[wolffy]

It now resides in the Discontinued Model Line on the Pentax website.
long live the K-01

I know there are other threads about this but the Mighty K-01 deserves one more

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Last edited by wolffy; 02-26-2013 at 06:54 AM.

[Steve.Ledger]

It's been on that list at the very least ten days.
► https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-01/214543-k-01-discontinued.html#post2280114

Doesn't appear though that the K-01 will go out without a fight! It's popularity seems to be growing

[Franky2step]

I've purchased 2 of them in the past 3 weeks. They may be collectors cameras in a few years, including the one and only XS lens

[JJJPhoto]

Franky, I hope you're wrong about the 40mm XS being the only XS lens.

When the K-01 was launched Pentax talked about creating a new line of compact XS lenses. Even if the K-01 vanishes without a direct replacement I would still hope that Pentax develops more compact XS primes.

[THoog]

It appears production ended in September, so the official discontinuation was inevitable. But that doesn't matter - it's a excellent camera, and I hope to be shooting with a BricK-01 for a good, long time.

[jatrax]

Hope they stay with the line, but too often when you are out in front your market is not ready yet. So the product is deemed a failure due to poor sales. And sadly the popularity and momentum needed to be a success was just a few months down the road. Right after you quit.

[john carter]

I've had two DSLRs, both Pentax, and I really never used them out of the house. The K-01, I thought was a great idea (I have legacy glass), but I guess I just don't know these markets. I just hope mine stays together for a long time.

[pony.rojo]

I was just reading through this blog: Pentax K-01, one year with “The Brick”

Pentax K-01, one year with “The Brick” | steevemarcoux2

And, as someone else mentioned, the popularity is growing a bit. I'm thinking that if Pentax actually addressed some of the legitimate concerns people had and released a K-02, they probably would have had a stone-cold winner.

[Adam]

The K-01 had two fundamental issues which hopefully have taught Pentax a lesson: a. there isn't really a market for DSLR-sized mirrorless cameras and b. DSLR-sized cameras are tools, not fashion items. I think that for now, Pentax is likely to shift gears and instead focus on enthusiast/prosumer single-lens cameras with larger sensors, i.e. APS-C. While I hope the K-01 project was still profitable for Pentax, dropping the price of a $749 camera to $299 definitely says something...

[wolffy]

If I only had Focus Peaking on my K5

[gerigo]

Definitely an interesting lesson for Pentax. I feel like they are caught between a rock and a hard place because it's really hard to play in the same sandbox as the big boys. I admire their tenacity though, with product after product that buck the usual conservative route the big boys take.

Although I have shot with Pentax in the past, I myself have not been a keen supporter of the K-01 until the price dropped to levels that are impossible to ignore. For a smaller company like Pentax, the strategy of the K-01 was easy to sell internally. It made so much sense to reuse the components they have to make a camera that might align with the direction the market is moving towards, which is the mirrorless craze. The re-used components that made a lot of sense were:
_Great K-5 sourced sensor
_Existing chassis from the K-5 with parts, especially the hard points, from the K-r. This allowed them quick entry into the market without expensive development of unique lenses which I am sure they did not have budget for. Nor did it make a lot of sense with the already proprietary lens mount of the Q camera.
_Dressed in a body that is highly styled. Pentax, strangely enough, is known for coming up with more fashionable camera that have unique personalities. It has appealed to lots of young girls in Asia carry Pentax K-rs in a riot of different colors.

At the same time the K-01 was announced, the Fuji X-pro 1 was also introduced. Unfortunately, where we are today, Fuji won the race, and Pentax's gamble did not pay off. It is kinda sad because after using the K-01 for a while now, they have a very unique product. But I think the marketing department at Pentax is not real good at selling this very unique product that needs to be spoken of in a different way, as all of you have so rightly pointed out.

[Ron Boggs]

Pentax found that the K-01 was nearly unsellable at $750 and a quick sell out at $300. Since Pentax prefers to sell gear that isn't just like the other brands' perhaps they just have to wait for all the $300 K-01's to sell out before they release the full frame K-02 for $499. That would beat the rest of the market by a wide margin...

Does anyone know the actual production numbers for the K-01?

[THoog]

Pentax found that the K-01 was nearly unsellable at $750 and a quick sell out at $300. Since Pentax prefers to sell gear that isn't just like the other brands' perhaps they just have to wait for all the $300 K-01's to sell out before they release the full frame K-02 for $499. That would beat the rest of the market by a wide margin...

Does anyone know the actual production numbers for the K-01?

A couple other data points: Pentax lowered the price in September to <$600 with lens, which I think was a fair price, and based on conversations here, only a few sold at that price (that's when I bought one and actually started participating instead of lurking, so blame the K-01!). In October, it dropped to $350, and things finally started happening (but I thought I saw the handwriting on the wall), then $299 came on Black Friday.

[GeneV]

The K-01 had two fundamental issues which hopefully have taught Pentax a lesson: a. there isn't really a market for DSLR-sized mirrorless cameras and b. DSLR-sized cameras are tools, not fashion items. I think that for now, Pentax is likely to shift gears and instead focus on enthusiast/prosumer single-lens cameras with larger sensors, i.e. APS-C. While I hope the K-01 project was still profitable for Pentax, dropping the price of a $749 camera to $299 definitely says something...

I would agree, with special emphasis on point b. Even at approximately the size, I would have gladly paid full price for a K-01 with a tilting screen, wireless P-TTL, and a few tweaks made difficult by the supposed "style." A tilt screen and focus peaking would have been a killer combo for macro or portraits IMHO. But then, a DSLR could offer those, too.

[anthony mazzeri]

a. there isn't really a market for DSLR-sized mirrorless cameras

Yes, there is. It's inevitable if purely for cost reasons that entry-level DSLRs will all go mirrorless and become DSLnR. The K-01 was just the first. Mirrors and OVFs will eventually be just for the more serious models as upgraders don't use them anyway.

Pentax just should have priced and sold it as an entry-level model. Sure as shoot that's exactly where Nikon and Canon will position their own DSLnR models when they eventuate.

As it was, Pentax priced and positioned the K-01 so it was incorrectly compared to CSC cameras in reviews and forums, against which it obviously couldn't compete with its larger size, instead of against its true competition of entry-level DSLRs where it would have fared much better in comparisons.

The sad thing is if Pentax really does abandon the whole notion now after making the first step and there will be no K-02, only to watch Nikon and Canon succeed with their own DSLnRs in the next few years, we'll probably see Pentax re-enter the DSLnR market again anyway once the big two have already sewn the segment up.. memories of the full frame decision?