Pentax Q-S1 Review
Shooting Modes
Pentax Q-S1 Mode Dial
The Pentax Q-S1 operates very much like a Pentax DSLR. The feature set, menu system and control panel are largely the same. There are a few additions like the Quick Dial and the leaf shutter (in some lenses), and some omissions mostly in the area of exposure and drive modes and custom functions. From the point of view of operating the camera, the Pentax Q-S1 would be a fine second camera for any Pentax DSLR shooter.
Exposure Modes
The exposure mode dial is easy to operate even when holding the camera with one hand. It has the following settings:
- AUTO: Auto picture mode. The camera analyzes the scene and selects what it determines to be the optimal shooting mode from these modes: Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Night Scene Portrait, Sunset, Blue Sky, Forest
- SCN: Lets the user pick from 21 scene modes displayed on the monitor. Two of these modes are HDR (high dynamic range) modes, where the camera combines three different exposures into one HDR image.
- BC: Blur Control, creates the effect of a shallow depth of field. Only works with autofocus lenses.
- M: Metered manual exposure mode. The user sets shutter speed and aperture, the camera meter is active and indicates how much the exposure set is off the metered value. If the ISO is set to auto in this mode, it is labeled "TAv".
- Av: Aperture priority: The user sets the aperture with the e-dial, the camera sets a shutter speed to match (and ISO if auto-ISO is engaged). This is the mode we used the most
- Tv: Time priority: The user sets the shutter speed with the e-dial. The camera sets a matching aperture (and ISO if auto-ISO is engaged)
- P: Program mode. The camera sets shutter speed and aperture (and ISO if auto-ISO is engaged). Turning the e-dial will either shift the exposure off the program line (but maintain the metered exposure) or bring the camera into hyper program. The desired behavior (program shift or hyper program) is set through customization of the e-dial in the menu system
- Movie mode.
Pentax Q-S1 scene mode menu
Further detail on some of the modes follows.
Manual Exposure Mode
Setting of the shutter speed and aperture is assisted by an easy to read exposure bar calibrated in on-third stops on the monitor. The histogram is also available.
The shutter speed is set by turning the e-dial. The aperture is set by first hitting the Av button and then turning the e-dial.
Hyper Program
Hyper program has been with Pentax since the days of auto-focus film SLR cameras and we are pleased to see it continued on the Pentax Q System. The idea is simple but useful. In Program exposure mode, if you want to keep the aperture at a set value for a series of shot you just turn the e-dial to the desired aperture. The camera is now effectively in Av mode and will only change the shutter speed (and ISO if auto-ISO is enabled) from now on. A press of the green button brings the camera back into traditional Program mode. If you'd rather set and hold a shutter speed, the e-dial can be customized to do that instead of changing into Av mode (via page 3 of the record menu).
By default, the command wheel will shift the program line. In order to access hyper program, you must customize the role of the control wheel via the green button customization sub-menu in the third page of the record menu. Otherwise, the camera will continue to set both shutter speed and aperture with a shifted program line. A press of the green button will reset metering to follow the program line.
White Balance
We found auto white balance very accurate and we never resorted to any other setting except in artificial lighting. The Pentax Q-S1 does offer all the detailed settings of a DSLR, including presets for sunlight, shade, etc, and fine tuning of same. There is no Kelvin setting. White balance can be set manually by shooting, say, a grey card. The improved white balance system / algorithms that we've found on the K-3 and K-S1 have not made their way to the Q-S1, so the camera may otherwise struggle a bit in tungsten light.
Drive Modes
The following drive modes are available:
- Single shot
- High (5 fps) and low (1.5 fps) continuous shooting (high is not available when shooting RAW)
- Self timer with 12 and 2 second delay
- Remote control shooting with no delay or 3 seconds delay
- Remote control continuous shooting
- Three step exposure bracketing with and without remote control. The steps can be set to 1/3 EV or 1/2 EV up to an adjustment of +/- 3EV
Control Panel
One press of the Info button brings up the control panel in the traditional Pentax style with large, easy-to-read, icons. This is a very convenient way to set many of the image parameters. The parameter selected for change has the e-dial symbol superimposed on the icon. Icons are grayed out if they do not pertain to the shooting mode currently in effect.
From the control panel you can set the following:
- Custom image. Select from 11 finishing tones and fine tune the settings (see below)
- Digital filter: Select from 11 filters and fine tune the settings
- HDR (High Dynamic Range, only available when shooting JPG) off/auto/level 1 and 2
- Highlight correction off/auto/on
- Shadow correction off/auto/on
- Meter pattern: Multi-segment, center weighted, or spot
- ND (Neutral Density) filter on/off
- Focus mode: Auto focus/manual focus
- Focus peaking on/off
- Distortion correction on/off
- Aspect ratio: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, or 1:1
- File format: JPG, RAW, or RAW+ (save in both formats, RAW and JPG)
- JPG resolution and quality, three levels of resolution (12MP, 7MP, 3MP), three levels of compression
- Shake reduction on/off
The options on the control panel differ in movie mode, which we discuss on the movie mode page.
Custom Image
There are 11 ways of setting the finishing tones, the so-called Custom Image settings Bright, natural, portrait, landscape, vibrant, radiant, muted, bleach bypass, reversal film, monochrome, and cross processing.
For each of these settings some or all of these image parameters can be fine-tuned: Saturation, hue, high/low key adjustment, contrast and sharpness/fine sharpness.
As has become the norm with Pentax: How to perform the various adjustments are self explanatory. A glance on the screen tells you what button/dial to use.
Digital Filters
There are 11 digital filters to pick from when shooting JPG. The filter menu is disabled when shooting RAW but is available for in-camera processing of RAW files into JPGs.
The effect of the filters can be fine tuned. Which parameters can be tweaked depends on the specific filter.
 |  |
| 11 digital filters | Fine tuning the Toy filter |
The 11 filters are: Toy camera, high contrast, shading, slim, HDR, invert color, extract color, color (the traditional film-era filters yellow, red, green etc.), water color, posterization, fish-eye.
Custom Functions
The Pentax Q-S1 has 16 custom functions that let advanced users customize its behavior in various situations.
- Lens Shutter Options: Lens shutter only / Lens and electronic shutter (camera decides what to use) / Electronic shutter only
- Sensitivity steps: 1 EV step / as EV steps is set
- AE-L with AF Locked. Default is to not lock auto exposure when focus is locked
- Link AE to AF point. Default is to not take the AF point into account when measuring exposure
- Auto Bracketing Order
- WB When Using Flash: Options are Auto White Balance (default), "Unchanged" and "Flash"
- AWB in Tungsten Light: Subtle correction (default) or strong correction
- AF Release Options: Focus priority (default) or release priority. The latter allows a picture to be taken before proper focus is achieved
- AF with Remote Control: Off (default), On
- Focus ring in AF mode (Enabled (Quick-shift) / disabled)
- Flash When Retracted: Allow to fire (default) / Disallow
- Release While Charging: Off (default) / On
- Color space: sRGB / AdobeRGB
- Save rotation info: On / Off
- Save Menu Location: Reset (default), Save
- Auto SR Off: Enabled (SR will be off when using the self-timer or an IR remote) / Disabled
We did not notice any exposure difference between using the leaf shutter or the electronic shutter so we recommend to keep the latter enabled so as to get access to shutter speeds all the way up to 1/8000s. The leaf shutter is only beneficial when shooting at slow shutter speeds or using flash.
