Hi everyone!

After a spur of inspiration I decided I wanted a camera to replace the camera on my phone. I've done a lot of photograhpy in the past, mainly using DSLRs from Canon. Nowdays I shoot everything with the camera on my smartphone. So I wanted something small enough that I would actually bring along, with interchangeable lenses, with manual controls and I didn't want to pay a fortune. After spending yesterday looking around the internet I found a nice kit price on a new Q-S1 with the 02 lens for 2190 SEK, roughly 250 USD.

Having read the reviews some love it and some hate it. I also read that changing some of the standard settings would increase the quality or usefulness of the camera. I know this is all very personal preferences and depending on what type of photography you do.

But any trick or tip you might have is welcome. Also is there anything I should prioritize on my shopping list?

[Ole]

I assume you have already checked out our review. I'd recommend getting the lens hood if it wasn't included in your kit. And also get a spare battery. Battery life of the Q cameras is kind of short.

[roberrl]

+1 to both of Ole's suggestions.

[TER-OR]

+2 to Ole's suggestions.

Also get an -01 lens and hood. You'll be glad you did, that lens turns the Q into a little rangefinder you can slide in your pocket. It's well worth the money.

[Na Horuk]

I know this is all very personal preferences and depending on what type of photography you do.

Well said. You can tell us what you want to do, then we can give you tips on how to achieve it. But if you are just beginning, I recommend you take photos of everything. And then really look at the photos! Take a photo of a piece of cake, and then think about it, how could it have been done to be better. How do the good photos, ones in adverts, magazines look like? At the beginning, its mostly about experimenting and learning.
Photo theory about Exposure (Shutter speed, aperture, ISO) is also something you should read about. Plenty of blogs and youtube videos about it, and real books as well. This is the foundation of everything else, Depth of field, motion blur, light and shadows, finally even creative photos. But if you shot with DSLRs before, you probably know a lot of this already, and the Q allows a lot of things, if not everything, a DSLR would. Just go right ahead from where you left off

And welcome to Pentaxland!

[CWRailman]

You may get some idea of the Q series and how it performs by watching this video. Yes it's about the Q7 but there really is no difference in operation between the Q7 and the QS1. I do disagree with him on the Q's ability to produce good images at high ISO. Unless you have bad eye sight or like noise in your images, I have not found anything to be acceptable over ISO 800.

You Tube

You Tube

[CarlJF]

Make good use of the quick dial on teh front of the camera. Set it to your most used camera settings. That's make it very quick to change settings without having to go into the menu. This make excellent for casual shots since you can quickly adapt to almost any situation.

An underestimated feature of the Q is the 1/2000 sync speed of the built in flash. Set the flash to "forced" but only when out, with a -1 or -2 exposure flash compensation. You then have a fill flash on demand just by popping it out. This 1/2000 sync speed make it useful in almost any situation since you won't have to really worry about the sync speed. This makes it quite convenient to use compared to the slow built in flash of DSLR. It's quite useful outside on sunny days when you can harsh shadows on portraits.

With the tips above, you can switch to shooting a landscape to a quick casual portait in a matter a seconds. Just turn the quick dial to portrait mode, pop up the flash, and you're good to go. And it's just as fast to go back to landcape mode after that...

This is what I like the most about the Q line (apart the small size). Their ability to quickly get ready for drastically different shooting conditions makes them highly effective camera in dynamic situations (family gathering, kid's birthday, vacations...).

[reh321]

Make good use of the quick dial on the front of the camera. Set it to your most used camera settings. That's make it very quick to change settings without having to go into the menu. This make excellent for casual shots since you can quickly adapt to almost any situation.

This may be a "Your Mileage May Vary" situation.

I tried using the quick dial for several different useful things - and regularly, after I took a picture I discovered I didn't have the settings I had expected because somehow the quick dial had been moved and changed them (*). So now I have mine set to control focus peaking, because that is really obvious on the LCD ... and it does no harm if the setting changes.


(*) for example, one time I had it set to control aspect, and somehow I didn't notice I was getting a square (1:1) image until I had taken the picture

Wow! You folks sure know how to make someone feel welcome. Thank you for all the extensive answers. I'll try to respond to them in order.

I'd recommend getting the lens hood if it wasn't included in your kit. And also get a spare battery. Battery life of the Q cameras is kind of short.

I don't think it is. A quick look at ebay tells me there are multiple versions, is it worth buying the original Pentax Tulip or could I buy any of the various non original? I.e. any bad experiences from non original hoods or other formed hoods.

You can tell us what you want to do, then we can give you tips on how to achieve it.

Looking at my fotos the past year I take mainly family photos, but I do manage to take some closeups as well as wider shots of nature and cities. So with that in mind I would like to take better family photos, use DOF to isolate my subjects from the background. And probably continue to experiment with structures/shapes that I find.

The Blunty videos are great—he really "gets" the Q.

Haha, yes I think his videos had a huge impact on my decision to buy the Q-S1


As for your other tips I will give them a go once I have the camera in my hands. Again, thanks for all the great tips!

[roberrl]

I have a uWinKa UPH-SBA40.5 which works fine on my 02 lens. It has survived a couple of light impacts pretty well.
It came from Hong Kong and cost around $6 including postage.

[BigMackCam]

I do disagree with him on the Q's ability to produce good images at high ISO. Unless you have bad eye sight or like noise in your images, I have not found anything to be acceptable over ISO 800.

If you're prepared to do some gentle post-processing, I think you can get good quality images from the Q-7 and QS-1 at ISO 3200 or even higher, depending on viewing and printing size and distance (no, it won't look good when pixel-peeping, but viewed realistically, no problem). I just took the attached photo of one of my kitchen drawers in dim natural light at ISO 3200 in RAW DNG format. A little noise reduction, resize and sharpening, and it's just fine (to my eyes, at least). There's still some grain visible, but nothing objectionable, and this way sufficient detail is retained (you'll have to trust me on the detail - PF's picture hosting softens attached images significantly!).

[johnmflores]

Looking at my fotos the past year I take mainly family photos, but I do manage to take some closeups as well as wider shots of nature and cities. So with that in mind I would like to take better family photos, use DOF to isolate my subjects from the background.

You'll definitely want the 01 Prime, shoot it wide open, and make sure that the background is far away from your subject if you want any chance of isolating your subject from the background. The small sensor of the Q makes this harder but it is doable with some care.

Also, learn how to shoot in manual mode with the fill flash. You can underexpose the background and light your subject with the flash for better isolation.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

You may get some idea of the Q series and how it performs by watching this video. Yes it's about the Q7 but there really is no difference in operation between the Q7 and the QS1. I do disagree with him on the Q's ability to produce good images at high ISO. Unless you have bad eye sight or like noise in your images, I have not found anything to be acceptable over ISO 800. Pentax Q7 Review - My Favouritest Camera JUST GOT BETTER! - YouTube

Here is a previously posted image of yours truly at iso 3200, (Q-S1 + 01 lens at f:2) Not for pixel peeping but otherwise not a bad image. In film days one would have been hard pressed to do that at iso 800.

[The Squirrel Mafia]

Set the camera to shoot in the RAW+ mode to get a jpeg & RAW file at the same time. You'll be glad you did when you start reviewing your pictures on the PC & you come across that one image that looks amazing. Suddenly you realize that you actually have a RAW file for that image & BAM! You can tweak it even more! Yay!

There are some images that I've shot in the past with an older Sony A200 DSLR & a Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR that I now kick myself for not having a RAW file to work with. Live & learn.

[BigMackCam]

Here is a previously posted image of yours truly at iso 3200, (Q-S1 + 01 lens at f:2) Not for pixel peeping but otherwise not a bad image. In film days one would have been hard pressed to do that at iso 800.

I love that example, Heinrich - much better than mine, as it's a real photograph and not just a quick test. At normal viewing distances, that could easily be resized considerably larger and still be considered excellent. There's nothing wrong with a little grain