[frank]

Hey Frank, I'm curious about the 12 bit vs 14 bit output (and the new Prime M). If you have a K5, would you mind taking a raw shot from each camera of the same scene @ ISO 100 and ISO 6400?

Without ISO 80 and 14bit frames, I'm wondering how DR compares. Thanks for being our guinnea pig! Feel free to ignore me and just have fun with your new toy.

Okay, I'll take some comparison shots later when it's darker here

Frank, thank you for providing those RAW images. I downloaded a couple of the high ISO shots to compare them to what my last dSLR, a Nikon D60, was capable of, and I have to say that (all other technical considerations aside), this camera is going to be a HUGE upgrade for me, just as I'd hoped.

Other features I'm curious about, in particular, is the in-camera HDR. Since it is jpg-only I wondering if it is any good or worth using at all. But you've got a lot of requests, so if you don't get to this one, no worries.

I tried the in camera HDR, to be honest I still don't like it. It's pretty much the same as the one in K5. I'd rather take a few shots at different EV setting then merge them together w/ software.

Does the K-01 have the noise that DSLRs have in LiveView (the SR noise) or is that gone?

SR noise? Hmm, I seldom taking videos w/ K5, never really noticed this. I took a few shot videos w/ the new camera, quality seems to be good. Best of all, the video files take much less disk space now

@Frank - Any shutter lag that is significant in any way for the K-01?

No much shutter lag, but the screen does black out for a short while after each shot, as does w/ K5.

[frank]

Went out to the park this morning, it's really hot out there under the sun. The kids didn't want to play there, ended up only stayed for a very short while. Managed to snap a few shots w/ the K-01 and FA31, all I can say is that the camera makes as good photos as K5 does, clean and sharp w/ excellent white balance:

[frank]

Here are a couple photos taken inside a food court (where we Singaporean eat our breakfast, lunch and dinner too ). My lunch, fried rice:



My nephew w/ his lunch:

[ogl]

Hey Frank, I'm curious about the 12 bit vs 14 bit output (and the new Prime M). If you have a K5, would you mind taking a raw shot from each camera of the same scene @ ISO 100 and ISO 6400?

Without ISO 80 and 14bit frames, I'm wondering how DR compares. Thanks for being our guinnea pig! Feel free to ignore me and just have fun with your new toy.

I'm 100% sure that it is the same.

[ibkc]

Went out to the park this morning, it's really hot out there under the sun. The kids didn't want to play there, ended up only stayed for a very short while. Managed to snap a few shots w/ the K-01 and FA31, all I can say is that the camera makes as good photos as K5 does, clean and sharp w/ excellent white balance:

Just to clarify, were these photos made with this lens? SMC Pentax-FA 31mm F1.8 AL Limited Reviews - FA Prime Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
That bokeh is to die for. Just insane. I must have that lens. Somehow.

[london75]

Hi, first post, just have to ask are the nature shots out of the camera or touched up in Photoshop?

I can see from the EXIF you've put them through PS but no idea how much you've edited, the saturation is just how I like it out of the camera and I hate editing after if I'm honest.

I'm probably the target audience for this camera but really want to see JPEGs from the camera and video quality plus AF speed. I love my K-R but would really like to ditch a separate camcorder if poss so if this is as quick I might be able to live without the viewfinder for quality like that!

[RonHendriks1966]

So that 31mm lens is still wonderful! Great working, keep up and make it two shift working reporting to us every hour.

[raider]

@frank, if u adjust the aperture on the k-01, do u get a real time change of the exposure on the live view screen, pretty much the same as u would on a PnS say? My canon S95 does this by the way.

[frank]

I'm 100% sure that it is the same.

I just did some side by side comparison (JPG, DNG, ISO100 to 25600, manual focusing, manual exposure to keep the same Av/Tv settings, fixed dark indoor light around mid night ...), I have to say the two cameras perform quite similar. But photos from K-01 are about 1/3 to 1/2 stop darker than those from K5 (same settings). Noise levels are about the same too, but white balances are a little bit different between these two. Ended up the results from K-5 look a bit pleasing especially at higher ISO.

In my side by side testing, the results from K-01 seem a bit sharper w/ more details. JPG files from K-01 are 1-2Mb smaller than those from K-5, but they seem to be sharper w/ more details than those from K-5. There might be some focusing error here, so the results are not conclusive w/ just one single test. I used manual focus, live view on both cameras, Focus Peaking does help a lot in manual focusing. I wish Pentax could add this in K-5 by firmware upgrading).

I'll try to upload those original files somewhere on the web so you guys can take a look. Again, there might be some focusing error w/ K-5, so the pictures look a little bit not as sharp as those from K-01.

[frank]

Just to clarify, were these photos made with this lens? SMC Pentax-FA 31mm F1.8 AL Limited Reviews - FA Prime Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
That bokeh is to die for. Just insane. I must have that lens. Somehow.

Yes, that's the lens. I like the FOV w/ this lens mounted on an APSC camera It's probably my most used lens.

[frank]

Hi, first post, just have to ask are the nature shots out of the camera or touched up in Photoshop?

I can see from the EXIF you've put them through PS but no idea how much you've edited, the saturation is just how I like it out of the camera and I hate editing after if I'm honest.

I'm probably the target audience for this camera but really want to see JPEGs from the camera and video quality plus AF speed. I love my K-R but would really like to ditch a separate camcorder if poss so if this is as quick I might be able to live without the viewfinder for quality like that!

Those photos are all converted from RAW files, with certain amount of post process. But if you know me, you'd know that I don't do too much post processing. Mostly just some white-balance and exposure adjustment, auto level (mostly), add a bit curve, that's all. Each photo should take less than 1 to 3min. If it'd take longer to process, I'd delete it and move on to the next one

[frank]

So that 31mm lens is still wonderful! Great working, keep up and make it two shift working reporting to us every hour.

Thanks Ron. I probably wont have much time in the next week or two. But I'd try my best to answer questions.

Won't be able to take any photos until the coming weekend, that's for sure.

[frank]

@frank, if u adjust the aperture on the k-01, do u get a real time change of the exposure on the live view screen, pretty much the same as u would on a PnS say? My canon S95 does this by the way.

When the camera is set to Av mode, the screen brightness (or exposure) would keep the same when a different aperture is set, camera would adjust shutter speed or ISO (or both together depend on the settings) so to keep proper exposure (thus screen brightness). The screen only gets darker or brighter when I minus or add some EV. Hope this answered your question?

[zeitlos]

Hey Frank,

thank you very much for your efforts! You seem to be the only one that has already gotten this new camera
Could you say something about the AF when making videos? If I'm right this question has not been answered and people from Germany also are wondering whether the K-01 does have this function or not...

Thanks again for your testing (and the marvelous pics!)

[frank]

Hey Frank,

thank you very much for your efforts! You seem to be the only one that has already gotten this new camera
Could you say something about the AF when making videos? If I'm right this question has not been answered and people from Germany also are wondering whether the K-01 does have this function or not...

Thanks again for your testing (and the marvelous pics!)

I thought I've answered this question before...

By camera default setting you can do AF in video by pressing the AF/AE-L button. This can be changed to pressing the shutter button. AF speed is about the same as you do AF w the camera, but the lenses I tested (FA77,31, DA40XS) all have quite a bit AF noise, this would be recorded in the video, so I guess it's better just do MF for video, or use some lenses which make less AF noise.