:

Until the K-5 (launched 2010) Pentax cameras had SR during video. It worked very well. I like the look of the SR more than what Olympus is doing, although you can get away with more with an Olympus. Then they introduced electronic SR, and it is easily one of the worst implementations of electronic SR. They call it movie SR, and apparently it is mentioned somewhere in the official documentation or so that the K-1 has that. Movie SR does not even make use of the sensors the camera has, so it tries to detect movement by the image. a) there is always a crop. Even when deactivating Movie SR. b) What you see on the display is not what you'll get in the file. c) Massive rolling shutter amplifier. d) Random motion blur. e) Wobbling lower half of the image. For years I and others have been complaining to Pentax, and for years Pentax ignores it. When asked, Pentax said that the SR mechanism creates noises, and thus they deactivate it for video. Stupid explanation, there's always the option to use external microphones and recorders (plus the SR mechanism on my K-5 is barely audible during recordings... only when it is really quiet in the room it gets picked up).

I'd greatly appreciate any support in convincing those fools at Ricoh/Pentax to re-enable IBIS, because it is gorgeous, it works very well (you can see it in action in live view...).

Another issue with Pentax is that bitrates are rather low, and the encoder they use isn't good. Basically a same bitrate file out of a Panasonic or Sony or Samsung will look better. No idea if it has improved, I have my doubts cause the video specs sound exactly the same as their older cameras. Same processor perhaps.

As for the mount and lenses... Pentax has amazing lenses, some of the best ever made. Especially their primes are top notch.

IMHO with activated SR/IBIS, a flat color profile and higher bitrates it would still be a wonderful camera for videos. The sensor will be fine I think and that flippy screen looks like it is rock solid and really useful (and which other FF DSLR has a flippy screen?). In terms of ergonomics Pentax beats Sony and Canon hands down, and is IMHO even better than Nikon. The body will be weather sealed, and properly so...:

 

These things are tough as ..., and reasonably sized.

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