“They didn’t even try to make a proper mirrorless camera” lol. In fairness to Pentax, without making an entirely new mount and obsoleting generations of K-mount lenses, they couldn’t. It’s physics, not lazy or poor design choices. The K-01 or any conceivable mirrorless based on the K-mount would have been “bulky” because the 45mm flange focal distance of K-mount. Honestly, of all the things people snicker at Pentax about, not building a trendy mirrorless camera has to be one of the silliest. ;)

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

I guess it all depends on your view point😀 Thanks for your insights.

I have one of these and I love it. The fact that it can take interchangeable lenses and uses the K Mount makes it really useful for a Pentax user. Great for landscape and portraits. Beautiful colour rendition. Controls fall readily to hand.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing your experience.

one of the very few original designs in the camera market, thumps up to pentax for trying something different

@evernam993m8

Ай бұрын

Innovation is too risky these days :)

Well the results look pretty good to me, must get one... Thanks for the review.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

If you program the red button to enable focus peaking it is easy to focus, especial with legacy lenses, you can switch it on or off in a split-second. One thing you may have over-looked is that many mirrorless cameras of that era would overheat (here's looking at you Sony!) and had a short battery life, the K-01 never overheats and the battery life is still very good compared to modern cameras.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

I have never experienced any camera, mirrorless or not, overheat in photography, but I suppose it is possible. Some mirrorless would overheat in video though.

Don't call this camera's design a "shortcut". It was an extraordinary idea to allow an internationally known industrial designer freedom to create outside the box of conservative design. K-mount compatibility had to be maintained, so the mirror box had to be kept. Electronics and firmware mostly came from the K5 product line. It was not then, nor is it today, a toy. Sadly, the general public, and especially reviewers, lacked imagination. It was an experiment that didn't get the traction needed. I bought mine in 2012 and still use it.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for you insights. I don't think I said it is a toy. I said it looks like a toy😀

@christopherward5065

Жыл бұрын

To call it a toy is to dismiss what it does. The results are superb and it takes myriad K mount lenses and m42 lenses. Focussing can be very critically achieved making it a great studio camera. To call it a toy is to dismiss the technical design, the firmware and the industrial design. It’s a robustly built, well designed camera. An EVF accessory could have made it an irresistible proposition. I use mine with a Swivi screen loupe and that makes the screen useable under all lighting conditions. It didn’t have a toy price tag or toy pretensions when it came to market.

I have couple of them since its release and still love them. Appart from its cool look, K-01 has a very natural and attractive colors and works great together with all limited prime Pentax lenses. Thanks for this video

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. The colors seem a lot like Ricoh GR series, which is no wonder of course.

@Xitrun

Жыл бұрын

@@mattisulanto yes, but K-01 was released when Pentax did not belong to Ricoh yet.

The photos certainly leave little to complain about! I guess an underappreciated camera ..

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. Nothing wrong with the photos.

I had both the Pentax Q and Pentax K-01 when they were first released, and remains today, Pentax's only mirrorless cameras. Although I found the K-01 interesting, it was the Q camera and its small form factor which kept me going back to it for street photography. It was solidly made too, with a full metal construction body, unlike its later iterations. Wish Pentax would revive its Q range and bring back their quirky Q lenses. They were so light and small, you could literally keep a few in a pocket and bring them out as required.

Can't argue with the picture quality though, looks great to me. The world needs more lenses of that size again.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

In 2012 when I was getting back into photography, I considered this camera. It was interesting then and now. Thanks for the video.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching.

Thank you for another fun and informative video. The photos look very good, at least on my tablet. Much more intense colors than the video just before the photos. ( neat effect). I guess it just shows that a real photographer can take great pictures with literally anything.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thank you.

Fun video Matti. I have the Pentax 40 mm XS lens on my K70 DSLR which is actually only 4 ounces (113 grams) heavier than the K-01. I thought this lens was going to be my go to general walk around but like you I found the 60 mm equivalent focal length to be too tight so I replaced it with a 52 mm equivalent. The 40 mm XS is sharp and has nice contrast but I did get some really bad purple fringing when shooting trees in certain light. The K-01 is cool looking and commands a fairly high used price because of it.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing.

The bright yellow one was the best colour, truly 'out there' :⁠-⁠)

The K-01 was basically just a big Q in terms of firmware and consequently control feel. Not a bad thing, I love all the different model Q's I've collected (I do wish the Q-S1 had a metal construction like the original, but it feels solid enough), and it's getting to where a K-01 is cheaper than a solid Q7 or Q-S1 these days. The downside of using this firmware is it lacks focus confirmation for manual focus lenses like the SMC-A line and up. I use those lenses with my KP to do sports even, balancing between zone focusing and focus trapping by setting the area I want in focus beforehand, then tracking the subject with the shutter pressed and focus trapping enabled, then when the camera detects focus it starts a burst. Between these two techniques, I don't miss too many shots (not that I don't have some of the faster focusing zooms, for personal stuff I almost always use manual lenses). It's also like a Pentax DSLR of that era stuck in live-view for AF performance... which isn't great, to say the least. For portraits, still lifes, landscape, and macro the sensor it uses is actually pretty solid. I don't actually have that 40mm lens, the only one made for the K-01. I just use some of the limited primes and sigma zooms I have for my KP.

K-01 is an academic camera. I remove the internal filter from this one and use it as an infrared camera. The lens is a 35mm macro lens with an R72 filter attached. I set it to black and white mode and set the dial to HDR. Variable high quality. 20 units were modified with IR and sent to Art restorers.　😎

I bought mine in Singapore and yes it's slow but the pictures are so so sharp .good video. Thanks

@mattisulanto

6 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching.

Your photos with this camera are, by far, the most natural-looking, Matti! Thanks for the video. Live view with a screw-drive lens is rather slow, especially for that generation. It would be nice if you can, at least, a K-Mount lens with a DC motor or PLM. Pentax AF is 50% through the body (processing) and 50% with the lens. PLM lenses focus almost instantly and would rival many modern mirrorless lenses today. Cheers.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. I'm sure another lens would focus faster, but right now I have only this one.

Sigma too made a mirrorless camera compatible with its previous DSLRs. It also looked strange, basically an adaptor such as you would see on Canikon mirrorless cameras to use the DSLR lenses.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it was a weird camera indeed.

Matti, another great video. I love that you do videos with Robin another favorite of mine. I would have liked this camera back in the day. Now days having made the full in switch to digital, I have DSLR, Mirrorless and M43. The closest I have to this camera is a Nikon N1J1, have you ever reviewed that series? I mostly have that because it was cheap and kind of a novelty.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. I have some experience with the Nikon 1 series, but have never made any videos about them.

very interesting! fab photos! :-)

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thank you.

As far as I know, Marc Newson designed the camera (I think I saw this in one of the Snappiness videos). So one should assume that Pentax put some serious effort into the design 🙂 Apparently it is not everyone's taste. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Newson

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Sure, they hired a famous designer for the exterior, but the innards are basic Pentax DSLR stripped down.

@rascalhusky8129

6 ай бұрын

Yes Mark Newson designed this camera . He designed a a chair for Madonna. He is Australian.

Nice video Matti! I had one of those with the kit zoom and also the Pentax DA* 21mm lens (perfect small lens for the camera.) I actually took it on a driving trip my wife and I did to Utah (Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion and the north rim of the Grand Canyon.) Got some excellent pictures. The main pain for me was how difficult it was to see the screen in the sun. So I did sell the camera and lenses, but I really enjoyed using it while I had it.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing. I think I'd like the 21mm lens much more than the 40mm.

@crimlarksSteve

Жыл бұрын

@@mattisulanto Yes - 40mm on APS-C is not wide enough

That's sounds like shooting my 2012 Canon 6D with live view, quite frustrating if that is the only way to shoot when you walk around.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

It's exactly like shooting on a ten year old DSLR with live view.

@davidliang1976

Жыл бұрын

@@mattisulanto love your work! Certainly different to other channels that mostly talks about sharpness, high ISO and auto focus system which is not everything to making of a good photo.

A slow camera (like the full manuals from the film era) lets you concentrate more on the image quality than quantity.

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

That is definitely true.

Good video that gets a like again, but no, no, Matti, Pentax also had the extremely small mirrorless Q-system!

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

I forgot to say that, but in the video there is a text APS-C, when I talk bout that😀

IBIS and AF motor in camera is really neat idea. It relaxes many constreins of lens design. Long flange distance as well could be used as advantage even in mirrorless systems. Perhaps put slot for slide in filter. I am sure that will be popular. Only problem with those af motors in cameras is that they are loud compared to modern in lens af but that maybe could be solved today perhaps with some stm motor and materials that make less friction noice. Would really love to se sequel of this camera. :)

@mattisulanto

10 ай бұрын

The problem is that the same AF motor would not be optimal for every lens from wide to tele. For example Sony's linear AF motors do not have rotating elements like traditional motors and it would be difficult to implement such a motor in the camera body. There is a reason why we don't have in camera AF motors any more. A short flange distance does not limit the lens designer in any way. If a camera has a short flange distance the lens designer can design a lens whose rear element is either close to the sensor or far away from the sensor.

@adokapo

10 ай бұрын

@@mattisulanto i gott that Matti. Nice points there. Just that Pentax by some reason want to stick with K mount. Perhaps they should do as Sony did and solve everything with that LA-EA5 adapter. But since they want to stick to K mount and exploit existing userbase and perhaps DSLR niche they could at least make new K mirrorless camera. Speaking of niches maybe to put some really high res sensor and slide in filters and focus just on photography like they already pretty much do. Still they could do some only video body as well with that same principle. Perhaps something like Blackmagic does with their pocket line.

3:12 Six years (!) before that the K10 already had ibis (Shake Reduction)

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Back in 2006 also the Sony A100 had IBIS.

@nielsv2025

Жыл бұрын

@@mattisulanto True! But my point was that it was not that 'ahead of its time'

Great camera, we use it in the lab all the time, it is very true to reality without flash. easy to use for our lab people. However it is kinda time to upgrade, is there anything new that is easy and produces good natural pictures?

@mattisulanto

11 күн бұрын

There are so many new cameras that are easy and produce natural pictures.

I have K-01 in yellow and I had so much fun shooting with it. Sadly, it has a problem with its shutter and no longer functions properly. The service center in Singapore can no longer fix it. 😿

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks and sorry to hear your camera can't be fixed.

hello matti, Im a pentax user from Malaysia, its really hard to find those stuff from pentax here, although you got k1 for less than 1800 at euro, we need to spend here almost 5x from the price, idk why malaysian people dont hype the pentax line up, seriously ive been with canonikon back from 2011, yet master it from poor 20d into 5dm3, but fall in with k5 easily after shoot with dng format, the colour, the sharpness, the detail is massive. If I have money to buy another pentax camera still i find it hard to buy here. Idk how excited am I if I got the oppurtunity to have k1 / kp/ kf now .

I have been shooting PENTAX for a while… most of them built like a tank. Now, I sold my very well used and old K-S2 as it feels slow and not good at my photography style compared to my K-3 ii 😅 I was thinking of a sub camera just to carry something lighter that can shoot landscapes or even portraits, the K-01 gives me the freedom of using all my K lenses, but I am a bit worried about the photo quality. I don’t plan to shot video, any insights?

@mattisulanto

2 ай бұрын

The image quality is good, nothing to worry about.

I know its mirrorless but it was never really built like a true mirrorless camera. All Pentax did was take out the OVF. LOL

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Yes, like I mentioned in the video😀

@bigrobotnewstoday1436

Жыл бұрын

@@mattisulanto I had to leave to do something and I left a comment before I watched the full video.

@hanumanguy

Жыл бұрын

I use the 40 mm XS on my K70 sometimes. The body is only 4 ounces heavier than the K-01 so anyone that likes that little pancake would be better off with the K70 which is a very capable camera.

What ? Not in P mode ? 😄

@mattisulanto

Жыл бұрын

Not this time, maybe next😀