Originally posted by Giklab Pentax K-01 Hands-on Preview: Digital Photography Review " ... First impressions
From a purely aesthetic standpoint, reactions to the Pentax K-01 are mixed here in our Seattle office. We've no doubt that the camera will attract its share of ardent admirers and passionate detractors. Yet these are secondary concerns when evaluating a camera as a photographic tool, rather than an avatar of modern design. And there's no escaping that fact that the K-01 is a heavy camera that is not particularly comfortable to hold without using a second hand supporting the lens.
We certainly applaud Pentax's rather bold decision to develop a camera that is natively compatible with its vast range of K-mount lenses. Yet the potential downside of using a camera with a contrast-detect AF system on legacy lenses designed to work with a phase-detection AF gives us pause. One would reasonably expect relatively slow AF performance. And in our relatively limited handling with an admittedly pre-production model, we find nothing to suggest AF times are going to be very rapid.
For exisiting Pentax users the trump card of the K-01 may very well lie in its from-the-ground-up live view implementation. With its mirrorless design and MF peaking capability, the K-01 has the potential to offer significantly better shooting experience with legacy manual focus lenses than the K-5. Of course,we await the chance to put a production model through our studio tests and thoroughly evaluate operational speed and image quality."