[Scorpio71GR]

I finally gave into my courisity and picked up a Red Q-S1 double zoom kit with the 02 and 06 lenses. It is on its way and will be here in a few days. I have been going back and forth with the Q and a M4/3 camera for a long time. In the end I went with the Q for its size and well its a Pentax. I really wanted something that I can just grab and take with me. Even my K-01 with the 40xs does not always fit this. I wold like to pick up a few extra batteries. I have been looking on Amazon, anyone have any suggestions?

For those who have the Q and 01 prime I was wondering if you use the 01 more than the 02 zoom. I like the size of the Q and the 01, but the 01 seems pretty high still around $140 to $200 USD. In the end if I really like the Q I most likelywould get the 08. The 08 is one the major attractions to the Q for me. I have not seen much else like it in mirrorless. There is the 03 fisheye which seems interesting as well. I love my 10-17, it rarely stays home.

In the end I could not find anything else that could compare with the price of the Q. For $350 US I got a brand new camera and two zoom lenses.

[caliscouser]

Congratulations and welcome to the Q late-adopters club!

I use either DSTE or Wasabi for third-party batteries. They all seem much the same and are not as good as the OEM's but they get the job done.

01 vs 02. Depends on what you like to shoot. 01 is the sharpest lens in the Q lineup and more pocket-able.
02 is a fine lens, great walk-around focal range, underrated I would say. It's not as sharp as the 01, but close to the 06.

[PJ1]

You will have fun with the Q-S1. I got an original Q a few months ago. I still am not getting the best from it, bit that is mostly down to me. The 03 takes some practice but it is worth it when I get it right.

[barondla]

Welcome to the Q family. Can't answer your 01 vs 02 question since my 02 and 06 arrived yesterday. Can't imagine doing without the 01. Been shooting it since it came out.

You will want the fisheye. I use the Q with 03 more than my 10-17. It is a little picky to focus. Use the magnify or focus peaking and all is well. I also use the 05 Unique wideangle. Makes an incredible environmental wideangle macro lens!

You will be amazed how much smaller the Q is than the K-01. Shocking difference. Like my yellow K-01, but love the Q's.

Get plenty of batteries. Q's don't last long on a single battery. I have used the Wasabi aftermarket batteris. Not quite as good as oem Pentax, but close. Prepare for maximum fun!
Thanks
barondla

[normhead]

I took advantage of the recent price cuts and bought a Q S-1 as well. Nice little camera. We already have some stunning shots with it. We have what ever the 702-- and a Q to K adapter.

[johnmflores]

The red Q-S1 is a smart looking camera! Congrats!

The 02 zoom is fine for it's focal length, a standard kit lens. The 06 is a tiny wonder!

Regarding the 01 - it's a great little lens, much better than the 02. So save up your pennies for one.

Enjoy!

[geomez]

I too have a red and gun metal Q-S1. I have the 01, 02, 03, 06, and K to Q adapter. I never use the 02. I don't like it and I don't like the IQ (though it does have the best build quality of all my Q lenses). For me, 90% of my shots are with the 01 and 06. They are really good lenses. I really want to like the 03. I have the DA 10-17 and was hoping for something similar, but it's not. Fixed aperture and extremely difficult to manually focus perfectly. The throw is too small and too not properly dampened. Also the low res LCD makes manually focusing something that wide extremely difficult. I do recommend the K to Q adapter. Start with a Fotodiox with aperture control. They're dirt cheap and fun to play with.
Oh, and congrats!

Edit: Forgot to say that I have six batteries, four of them are Wasabi. Work great.

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Last edited by geomez; 02-04-2017 at 12:39 AM.

[johnmflores]

I really want to like the 03. I have the DA 10-17 and was hoping for something similar, but it's not. Fixed aperture and extremely difficult to manually focus perfectly. The throw is too small and too not properly dampened.

I dampen my 03 with an elastic band I got when purchasing celery.

[UncleVanya]

The title of this if not carefully read seems to suggest a new Q model the Q-S1is has been announced. Sadly that's not the case. I'm glad for your joy but feel my sadness over what could have been. Lol.

[pcake]

congrats on your camera!

i, too, use wasabi batteries for every camera i've wanted spare batteries for. they've worked out well.

[BigMackCam]

Congratulations on the Q-S1! I've never tried one, but I have the Q-7 (which is basically the same) and it's a fantastic little camera. You'll love it, I'm sure.

Re the 01... I may be unique in not being a huge fan of the 01. It produces an awful lot of barrel distortion, and while that can be corrected in-camera and in post-processing, I sometimes feel that the results don't look quite right for close-up shots. Also, the field of view is slightly odd on the larger sensor Q7 / Q-S1... equivalent to using a 40mm lens on full frame, it sits between the classic 35mm and 50mm wide / normal views. I don't know... it just feels a little strange to me in use. It works better with the original Q, in my opinion, where the field of view is much closer to that of a "normal" 50mm lens. Having said that, it's undeniably fast, sharp and very compact.

As for the 02... Some have criticised it for not being all that sharp, and maybe it isn't biting sharp, but it produces nice images - and with some sharpening in post, they'll look as sharp as you want. It suffers from heavy distortion at the wide end, and - like the 01 - this can be tricky to correct on close-up images; however, at the same focal length as the 01 it has less distortion (and even less at the more natural-feeling 10mm focal length). It's slower and has a variable aperture, but the focal length range is really useful - equivalent to the classic 24-70 on full frame. I use mine an awful lot more than I use the 01.

[CarlG]

Congrats! Use it, think through what you want to do, enjoy it and try to ignore the whiners on the list.

[gylfimag]

I have the Q-S1 with the 01, 02 and 06 lenses and they are all quite good and have their uses. The 01 and 06 have somewhat better IQ than the 02 but the 02 is still fairly good. The only drawback with the 01 is a surprising amount of barrel distortion, otherwise it is excellent. If you shoot jpegs the camera takes care of that but with raw files it is more of a hassle although they can be adjusted for this distortion relatively easily. I frankly don't see why Pentax could not design this lens so this was not the case, prime lenses that are close to normal focal length are typically fairly distortion free. If you can live with this, the 01 is considerably smaller than the 02, brighter and with better IQ. The combination is much smaller and lighter than the K-01 with the DA 40mm XS. I also find the field of view of that lens on APS-C a bit too narrow, the 01 on Q-S1 is considerably wider. The battery life of the Q-S1 is considerably shorter than that of the K-01 so an extra battery or two is a good investment.

[BigMackCam]

I frankly don't see why Pentax could not design this lens so this was not the case, prime lenses that are close to normal focal length are typically fairly distortion free.

The thing is, it's not a normal focal length lens. While the field of view from it on a Q-S1 may be similar to a normal lens on full-frame, it's actually an ultra-wide 8.5mm...

[gylfimag]

The thing is, it's not a normal focal length lens. While the field of view from it on a Q-S1 may be similar to a normal lens on full-frame, it's actually an ultra-wide 8.5mm...

A normal lens has a focal length that is equal to the diagonal of the sensor. For full frame that is 43.3mm and for APS-C 28.2mm. For the Q-S1 and Q7 it is 9.3mm, for the Q and Q10 normal would be 7.7mm. So 8.5mm is pretty close to normal and certainly not ultra-wide. A normal focal length lens is generally the simplest one to produce and thus they are usually inexpensive and perform well optically.