[isaacc7]

I'm sure a lot of the K-01 detractors would complain about bad ergonomics on one of my favorite cameras that I've owned, the Horseman LE. There's no viewfinder! Long lenses won't work well! You can't hold it steady! Blah blah blah. Different kinds of shooting lend themselves to different kinds of cameras.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

I think the K-01 is perfectly usable. I don't like its style and the concept itself, but I don't see anything that would prevent me from using it.

"You know, once you muscle your way past the gag reflex, all kinds of possibilities open up."
Emile - Ratatouille

[ibkc]

I'm sure a lot of the K-01 detractors would complain about bad ergonomics on one of my favorite cameras that I've owned, the Horseman LE. There's no viewfinder! Long lenses won't work well! You can't hold it steady! Blah blah blah. Different kinds of shooting lend themselves to different kinds of cameras.

Very well said. Beautiful camera, BTW. That's one kind I do not have: a large-format camera. I am looking at getting the Harman Titan 4x5 Pinhole Kit. It is nice and light, which is fairly important for me, and the images I'm seeing coming from it are very nice

[rparmar]

They're focused on being different and so far they are successful beyond our wildest fears.

Longer post required so I''ll stick in a quote:

"Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are."
-- Quentin Crisp

[Wheatfield]

I'm sure a lot of the K-01 detractors would complain about bad ergonomics on one of my favorite cameras that I've owned, the Horseman LE. There's no viewfinder! Long lenses won't work well! You can't hold it steady! Blah blah blah. Different kinds of shooting lend themselves to different kinds of cameras.

I'm sure that K-01 buyers are looking forwards to needing dark cloths so that they can see their view screens too.

[zach_manchester]

Longer post required so I''ll stick in a quote:

"Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are."
-- Quentin Crisp

A quote from Crisp means that the K-01 is definitely destined for my handbag!

[isaacc7]

I'm sure that K-01 buyers are looking forwards to needing dark cloths so that they can see their view screens too.

I usually only needed a hood to focus adequately. I only needed a dark cloth for macro work and tricky DOF situations with movements. With the much brighter screen and autofocus, I am quite sure I won't need any help at all with the k-01. Haven't had any appreciable problems with my Sony digicam or my iPhone for that matter. I shot for a year with an LCD exclusively in Yemen. Please, try to school me on harsh light, I dare you How many pictures are taken without a viewfinder these days? How many in the history of photography were taken without viewfinders? Most? Certainly a tremendous amount. I'm going to turn this around and say that people who say that pictures can't be taken with the k-01 outside have a lot less experience with "serious" cameras than they think. Or at the very least, they have a very limited idea of the scope of camera types and ways to take pictures.

So yes, OK, there will be times that sunlight will make it difficult to see the screen. Remember, the sensor is quite a bit smaller than even 35mm. A rudimentary knowledge of DOF should carry you through those situations just fine. If it's that sunny out, you're bound to be using at least a middle aperture. With smaller sensors and manual focus (auto focus will cope just fine in most situations), it is quite easy to shoot like they did with press cameras back in the day. If you have to, you could even put up the wire frame to guide your composition. After a while you don't even need that. Of course most of the time the LCD will give you far more information than the wire frame could. Remember, that is for a worst case scenario. No, that doesn't work for longer lenses very well but it works just fine for scenes and environmental portraiture. People griping about not being able to see are really griping that they can't look through the camera. Of course you can see, you only have to look. The old press cameras make it clear that you can take great pictures without looking through the lens and you don't have to have the camera against your face. Of course most of the time you will be able to see through the lens with the k-01, you shouldn't feel helpless if occasionally you can't see absolutely everything on the LCD.

If you don't like shooting like that on occasion, then fine, the K-01 isn't for you. If however you don't like using a keyhole viewfinder that makes it feel like you have blinders on (that might describe me...), or if you just prefer looking at a screen, the K-01 will be fantastic for you. Add in the video, the more accurate focus, and the clean layout and there are a lot of reasons why the k-01 is great for casual to more advanced shooters.

Sorry Wheatfield, your comment was a legitimate zing, but the carping from people that aren't interested in the K-01 is making me a little cross. Pointing out that doing critical follow focus with a long lens in bright sunlight could be difficult at times with the k-01 sounds a lot like dismissing the Horseman LE because you have to use it on a tripod. If you are complaining about it, it isn't the right camera for you.

[TaoMaas]

Isn't bright sunlight about the LAST place you'd expect to find a "serious" photographer? Most of the really good shooters I know do most of their work in fairly edgy lighting conditions. Here's a link to the winners of the monthly contest on this site: http://https://www.pentaxforums.com/gallery/?title=monthly-photo-contest-winners&c=34&page=2

How many couldn't have been taken with a K-01?

[zach_manchester]

For what it's worth - here's why I think the K-01 is for me.

My first dslr was an ist DL2. I wouldn't call myself a serious photographer (my photos kind of speak for themselves in that aspect Flickr: Zach Manchester UK's Photostream). But I do want good quality. From there, I upgraded to a K10d. When the K20d came out, I bought the Samsung GX20 as I couldn't justify spending a few hundred pounds more on essentially the exact same camera. Bought it new on eBay and even got £100 cash back from Samsung. So in essence, I nabbed a K20d for £210 2 months after release. I'm no snob, I didn't mind having a Samsung at all.

I would have bought a NX200, but I have invested in a range of K mount lenses and didn't want to buy an adaptor and lose out on many of the functions.

I would love to have a K5 and considered it. But the HD codec it uses it ageing and not efficient. And it's pricey.

I would have preferred that the K-01 had an optical viewfinder, but I haven't missed one using my iPhone.

The fact that the K-01 is a slightly stripped down K5, but with improvements in relation to stereo sound, a more efficient codec, a wind filter on the mic, comes in at £679 with the 40mm lens (which will retail at £150 alone), makes it a very worthy and substantial upgrade to my GX20. And it takes my lenses. My order was placed today. And from what I gather, it looks like a 5 March release here in the UK (but could change...)

I am happy the K-01 is more simplified than the K5 - there are functions that I don't fully understand even on my GX20, so I don't mess with them. Does this mean I am an awful photographer? I don't think so. I don't want to fanny about with settings - I'm more concerned with taking a photo. What I do might not be everyone else's cup of tea, but I'm happy with the photos and mash-ups I make - that's the important thing, right?

My partner is terrified of my GX20 as it's too complicated for him - I see his point. It will be nice for him to use the K-01, especially when we go places on holiday. Maybe, I might get a photo of myself on holiday, as it's always me who has to take the photos as he balks at the idea of even touching the GX20.

Initially, I was taken aback at the design. But it has really grown on me.

Marc Newson had me in mind when he designed the K-01. And I thank him for that. I don't know if he had the serious photographers in mind though - you know, the ones who think the kit is more important than the end result. But, you can't please everyone.

So, it's a winner: for me, my partner, Marc Newson and indeed Pentax, because I have come back to them instead of sticking with Samsung.

[monochrome]

Sorry Wheatfield, your comment was a legitimate zing, but the carping from people that aren't interested in the K-01 is making me a little cross. Pointing out that doing critical follow focus with a long lens in bright sunlight could be difficult at times with the k-01 sounds a lot like dismissing the Horseman LE because you have to use it on a tripod. If you are complaining about it, it isn't the right camera for you.

You know, I like this Forum and I like reading and sometimes exchanging posts with the K-01 antagonists, but I'm really getting tired of the implication that if I buy this camera or like the design or don't demand my AE-L works just the way it "should" that I must then not be a serious photographer. I guess I'm not a serious photographer. No training, no courses, never sold a print, don't post much here. SIGH

Part of me wants to say "Well then just STFU and buy another K-5 or Nikon FF Dwhatever" and part of me wants to just lie low, open the box Day1 and take some blow-me-away hand held shots with a Takumar 500/4.5 at Noon. Neither is going to happen.

But what I'm going to do (after I shoot with normal lenses and normal subjects and post my review and a video of how to hold and use the damn thing) is hand it to my wife and see what she does.

Aside: A few minutes ago she asked why the 4 lenses wrapped in foil were sitting on the windowsill. After I matter-of-factly explained Rhodium yellowing and gift-lenses, she simply replied, "Oh. Cool - for you."

She's perfectly happy with the A40 I gave her for a birthday after she literally whined, "I want a nice camera, too-oo-oo!!" In fact she smugly compares my keeper ratio to hers, which is somewhere north of 99%. My wife is as serious about her output as I am - but she doesn't need technology to print larger than 5x7 and she isn't a snob. This Forum can laugh about the A40 - and at the time I think lots of members did - but it has a wealth of manual controls behind the Green Button. There just isn't as much manual control as a dSLR. IIRC it has the same10Mp CCD sensor, mechanical SR and imaging engine as my K10D.

Sound familiar?

[rparmar]

My wife is as serious about her output as I am - but she doesn't need technology to print larger than 5x7 and she isn't a snob.

This does sound familiar. And the best solution is an MFT camera. Since Pentax hasn't produced anything to compete, I'll be buying another three products in the MFT system in the next month. Not only for me, but my wife and daughter. Sorry, but the K-01 doesn't cut it. Especially for casual shooters. The only appeal it has is for those already fixated on the K-mount.

[stevebrot]

Is Engadget outside the bubble?

They refer to the K-01 design as "Michael-Graves-meets-Fisher-Price".

I laughed out-loud when I read that. Very appropriate and accurate statement!!! Thank you Engadget!


Steve

[stevebrot]

And remember the derision and mocking when Apple did this?

Source: VC&G | iMac Turns Ten

We all know how that turned out...

I actually liked the original iMac and still do along with its colorful stablemates. What I did not like was its ugly, overpriced predecessors and a few of its ugly and overpriced descendents.


Steve

[stevebrot]

As a matter of fact, the raised nubs on Apple keyboards are on different letters (F, J) than all other keyboards (D, K).

...ummm...my keyboards all have the nubs on F, J and I don't own any Apple products. I think the convention is rooted in helping the user index their hand to proper location on the home row for touch typing.


Steve

(...still remembers...the first day of typing class. 30 Underwood manual beasts wildly clacking "fjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjf...")

[stevebrot]

I think the K-01 is perfectly usable. I don't like its style and the concept itself, but I don't see anything that would prevent me from using it.

"You know, once you muscle your way past the gag reflex, all kinds of possibilities open up."
Emile - Ratatouille

Well put and my feeling exactly, though I don't know if I actually gagged.


Steve