[rdj92807]

The K-01 needs better video:
- Less rolling shutter
- Less noise in audio
- Better AF recording movies
- Wind cut filter

[Traditional]

The K-01 needs better video:
- Less rolling shutter
- Less noise in audio
- Better AF recording movies
- Wind cut filter

Let us hope that a coming K-02 model has all these various, exciting, features!

[ChopperCharles]

Without AF - it will be marginal product. With AF - it's useless.

Without AF it's useless. With AF it might actually sell.

That being said, I have zero interest in the GXR, I'd rather see a K-02.

Charles.

[Louicio]

Please Pentax make all future cameras have a shutter sound identical to the Z-1!!!! It's FREAKING awesome! I love it!

[mrNewt]

I want a K-02! I'm not picky because I know that whatever they will put in it will be good anyway.
The only thing that I might prefer is a weatherproof body and rubber seal for the lenses ON THE K-mount!!

I do not want a GXR with a K mount ... is almost $1000 for the body and another probably $600 - $800 for the mount part. And for those who want EVF, another $600.
With those kind of money I'm better off buying a K body and some fancy lenses. A K-mount will be beneficial for those who already have the GXR.
Not willing to cough up so much money for an entire new system.

So, Pentax, please keep the K-0X line and improve on it!!!
Oh and expand the XS lens series!!!

[Na Horuk]

Is it possible that Pentax lowered the price of the K-01 to get it to sell a lot, because they have XS lenses ready? That would make sense. I mean, if the K-01 was really a finished line, they could have stayed with a relatively high price. I'm thinking they made the price so much lower to get people to buy it, even if its at a loss to Pentax, just in hopes that if a lot of people have the K-01, they might also shell out money on XS lenses? Or is that just a crazy theory.. I think the K-01 was a great experiment, but a K-02 would be a real knockout

[THoog]

If they were going to do anything else with lenses, wouldn't they have mentioned it on the roadmap? We have a quote, somewhere, of a Pentax official saying he had not seen the dedicated K-01 lens "on any map". That sounds like "no" to me.

Personally, I think the price slashing was exactly what it appears to be - getting rid of inventory that had been gathering dust for months. I just don't think we are going to see a K-02; maybe another mirrorless K-mount in a couple years, but 2 months of fire-sale popularity doesn't erase 10 months of flop. Even if Black Friday changed their minds, that's only two months ago, and it takes at least a year to produce a new camera.

[monochrome]

it is their Sauce Bearnaise Syndrome

I think Pentax was absolutely blind-sided by the negative reaction to the K-01, and they're never going near a K-mount mirrorless again. Assuming the image circle of a Q lens will cover a larger sensor I think Q is their mirrorless mount. K mount is their dSLR mount and 645 is their MF mount.

That's all they got.

[Na Horuk]

But I think that the K-01 is selling well now, with the extremely low cost, and most people who buy it love it. I mean, how many complaints were there on these forums? The K-01 is a very stable camera. Who knows, but it would be a shame to just bury the K-0# line

[NickLarsson]

I want a K-02 with a Speed Booster inside

[Doundounba]

Personally, I'm very happy with my (recent, well-priced) K-01 purchase. But I do feel that Pentax made two mistakes with the K-01: it's launch price and it's launch auto-focus performance. The first was possibly caused by misjudging the worth of the "designer" label to camera buyers. The second was fixed with the latest firmware.

What I wonder is what is their production cost? To me this camera (or its replacement) should be significantly less expensive that a K-30, but it would still be a good buy in today's market at around $500-$550 with the 40XS pancake. Around $400 it's a steal, and at the sometimes-seen $300 it's crazy cheap. Of course, there are other areas of possible improvement - tilting screen please! - but what is unfortunate is that, to quote a bad publicity jingle, you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression. So if they could make a K-02 with minimal new investment and sell it at a profit around $550, then it would seem to be a relative no-brainer, IMHO. I think Pentax could try to float a K-02 by investing fairly little new money and see how the "new" camera is received by doing this:

- give the design a more retro look, while keeping the physical shape and internals almost the same;
- do one more major rev of the firmware, perhaps concentrating mostly on video features and performance;
- add a tilting LCD;
- call that the K-02, launch at $550 with the 40XS and see if it sells...

To me this camera, a *slightly* tweaked K-01 with minimal new investment would get very different reviews than the K-01 did, and that might make all the difference...

ps: As a possible extra, if they would do a new K-mount small zoom that also looks more retro (and is faster) than the current 18-55 DA L, and offer it as an option, that would help too. No need to look very far for design cues - the old Pentax-a lenses all look fantastic. And that lens would also be of benefit to the other APS-C cameras in the line-up.

[regor]

I like my K-01 ...The EVF: I really don't see people buy that EVF. So just make a model that includes it. It is much more expensive, but also making the model without one different in price. That would make the modelline out of two camera's, wich isn't abnormal.

That is what Fuji has done with the X-Pro1 vs X-E1. Funny how many folks initially put down the K-01 because it didn't have a EVF, yet... now we see that people are ordering the X-E1 like crazy over the X-Pro1. So here we are, the minority of loud complainers have managed to kill the K-01 before anyone could put their hands on it, when their main complaint didn't really matter for the majority of would be buyers ! Funny how things are.

[regor]

But I think that the K-01 is selling well now, with the extremely low cost, and most people who buy it love it. I mean, how many complaints were there on these forums? The K-01 is a very stable camera. Who knows, but it would be a shame to just bury the K-0# line

In retrospect, the K-01 could only be compared to either a Compact MILC, which it isn't or a DSLR, which it isn't either. The end conclusion was inevitable. Had the K-01 have all the performance characteristics of a good DSLR it might have stood a chance, but with the demands of CDAF and constant Live View this is just not possible at this time. So it lost on size against Compact MILCs and performance agaist DSLRs. No matter which way you look, the K-01 couldn't compare ! Had Pentax advertizing been more aggressive in promoting the advantages of a larger MILC rather than attempting to hide it with a 40XS, I have no doubt that the K-01 would have had a future. K-02 could introduce Weather Sealing, titanium shell, articulated OLED, 20Mpix on sensor P/CDAF, remote flash synch and enhanced video support and it would rock !

[THoog]

Had Pentax advertizing been more aggressive in promoting the advantages of a larger MILC rather than attempting to hide it with a 40XS, I have no doubt that the K-01 would have had a future.

Not at $900 MSRP, with painfully slow AF. I think those two faults hurt it more than marketing or styling or lack of an EVF.

K-02 could introduce Weather Sealing, titanium shell, articulated OLED, 20Mpix on sensor P/CDAF, remote flash synch and enhanced video support and it would rock !

But would it sell? It would probably be priced at/above the K-30, especially since it wouldn't be able to reuse existing tech from other models.

[ihasa]

To be honest I think the K-01 is a useful piece of kit for Pentaxians, but it can't compete with other MILCs on size OR performance. Pentax could keep it going accepting it won't be a big seller, but I'm not sure I want them expending major resources on something thats a bit of a flawed concept.